The Evolution of Fake News Phenomenon

”Lie to me”
“If a lie is telling you something you want to hear, you’re more likely to think it’s true.”
—

Sharon Kaye, philosophy professor

Master: Communication and Advertising

Course: Social Media and Civic Participation

Student: Oana Ghibirdic

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 1. Introduction
This paper aim is to analyze the emergence and the evolution of the fake news phenomenon.

2. From Traditional Media towards New Media

Media had a great evolution and suffered many changes over the years, even if we talk about
the printing press or about the internet era, which characterizes the present society. However, I
consider that in order to properly understand the concept of new media, a concept that nowadays
knows a great evolution; we should have a solid understanding of the old media. According to
Davis Richard old media has its roots in the “elite or partisan press [that] dominated American
1
journalism in the early days of the republic.” From then media continued to evolve and
nowadays it is characterized by several traditional forms of mass communication, this being the
newspapers, magazines, radio, television, etc. However, television continues to have a specific
influence and it is also important to be analyzed also from the perspective of fake news, which is
often released on TV.

Even if the traditional media was effective, in the past years there could have been observed
a shift in the business approach, from these traditional means towards new media, when it comes
for reaching the target audiences. The term “new media” came into prominence in the mid-
1990s, usurping the place of “multimedia” in the fields of business and art.2

What is new media? New media is the new stage in the evolution of media, many consumers
and businesses relying on the new media in order to find the information. New media can be
associated with the fact that the content, the news, the information is easily accessible through
many forms of digital media. This is a plus also for the online advertising, which can create a
3
greater impact on the consumer using the online methods of advertising. Today media is often
considered the main institution of the public sphere, being one of the constitutive pillars of the

1
https://books.google.ro/books?id=mN5ZC-
KSTaoC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=elite+or+partisan+press+%5Bthat%5D+dominated+American+journalism+in+the
+early+days+of+the+republic&source=bl&ots=I9i0jgtX6q&sig=QxcUaZqQggwv0gZksdQXnZGpQho&hl=en&sa=X&ve
d=0ahUKEwjsttrWg_XXAhVFPFAKHVF5C1YQ6AEILzAA#v=onepage&q=elite%20or%20partisan%20press%20%5Btha
t%5D%20dominated%20American%20journalism%20in%20the%20early%20days%20of%20the%20republic&f=fals
e
2
http://pages.uoregon.edu/koopman/courses_readings/colt607/chun_keenan_new-media_old-
media_reader.pdf, p12.
3
https://www.absolutemg.com/2014/12/23/traditional-media-balancing-effect/

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public sphere. In order to guarantee the equal access and to be considered a voice of the citizens,
it has to be politically independent and to not depend by the corporate interests. 4

New media is mainly based on Internet and the new digital technologies, which creates a
space for sharing the information. New media “radically breaks the connection between physical
place and social place, making physical location much less significant for our social
relationships.”5 Analyzing the evolution of media, it can be easily identified the fact that there is
a significant shift in media, from the old media to the new media. The new media is mostly
characterized by being a more interactive and engaging form of public relations. This new media
is manly based on the interaction among people, which are the creators of ideas, those who share
the information and spread their opinions in their virtual communities. However, I don’t think we
should consider the new social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as being the replacers of
the traditional public sphere. I agree that these social networks are facilitators for the interaction
among people and can be a very useful mean of mobilization, but they are not yet new public
spheres, because they don’t fulfill all the characteristics of a public sphere and usually new
media is always controlled and the information provided is sometimes selected according to
some algorithms.

4
McQuail, D. (2005). McQuail’s mass communication theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
5
Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W (2003). Media society industries, images and audiences (3rd edition) Pine Forge Press,
Thousand Oaks, Pp303

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 3. The phenomenon of Fake News

Nowadays, once with the evolution of media, people become more disoriented and that is
because of the great amount of news and information and because of the lack of selective
capacity. The phenomenon of fake news is not a new phenomenon; it was also used in the
totalitarian regimes and wars, when the leaders used propaganda to manipulate the citizens. One
of the examples that fake news is not a new phenomenon is the “Great Moon Hoax”, a series of
articles published by New York Sun in 1835, about the discovery of life on the moon.

What is new today? Today there are new only the means through which the fake information
is spread. If in the past was a more clear differentiation between credible sources and unreliable
sources, nowadays it is more difficult to identify the credible sources in an “ocean” of unreliable
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source. The faster increase in technology and digital media had a great impact also on the
increase of the influence that social platform have on the public opinion. There can be identified
a new way of creating bridges between the people and the organizations, businesses, politicians.7
The phenomenon of fake news is a real challenge and prevents the access to reliable and valid
knowledge. 8

The evolution of fake news is strongly related to the evolution of the public sphere, which
today is mostly based on the emergence of the Internet. Clearly, we cannot state that the Internet
created a new public sphere, but it considered to be the provider of unprecedented opportunities
in terms of exchanging the information and in terms of facilitating the debates between people
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with different backgrounds.

