Fake news, English 5

"Fake news" has become an expression with wings - it has flown over the world this past year, not only when news have indeed been fake but also when they have not been fake.


Different kinds of fake news

Fake news can be very different depending on the purpose and context of the news. For instance, there are news that aren't intended to be taken seriously. They are jokes, parodies or satires that mean to criticise or make fun of something. But if, or when, these "news" are taken seriously they could cause damage.

Another kind of fake news are so called click baits. The purpose of these are to make money from people clicking a link, and thereby creating a lot of internet traffic to a certain site. In order to get people to click, the headline must be interesting, maybe even provocative - they are often sensational but rarely true.

A third kind of fake news is the kind where the people behind the news want to affect you and your opinion about something. There is often a political or ideological purpose, and the content is often a complex or sensitive subject (like imigration, the environment, and so on). In some recent  political elections, so called troll factories seem to have been used to spread fake news to affect peoples opinions.

Fake news affect us

All of these fake news affect us, but in different ways. You may think that a fake video of a girl who got revenge on some guys who harassed her doesn't do any harm because it doesn't spread a fake message, but it may still affect you and your view of women, men, the world etc.

Also, if we get used to things around us being fake - how does that affect us? A Swedish politician said that even though he knew that a piece of news was fake, he was still upset and angry about what the news said. Will our world view be based on things that aren't real? What consequences will that lead to?

Images

Both fake and non-fake news use images. We are used to images, and they make us react stronger to the news. Fake news will of course use this by using images that are manipulated or fake, or by cropping the images so that they show only a part of the reality. Sometimes the image has nothing to do with the news at all, it is from a completely different situation. How can we find out these things?

The answer is "reverse image search". This means that you upload an image and search the web for wherever that image has occurred before. You can see wehere and when it was published first, if it has been edited or cropped, and so on. Remember that for most reverse image searches you have to upload the image from your computer - so if you find fake news that use an image, save that image to your computer and then upload it in a reverse image search tool.

There are many different reverse image search tools:

• tineye.com - is good because you can arrange the search results based on time, so that you get the oldest published image first. 
• google image search  - can be used for revser image search, simply click the camera icon and upload your image. 
• google chrome - when using this browser you can right click any image and do a reverse google image search. 

There are many others as well. By searching for "reverse image search" you can find other websites and also apps for your smartphone. 

Source criticism criteria

For all news, it is important to practice using source criticism. We discussed these criteria last semester, here is a repetition in English: 

• Bias (tendens) - are there interests in the matter (economical, political, ideological, religious?)
• Authenticity (äkthet) - getting the information confirmed from several different sources, looking up facts, places, people, timelines, dates etc. 
• Dependency (beroende) - when using different sources, make sure they are independent from one another (for instance not the same author, owner or references)
• Time (tid/närhet) - when was it published? How close to the event?

Also, don't forget to think about competence/expertise. It's important to question if the source is knowledegable in the field, if they have expertise or if there are others with more expertise. 

If you need help with your assignment, or if you want to discuss fake news or source critcism, you are welcome to ask us at the library!

Here is the presentation from the lesson. 

Good luck!