Talking Point
EVERYTHING BUT THE TRUTH Fake News is big news at the moment. Every contentious topic, from vaccination to alleged interference in elections, is strewn with accusations that the debate is being hijacked by strategicallydistributed half-truths and outright lies and propaganda, spread by social media. Chris Partridge tells it like it really is
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t has got so bad, the phrase ‘fake news’ is now in all the dictionaries. Of course, fake news has been with us from the dawn of time – in the 13th century BC the Pharaoh Rameses the Great had carvings of his mighty victory over the Hittites inscribed in every temple in Egypt, though historical records show the battle was a stalemate. But recently, the rise of social media has given the lies wings. It can be difficult to understand why social media is so much more powerful than the TV, radio or newspapers. It is a mix of factors.
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The first thing is that social media gives everyone instant, unregulated access to everyone else. To get news out on traditional mass media, you need to go through a line of gatekeepers starting with a journalist and proceeding past editors and sub editors. That does not guarantee that all fake news is eliminated but it goes a long way towards it. Even the most biased news outlets are regulated so they cannot reproduce hate speech or libels, for example. To get a message out on social media is as simple as opening an account on Facebook (if you are over 40) or Instagram (if you are younger). Both, by the way, are
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