Facebook and Twitter are two of the most used social networks which facilitate the
emergence of fake news. The disinformation can be spread also by the friends that you have on

6
http://dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/tema-saptamanii/articol/ne-plac-minciunile
7
https://astanatimes.com/2013/02/social-media-shaping-the-way-we-see-the-world-or-shaping-the-new-world-
itself/
8
Paul, P. V. (2017, Spring2017). Fake News, Alternative Facts, Post-Truths, Misinformation, Misinterpretation– and
Other Challenges Associated with Knowledge Generation. American Annals of the Deaf. p.3
doi:10.1353/aad.2017.0010.
9
Marx Ferree, M., Gamson, W. A., Gerhards, J., & Rucht, D. (2002). Four models of the public sphere in modern
democracies. Theory and society, 31(3), 289–324. (p. 299).

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your Facebook or Twitter list, because it is very easy for anyone to spread anything that want to
on the Internet and anyone can read and can find the information reliable only because it is in
accordance to their beliefs, but without verifying the validity of that information. This clearly
illustrates also the fact that people suffer from a lack of critical thinking and usually the public
opinion can be created based on fake news. And there is a famous example of how information is
perceived in different ways by the people. The was a dress worn by The First Lady, which
created many controversies, because some of the people saw it blue and white and some of them
black and white. It was clear that the dress had only two colors, but the perception was different
and some of them though something that wasn’t real. 10 partisanship

Defining the concept of “fake news”, it can be said that they are “news article that are
intentionally and verifiably false, and could mislead the readers.”11 There can be identified some
types of fake news these being: the unintentional reporting mistakes, which transmit some
information that are incorrect; rumors that don’t have a specific provenience; conspiracy
theories, which cannot be verified if they are true or false, but they are spread by the people that
believe them to be true; satire, which is actually intentionally constructed as being false; false
statements of politicians and reports that are misleading but not really false. 12

We conceptualize fake news as distorted signals uncorrelated with the truth. Fake news arises in
equilibrium because it is cheaper to provide than precise signals, because consumers cannot
costlessly infer accuracy, and because consumers may enjoy partisan news

Ancient media methods allowed advertisements and supplements which paved way to mask the real
news. Television was a phenomena in the 1960's which glued people to sit in front of their media
box. Advertisements, seen as ways to mask real news was telecasted during prime time with an
opportunity to reach millions of homes every day. Later, fantasy based reality shows closed the gap
between real and staged events. In today's world, professional looking websites can be published
and search engines and social media platforms can be programmed to create influential news. Even
a technological savvy computer science or information technology graduate student can create such
websites.

10
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/politics/fake-news-global-1141.php
11
https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf p. 213
12
https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf p. 213

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Fake news doesn't mean its outright lie, rather news that are more likely to be biased or misleading
in a gentle way. It is the information that is clearly fabricated and that has been customized to look
like genuine news. Its content is specifically created to appeal to an audience's pre-existing
preferences. The spread of fake news with the evolution of technology has been widespread causing
a huge impact.

Because of the nature of social media, most of what is published goes unmediated. While traditional
journalism subscribes to strong rigor, righteous editors and a history of fact-checking, these
disciplines don't exist on social media, where fake news thrives. Given the veneer of respectability of
a legitimate-looking site, it's easy to see how the outrage can kick off a chain reaction of commentary
and public finger pointing. Any lie can gain general acceptance if it gets repeated frequently and this
is one sole reason for the alarming increase of fake news. Achieving repetition is easy in this so
called era of social media with a few button clicks.

First and foremost place to look for ways to control fake news is within oneself. Rather than checking
the veracity of the news content using different verification websites and fancy tools, one should
check their own self to believe or not. If the story is so outrageous, it is too true to believe.
Individuals should make sure that they are not being told what they want to hear. In order to become
a more insightful, discerning news consumer, it is important to differentiate real and fake news and
become more of a critical thinker. Part of being a critical thinker is to always question whether they
are only getting part of a story or the complete one. Developing oneself as a media literate person
would help overcome this situation.13

According to the PEW Research Center, a whooping 67% Americans (two-thirds) get at least some news from
social media channels with Twitter being the most used channel to get the news from.

