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We live in an age where the reality of the facts no longer matters. The expansion of social networks has transformed and instrumentalised the power we once had to interact with information. The emergence of fake news coincides with the importance of the information flows that overwhelm the web. The phenomenon can be dated to the 2016 presidential election in the United States.
Fake news aims to manipulate public opinion and steer it in one direction. It always benefits someone, be it a public figure or an interest group. In doing so, the basis of information is no longer based on facts, but on a widely held opinion. Donald Trump, who wields scandal and provocation, is the foremost exponent of this approach, so much so that he has made it his flagship. Twitter, by mechanically and mathematically encouraging this phenomenon, is the medium of post-truth par excellence.
The image and the title federate and stimulate activism. The system of evaluating publications based on the number of likes and the increase in the number of viewers gives a post legitimacy. The polarisation of society into two camps, 'I am for' and 'I am against', is the logical outcome.
A free and responsible citizen must develop a critical mind and check his or her sources, whether they come from the Internet or other media.
We must learn to ask ourselves questions again. A French government website offers us a framework, which we reproduce here in its entirety:
The loss of trust in the media and journalists is thus encouraged by politicians, who are only interested in getting as many votes as possible. It is also accompanied by an increased distrust due to the concentration of the media in the hands of economic interests, which is a salutary reaction from this point of view.
This scepticism is not limited to the media. It extends more widely to political and intellectual elites, to self-proclaimed "experts" and holders of the "word of authority". In reaction, the relayers of fake news reinforce their feeling of social existence and the idea that they are heard. They feel they belong to a group, a community.
The stage is set. "If the important thing is no longer what is true, but what we want to believe, in geopolitics, the priority is no longer to know what is really happening on the ground, but what world opinion will remember, shaped by the editorial priorities of the global media and the currents running through social networks. Frédéric Charillon
The system of evaluating publications on the basis of the number of likes and the increase in the number of viewers determines the legitimacy of a post. The polarisation of society into two camps, "I am for" and "I am against", is the logical outcome. A free and responsible citizen must develop a critical mind and check his sources, whether they come from the Internet or other media.
We must learn to ask ourselves questions again. A French government website offers us a framework, which we reproduce here in its entirety:
The author is often identified at the beginning or end of an article, by name or initials. Sometimes the author is not mentioned or writes under a pseudonym or for an organisation. It is important to determine the legitimacy of the author: is he or she an expert on the subject or not? Some sites even provide a hyperlink to the author's biography and all his or her publications.
The author can relate facts or express his or her opinion: they are not the same thing.
A blog, an institutional site, an online media, a social network... the nature of a site is as diverse as it is varied and can tell us a lot about the quality of an information. This is also the case for the publisher of the site, which can be a media owned by a French or foreign group, a political party, a company, an association, an individual, etc.
A site may aim to sell, inform, militate, convince, manipulate, scare or create a buzz. Depending on the objective of the site, the information is not as relevant.
The structure, the ergonomics, the clarity of the language, the type of advertisements... the presentation of a site is sometimes indicative of the credibility of the information it contains.
The sources of a piece of information are crucial in determining its credibility. The origin of a figure or a quote, when mentioned, allows the reader to refer to it directly. Some sites provide hyperlinks to the source sites.
It is important to compare and cross-reference sources. This allows you to see if the information is present on other platforms and to see how it is treated elsewhere.
It is important to know when the events reported occurred. For example, some fake news stories use images taken in different contexts and at different times to comment on a news story. The captions under the images, the date of publication of an article, the metadata are likely to provide valuable information.
For example, when the image does not match the accompanying caption, this should raise suspicion about the veracity of the information.
Because they sometimes point out inconsistencies in information, comments are useful for gauging the credibility of the information provided.
There are also platforms that allow you to sort your sources and build your own data access dashboard. (See Cikisi). You can build up a multi-source press review by selecting, sorting, analysing and cross-referencing your information. In this way, you get closer to the journalistic work of qualifying the facts and you get away from fake news.
Finally, if you still have doubts, there are several sites that help you detect fake news (fact checking):
"One loves without reason, and without reason one hates."Jean-François Regnard
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