When the Collins Dictionary announced “Fake News” as Word of the Year 2017, Human Rights Watch rightly expressed concern. Defined as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting”, the term has apparently seen a more than three-fold increase in use in one year. Whether as a statement of fact or as an accusation, “fake news” has become ubiquitous. On the other hand, if you report on human rights violations, you do not want your serious news to be confused with fake news! “With each encounter with victims, human rights activists must bring a commitment to meticulous fact-finding, the sifting of evidence, the corroboration of details, and the pursuit of a truth that will ultimately lead to justice,” warns Iaine Levine in “Why
‘Fake News’ as Word of the Year is Bad for Human Rights”.
The Collins Dictionary was not the first in this choice. The Australian Macquarie Dictionary had announced “fake news” as Word of the Year for 2016. The dictionary defined it as “disinformation and hoaxes published on websites for political purposes or to drive web traffic” and “the incorrect information being passed along by social media”.
Facebook is attempting to combat the viral spread of untrue stories in many ways, including alliances with various organizations such as FactCheck.org, yet the challenge is endless with myriads of sites encouraging pranksters and others to create their own genuine looking fake news stories. The list of such sites is long; here are just a few
Facebook is attempting to combat the viral spread of untrue stories in many ways, including alliances with various organizations such as FactCheck.org, yet the challenge is endless with myriads of sites encouraging pranksters and others to create their own genuine looking fake news stories. The list of such sites is long; here are just a few
- https://newspaper.jaguarpaw.co.uk/ (free newspaper generator)
· http://breakyourownnews.com/ (the breaking news generator)
· http://www.classtools.net/breakingnews/
· https://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp (the newspaper clipping generator)
The Council of Europe recently published the report Information Disorder :Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making. The report authors, Wardle and Derakhshan analyze the problem of what they refer to as “information pollution”, avoiding the term “fake news” because of the way it has been appropriated by politicians lately. Rather, they emphasize the need to tackle “mis-, dis- and mal-information”. They rightly stress that the solution should involve everyone: technology companies, national governments, media organisations, civil society, education ministries and funding bodies.
At AUB, teachers of English work hand in hand with librarians to promote information literacy among students. News literacy and critical thinking are part of this, and they are increasingly relevant to people’s everyday lives – not just their academic work.
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