It is no secret that fabricated news is creating confusion about basic facts of current issues and events.
According to a survey conducted by the PEW Research Centre, about a third of U.S. adults (32%) say they
often see made-up political news online, while 39% sometimes see such stories and 26% hardly ever or never
do. About half (51%) say they often see political news online that is at least somewhat inaccurate – a higher
proportion than those who say they see news that is almost completely made up (32%). About a quarter
(23%) say they have ever shared made-up news stories themselves, with roughly equal shares saying they
have done so either knowingly or unknowingly. A large majority (84%) of Americans say they are at least
somewhat confident in their ability to recognize fabricated news.

Social media channels don’t take into account the content posted by users, thereby making it easy for news
of any form to be distributed, be it real or fake. Due to the nature of social media’s far-reaching accessibility,
it allows for news stories to be spread without any verification. This brings about the issue of how many
people question the accuracy of the news they read on social media sites. Part of the reason why fake news is
so rampant is because users find it convenient to access news on social media channels and there seems to
be a tendency to share the new stories without first verifying its credibility. With the amount of news stories
available on social media sites, it’s become harder for users to differentiate between accurate information
and fake news.

13
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/politics/fake-news-global-1141.php

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 A December 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that 23 percent of U.S.
adults have shared fake news, knowingly or unknowingly, with friends and others.

How news media literate are today's students? A 2016 research study by Stanford faculty focused
on students' news-literacy tasks, and found that middle and high school students, and even some in
college, have trouble distinguishing which online resources are credible. The researchers stated a
strong need for curriculum focused on developing students' civic online reasoning14

Fake news is a fictitious report relating to current events which is fabricated, and often titled
misleadingly, with the deliberate purpose of deceiving users and motivating them to disseminate the
report.13 The principal statements of fact are fabricated and untrue.14 Fake news is patently false
and is created and presented in a way meant to deceive consumers into thinking that it is real.15
Deliberate and deceptive falsity is at the heart of fake news. One author defined fake news as the
online publication of intentionally or knowingly false statements of fact.115

Although fake news is widely understood to refer to fabricated accounts that are meant to spread
virally online,24 the meaning of the term is often misused25 to refer to erroneous news, propaganda,
satire and even facts with which someone disagrees.26 Misleading or out-of-context information
does not constitute fake news if it is not wholly fabricated or if it is included within a news report that
reports factual events.27 A legitimate news outlet that makes an error in reporting does not author
fake news. A journalist may sometimes lack necessary facts, be misled by a source or choose poor
wording to convey a news story. Erroneous reporting does not involve an intention to deceive nor
does it imply the complete fabrication of a story.28

Fake news is also distinguishable from propaganda, which is misleading or highly biased information
that is specifically designed to confirm or promote a particular ideological viewpoint.29 Propaganda
generally originates from politically motivated factors with the intention of driving public discussion.30
Propaganda is not always completely fabricated nor is it always designed to appear as legitimate
news. However, propaganda may be presented as fake news.31

Before the Internet, publishing fake news and gaining an audience that could be monetised was
nearly impossible for three reasons:

1. Distribution and cost: Distributing information on any kind of scale needed a prohibitively
expensive logistics operation.

2. Audiences and trust: Building a large audience took much longer, and because it was expensive
to acquire and built on trust of information, publishing fake news would be damaging to reputation
and thus have economic consequences.

3. Law and regulation: Because it was expensive to distribute information, there were far fewer
players. These abided by media law and could be regulated. Publishing fake news would likely end
up with the publisher being sued.

14
https://search-proquest-com.am.e-
nformation.ro/docview/1940543348/EDBB017DE81D43C6PQ/3?accountid=136549
15
https://search-proquest-com.am.e-
nformation.ro/docview/1934912990/EDBB017DE81D43C6PQ/6?accountid=136549

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But this gate of information exchange was unlocked around 2007, with the beginnings of the social
media revolution. The creation of social networks like Facebook and Twitter allowed people to
exchange information on a much greater scale than ever before, while publishing platforms like
WordPress allowed anyone to create a dynamic website with ease. In short, the above barriers to
creating fake news were undone:

1. Distribution and cost: The costs of publishing (via WordPress) and distributing (via social
networks) approached zero.

2. Audiences and trust: Given these much lower costs, reputations are far more expendable.

3. Law and regulation: With much lower costs, far more operators were involved in exchanging
information. The trickle of regulated (at least by law) information exchange through the gate became
a tidal wave - and one that is impossible to regulate in full.16

Example of Fake News- Electoral elections 2016 USA

Fake news, or fabricated content deceptively presented as real news, has garnered a lot of
interest since the U.S. presidential election last fall.

Many argue that fake news, often highly partisan, helped Donald Trump get elected.
There was certainly evidenceof fake news stories getting a lot of traction on social media,
at times even outperforming actual news stories.

