{"id":216,"date":"2016-12-22T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/?p=216"},"modified":"2017-01-23T09:59:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T09:59:28","slug":"rise-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/2016\/12\/22\/rise-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise of fake news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2016\/12\/caintv_665199690.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2016\/12\/caintv_665199690.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2016\/12\/caintv_665199690-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Since when do we start talking about fake news? And where do the fake news come from?<\/p>\n<p>It is interesting to take a look at how the term \u2018fake news\u2019 appears in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/trends\/explore?q=%22fake%20news%22\">Google Trend<\/a><\/strong>. Few months ago, almost no one was talking about fake news. The term is barely registered before October. Now you can hardly turn on the real news without hearing it.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more interesting is to see how this term is interested in terms of regions and its related topics. Donald Trump, Buzzfeed, Hilary Clinton are the top three related topics when people search for \u2018fake news\u2019 in Google. This explains why \u2018fake news\u2019 become the national hot topic since the 2016 U.S Presidential Election.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_212\" style=\"width: 1228px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-212\" class=\"size-full wp-image-212\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.14.52.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1218\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.14.52.png 1218w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.14.52-300x100.png 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.14.52-768x257.png 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.14.52-1024x343.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1218px) 100vw, 1218px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-212\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Trends<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This election proved a lot of things to a lot of people. One of those things is the power of \u2018fake news\u2019. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/12\/06\/us\/fake-news-partisan-republican-democrat.html\">The New York Times wrote\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that fake news had previously maintained a presence on the Internet and within tabloid journalism in years prior to the 2016 U.S. election. Before the election, fake news had not impacted the election process to such a high degree. Subsequent to the 2016 election, the issue of fake news turned into a political weapon between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; due to these back-and-forth complaints, the definition of fake news as used for such polemics became more vague.<\/p>\n<p>Fake news boomed because there are more and more people interested in reading the news that fits their individual ideologies. The term is now on the tips of everyone\u2019s tongue. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/videos\/politics\/2017\/01\/11\/donald-trump-jim-acosta-cnn-fake-news.cnn\">President-elect Donald Trump tried to define \u2018fake news\u2019 in his own way<\/a><\/strong> during his first press conference since the election. As CNN reporter Jim Acosta attempted to ask a question Trump quickly shut him down, saying he wouldn\u2019t \u201cgive him a question\u201d before calling his outlet \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1IDF-8khS3w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Away from the US elections, fake news breaks down into two wider categories: That which was <strong>fabricated<\/strong> and that which was <strong>exaggerated or mistaken<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>So where exactly do fake news come from? The answer is clear: <strong>The internet<\/strong>. While the internet has enabled the sharing of knowledge and information, &#8220;A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on&#8221;, said by Winston Churchill. Social media like Facebook and Twitter encourage people to be better informed. Their technology fuelled the rise of fake news. Meanwhile, creators of fake news found that they could capture so much interest that they could make money off fake news from high traffic of their sites.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Social Media<\/h3>\n<p>A majority of U.S. adults \u2013 62% \u2013 get news on social media, and 18% do so often, according to a new survey by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.journalism.org\/2016\/05\/26\/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016\/\">Pew Research Center<\/a><\/strong>. Most internet users get news from Reddit, Facebook and Twitter. In term of general usage of social media, Facebook is the greatest social media website and Youtube is the next greatest. Compare to figures in the same research done in 2013, there is an obvious growth in use of all types of social media for news. It seems that more and more of us are reading and even believing information that is not just inaccurate, but totally made up.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-213\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-21-at-03.46.57.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"339\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-21-at-03.46.57.png 339w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-21-at-03.46.57-166x300.png 166w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-twitter-facebook-commentary-idUSKBN13W1WO\">criticisms<\/a> <\/strong>about these social media companies are taking heat for influencing the outcomes of the U.S. presidential election and Brexit referendum by allowing fake news, misinformation campaigns and hate speech to spread. Numbers of false reports that are dressed up to look like genuine news articles were passed around widely on Facebook, retweeted on Twitter.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Fake news websites<\/h3>\n<p>There are hundreds of fake news websites out there, from those which deliberately imitate real life newspapers, to government propaganda sites, and even those which tread the line between satire and plain misinformation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_214\" style=\"width: 1222px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-214\" class=\"size-full wp-image-214\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.33.25.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1212\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.33.25.png 1212w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.33.25-300x97.png 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.33.25-768x248.png 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/132\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-22-at-15.33.25-1024x331.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1212px) 100vw, 1212px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-214\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Report<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/nationalreport.net\/\">The National Report<\/a> <\/strong>is a famous example for fake news. Some fact-checking websites described it as a satirical fake news site. The National Report describes itself as a &#8220;news and political satire web publication&#8221; and provides a disclaimer that &#8220;all news articles contained within National Report are fiction&#8221;. However, its website ironically states that it is &#8220;America&#8217;s #1 Independent News Source.&#8221; Stories from the National Report have been taken seriously by third parties such as Fox News Channel, and the site drew criticism for running a series of fake stories about Ebola outbreaks in the United States. Although the story was also rewritten\u00a0by other websites, the original National Report story received six times as many &#8220;shares&#8221; on social media sites as other stories did.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other examples of fake news sites:<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.com.co\">ABCnews.com.co<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may spot the slight modification of the existing domain of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/\">the real ABC News<\/a><\/strong>. Its logo\u00a0is also strikingly similar.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/denverguardian.com\/\">Denver Guardian<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is a non-existent publication, that an FBI agent suspected of leaking emails from Mrs Clinton\u2019s private server had been found dead in a murder or suicide. With the help of\u00a0the flow of news on Facebook, that report was shared up to 100 times a minute on the network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"hed\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/empirenews.net\">Empirenews.net<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" data-use-autolinker=\"true\">\n<p>A disclaimer on the site reads: \u201cOur website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figures and celebrity parody or satirisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>These sites deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda, false news by using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. They seek to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for financial, political, or other gain &#8211; They give birth to \u2018fake news\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since when do we start talking about fake news? And where do the fake news come from? It is interesting to take a look at how the term \u2018fake news\u2019 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/mingyeung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}