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Originally Posted by vishnurp99 I think the biggest question is - How/Who decides what is fake news? Is selective reporting of news fake news? Is attributing objectives to leaders who have not explicitly articulated their objectives? Is publishing news that is given by goverments which is proved to be false later categorised as fake news? |
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Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom There are levels of fake news. First and most obvious is lies. Lies have become very much a currency of the world, and leaders such as Trump, Johnson, Putin have literally led the trend. |
My opinion is we have to just understand and be conscious by separating statecraft (Narratives) and normal information dissemination by media on day to day life. Both are intertwined as well disjointed.
First as part of statecraft
I think this business of (Dis)information discourse as part of war exists even in mythology and epics. In Mahabharatha, the removal of Dhronacharya from war front when Krishna,the Machiavelli asked Dharma to tell 'Ashwathama' is dead but in reality it is not Dhrona's son but elephant in the same name. Dhronacharya went into grief thinking it is his son and withdrew from battlefront. Objective achieved.
This information discourse happens all the times irrespective of peace or war and underlying this is the narrative built to suit the agenda of countries. It was, is and will be done irrespective of friends or foes. This is part of statecraft and goes beyond leaders/individuals.
One example is the COVID: How Indian positive narrative was crushed by couple of editorials in the Down South and Far West? It is not targeted against Indian domestic audience but international audience to remind about India. The ever lasting images that comes to common public in the west when one can think of India and COVID is burning pyres and floating corpses. No amount of vaccination success can erase it.
At the same time, how many of us remember the COVID in USA? The first image that comes to mind is crazy Anti-vaxxers and Trump who were running down that country. This is again the narrative that was possibly built by other countries but aided by the American political discourse itself. Sad, but true!
If you think of COVID in Europe, the image that comes to mind is the poignant image of grandmas in late eighties waiting for hospital beds and tearful kids who could not wave goodbyes to them. This is to reinforce the welfare state image of Europe and to a certain extent discredit the healthcare system by others.
If you think of China and COVID, the image is no holds barred lock down, super big hospitals built overnight and the victory parade of doctors. I am talking only about the COVID response and not the origins. This is the reason Trump repeatedly called it 'Chinese virus' to change the COVID discourse of China about the origins and not its response.
So all the countries try and build the narratives. Some works and some does not. There is an excellent book by Vikram Sood, Former R&AW Chief called 'The Ultimate Truth' which has brought forth the different aspects of these narratives since Second World war. Refer my post on the Books
(Non fiction) thread as I don't know how to cross post yet.
Second part is day to day news
Essentially one part of news is about reporting on topics of interest and there will always be inherent bias irrespective of the medium though Journalism has adopted 'Objective reporting'. It thrives on the human nature to know things. Daily news reporting is generally disjointed to statecraft but when it joins the war campaign it becomes propaganda.
Other part is about the interests, opinions, thoughts which are used to influence the masses. This is the editorial stand of news papers as well pushing the opinions and mainly controlled by few media houses throughout the world all the while talking about neutrality. This is where it becomes intertwined with Statecraft depending on its political leanings. With the advent of 24x7 news and Social media, this line become blurred and everything become messy and disinformation become the major manifestation of it and selective reporting, partial reporting, non reporting or outright lies is used freely.
Example: Fist fight is happening between Person A and B and both of them land & take blows. One can decide to report it or not report it based on the interest of the neighborhood. If it is reported, it can be reported as two persons fighting.
It can also be reported as Person A is beating Person B. This is one degree of fake news as fact is both are beating each other.
It can also be reported as Person A is mercilessly beating Person B (making him profusely bleeding that he is going to die (unequal implied) to evoke sympathy to Person B. This is another degree of fake news.
It can a take more severe form of rumor with an obvious lie.