However, a closer analysis shows even the most widely circulated fake news stories were
seen by only a small fraction of Americans. And the persuasive effects of these stories
have not been tested.

I also included actual screenshots of fake news websites, some of which gained prominence
during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. One of these fake news sources was a website called
ABCnews.com.co, which is made to look like ABC News, and featured some false content
that gained prominence after it was retweeted by Eric Trump. The others were the Boston
Tribune and World True News.17

He also courted conspiracy theories. Initially he suggested Ted Cruz's father was involved in the
assassination of JFK, perpetuated the myth of Obama not being born in the United States ( which he
later conceded ) and repeatedly claimed climate change as a hoax . Such a wildcard candidate
attracted massive media attention, itself fueled by a series of controversial policy suggestions - like
building a boarder wall between Mexico and the US or 'a complete ban on Muslims entering the
United States.'

A headline from a conspiratorial website

16
https://search-proquest-com.am.e-
nformation.ro/docview/1865970689/EDBB017DE81D43C6PQ/9?accountid=136549
17
https://theconversation.com/the-real-consequences-of-fake-news-81179

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Trump's unpredictability and his fuelling of distrust of his opponents led to a growth in fake news that
was supportive of him. In an atmosphere where you never know what might happen next or what to
believe, you're going to be more receptive to hyperbole and truth distortion.

"Pope backs Trump", "Hillary sold weapons to ISIS", "FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks
Found Dead" - these fake headlines all went viral on Facebook in the run up to the election, gaining
such high engagement that BuzzFeed published an analysis on how they had outperformed real
news on Facebook.18

To back this up, the introduction to a comprehensive study by Stanford University, Social Media and
Fake News in the 2016 Election reads: "For fake news to have changed the outcome of the election,
a single fake article would need to have had the same persuasive effect as 36 television campaign
ads."

In 2016, the prevalence of political fact abuse – promulgated by the

words of two polarizing presidential candidates and their passionate
supporters – gave rise to a spreading of fake news with unprecedented
impunity.

Fake news: Hillary Clinton is running a child sex ring out of a pizza
shop.
Fake news: Democrats want to impose Islamic law in Florida.
Fake news: Thousands of people at a Donald Trump rally in
Manhattan chanted, "We hate Muslims, we hate blacks, we want our
great country back."

But in 2016, most viral lies spread on Facebook. They were reinforced
by Google searches, in which stories from dubious sites jumped to the
top of your screen based on traffic.
Bad actors would create fictitious Web pages that people couldn’t
resist sharing: claims that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump, or
that Hillary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS, or that she helped fund
ISIS. (None of those things is true.)

The popular website BuzzFeed analyzed the interest in these fake

stories and found that they got more shares, reactions and
comments during the final three months of the campaign than real

18
https://search-proquest-com.am.e-
nformation.ro/docview/1865970689/EDBB017DE81D43C6PQ/9?accountid=136549

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stories from the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN, for
example.19

But the fake-news phenomenon is not the result of personal failings. And it is
not limited to one end of the political spectrum. Rather, Americans’ deep bias
against the political party they oppose is so strong that it acts as a kind of
partisan prism for facts, refracting a different reality to Republicans than to
Democrats.

Partisan refraction has fueled the rise of fake news, according to researchers
who study the phenomenon. But the repercussions go far beyond stories
shared on Facebook and Reddit, affecting Americans’ faith in government —
and the government’s ability to function.20

Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that
justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.

“If I’m a rabid Trump voter and I don’t know much about public affairs, and I see
something about some scandal about Hillary Clinton’s aides being involved in an
assassination attempt, or that story about the pope endorsing Trump, then I’d be
inclined to believe it,” Mr. Iyengar said. “This is reinforcing my beliefs about the
value of a Trump candidacy.”

Concluzie

În altă ordine de idei, știrile false de toate categoriile sînt, de fapt, ficțiune. Iar oamenilor le place
ficțiunea. Problema e că unii n o mai pot deosebi de realitate. Se formează grupuri paralele de
oameni care cred în realități complet diferite, uneori contrare. În era computerelor, lumile virtuale
cunosc o dezvoltare nemaiîntîlnită, fiecare își poate construi, practic, adevărul care îi convine.
Realitățile virtuale concurează cu mult succes realitatea obiectivă (unii se întreabă dacă mai există
așa ceva). Trezirea din ficțiune poate fi dură. Dar sînt unii care nu se trezesc niciodată.21

19
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/dec/13/2016-lie-year-fake-news/
20
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/upshot/the-real-story-about-fake-news-is-partisanship.html?_r=0
21
http://dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/tema-saptamanii/articol/ne-plac-minciunile

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