In one of the greatest examples of seemingly natural mass cultural awakenings, America seems to have recently “discovered” the concept of so-called “fake news” all at once and in a real big way.
However, any amount of serious consideration given to the touchy topic reveals there’s more to the story than the seemingly simple headline. Ain’t it always the way?
Fake news, it seems, is just a new name for a very old idea.
It is also the focus of the upcoming latest four-part Library U lecture series: “Fake News: The News Media’s Latest Challenge,” starting Saturday, Sept. 23.
It’s not just a challenge for the news industry, either. Even the dictionary is getting in on the discussion. From the www.Merriam-Webster.com article “The Real Story of ‘Fake News:’” “One of the reasons that fake news is such a recent addition to our vocabulary is that the word fake is also fairly young. Fake was little used as an adjective prior to the late 18th century. But we obviously had fake news before the 1890s, so what did we call it?”
Apparently, we called it plentiful.
Although the term “fake news” didn’t garner Macquarie Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” honors until 2016, this “dubious journalistic practice,” Library U officials said, has been with us a long time here in America.
In 1835, the infamous New York Sun’s “Great Moon Hoax” (expertly explored by Matthew Goodman in “The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York”) claimed that there was an alien civilization on the moon, a story so irresistible it pushed circulation into the stratosphere and established the previously failing paper as a leading, profitable publication.
In 1844, anti-Catholic newspapers in Philadelphia falsely claimed that Irishmen were stealing Bibles from public schools, leading to violent riots and attacks on Catholic churches.
During the Gilded Age, yellow journalism flourished by using fake interviews, false experts, and bogus stories to spark sympathy and rage as desired.
In the 1890s, William Randolph Hearst and his Morning Journal used exaggeration to help start the Spanish-American War. In a pivotal moment later famously imitated in “Citizen Kane,” when Hearst’s correspondent in Havana wired to report no actual conflict was in sight, Hearst, undaunted, famously responded: “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.”
He made good, too, publishing fake drawings of Cuban officials strip-searching American women. Needless to say, the war was on.
From the Library U program: “One silver lining in the long and alarming history of fake news is that yellow journalism and its results caused a backlash and sent the public in search of more fact-based and unbiased news. This sparked the rise in turn-of-the-century America of relatively objective journalism as the industry standard. For the first time, American papers hired reporters to cover local beats and statehouses, building a chain of trust between reporters and the public.”
All of which brings us to 2016 and America’s refreshed “wokeness” (to use another bit of hip, Johnny-come-lately parlance) to the subject of fake news.
From the Library U program:
“It wasn’t until the rise of internet-generated news that our era’s journalistic norms were seriously challenged and fake news became a powerful force again. Whatever its other cultural and social merits, our digital ecosystem seems to have evolved into a near-perfect environment for the flourishing of fake news. At the same time, the digital news trend has decimated the force — measured in both money and manpower — of the traditional, objectively minded, independent press. What to do now?”
It is just that final question which the expert lecturers slated to visit the Bainbridge Public Library will address, the origins of fake news and “how to recognize and combat it, and the state of our local news media,” according to event organizers.
Each of the four sessions will take place at the Bainbridge Public Library, and will last from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
There is no charge for admission, and no advance registration is necessary.
The series schedule is:
“Saturday, Sept. 23: “Filter Bubbles and Fake News: The Evolution of Journalism and Community in the Age of Social Media.”
T. Andrew Wahl, journalism professor at Everett Community College, will discuss the history of fake news, examine how the digital revolution has contributed to the growing fractionalization of our nation, and suggest steps we can take to course correct.
Saturday, Sept. 30: “Finding ‘Fake News’ in Times of Crisis: Online Rumors, Conspiracy Theories, and Disinformation.”
The complex and dynamic problem of online fake news lies at the intersection of technology, human cognition, and human behavior — and may make us unwitting accomplices to the spread of incorrect facts and misleading information. Kate Starbird, University of Washington assistant professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, will discuss her recent research, which examines the alternative media ecosystem through the production of conflicting narratives of mass shooting events on Twitter.
Saturday, Oct. 7: “Local News: Fake News, Filched News, and Fading News.”
Long-time Seattle journalist David Brewster will present a multifaceted talk on the state of our local news media that includes: his various efforts at creating journalism outlets in our region (Seattle Weekly, Sasquatch Books, Eastsideweek, Crosscut); what ails Seattle media (“smart audiences, not-so-smart local media, and why”); an overview of public radio, KCTS, KING, Seattle Times and PI; the impact of The Stranger; our business press; some national outlets here (Grist, ArtsJournal, Yes!); Seattle readers and the media they tend to crave; what makes a good journalist and the dangers of partisanship; and some solutions.
Saturday, Oct. 21: “The Fake News Survival Guide: Resources and Tips for Staying Informed.”
Di Zhang, reference librarian at the Seattle Public Library, will lead an SPL-developed workshop that provides an overview of fake news and the information cycle, instructions on how to evaluate information, and resources/best practices for identifying fake news.
More information can be found at www.krl.org and at www.BainbridgePublicLibrary.org.
Although Library U courses are free, space is limited and would-be attendees are encouraged to come early to be guaranteed a seat.
