What happens when a journalist reaches a conclusion with which you disagree? Fake news.
What happens when a government agency releases statistics that disprove your argument? Fake news.
The current rhetoric surrounding fake news has distorted perspectives to the point that the line between propaganda and news, even in – especially in – democratic nations, is blurring. The result is a global gaslighting in which citizens are living in a reality where it’s hard to differentiate between fact and falsehood.
Graphic courtesy of Edelman
Lies are easy to spread and hard to disprove. There’s a familiar quote from Mark Twain, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Ironically, attributing that theory to Twain is itself an untruth. The phrase originates with Jonathan Swift, who said, “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after.”
In a recent study, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology determined that falsehoods are “70 percent more likely to get retweeted than accurate news.” Social media is essentially the National Enquirer masquerading as The New York Times.
But hope isn’t lost. According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in traditional journalism is rising as trust in social media platforms is falling.
Politicians and social media influencers gain power if they succeed in telling us what to think. True journalists present facts that encourage us to think for ourselves. So although politicians like President Trump will likely continue to lambaste “fake news,” this accusation is conversely acting as an endorsement of a story’s trustworthiness.
The rise in trust in traditional journalism is evidence that people are resisting the dimming gaslight to determine for themselves what’s real.
