Fake News in News Media; Evaluation of Cartoon by Karsten Schley
For many years, news media have been thriving in producing news content that will primarily increase their sellability as opposed to focusing on their primary role of information, education, and entertainment. To realize this malicious objective of just airing the news items that sell, news organizations end up publishing information that cannot be validated, turning out to be false. The fake news is always packaged such that its consumers get much excited to the extent of overlooking the information’s legibility. This kind of news and media reporting has caused damages to individuals, organizations, and even nations.
Karsten Schley, a German Cartoonist from Hamburg, is one renowned author who has put deliberate efforts and commitment to combating the spread of fake news. He has not only focused this effort in his country, but he has also targeted media organizations in other European countries such as England and Italy.
In one of his arts on the website ‘cartoonstock.com,’ Schley published a satirical cartoon for producers of news outlets. The cartoon contained the message, “Warning!! This Newspaper May Contain Traces of Journalism.” This cartoon suggests the author’s stand on news media content. The point that the author puts forward is that the majority of the newspaper contains false information and made-up stories. According to the author, in the given cartoon, the newspaper may contain some journalistic elements, but the sensational details have not been given the primary focus.
Fake news ends up being circulated by persons who may or may not be knowing the news’ authenticity. A report by Pew Research Center on journalism and media show that about 23% of Americans have shared false stories either knowingly or otherwise (Michael Barthel). The report ascertains that these forms of news have ended up causing varying extents of confusion about basic facts.
The cartoonist Karsten Schley identifies a lack of efforts to verify the authenticity of stories and personal biases as the significant causes of breaking made-up stories. News full of fake accounts is made up to support someone’s biases and leads innocent persons to share them. The sense of distorting basic facts or publishing fake information is promoted across partisan affiliations, education levels, incomes, and other elements of demography.
The cartoon network by Schley suggests some readers’ efforts to solve this issue. Readers have to investigate the publication, its mission, and contact information. Some newspapers may disclaim that they aim to produce parody stories. A reader who misses on this aspect of the information is likely to be misled and swayed away from the truth. Secondly, a reader must go beyond a mere headline; headlines can be misleading in the efforts to increase salability. For example, during the global threat by Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), a news media published an article with the headline ‘Cristiano Ronaldo affected by COVID-19 amid European football encounter.’ This headline can easily make one believe that the renowned Juventus FC footballer tested positive for the dreadful virus. However, the details of the story showed that the victim was actually from the under 21 team of the same Italian club. The headline targeted to increase the number of views. Checking the author is one other effort to establish their credibility, thereby stating the reliability of the stories. Other suggestions for establishing credibility and reliability of stories include checking supporting details to identify the given information; checking the date to check the timing of the stories; researching on the authors and stories to avoid being misled by satirical stories; consulting experts and fact-checking sources and; checking one’s bias to avoid wrong judgment.
I have come across fake news publishing that has targeted racial profiles. The news tends to undermine individual races. Such news has caused panic among the targeted populations as well as hatred towards the ‘offending publisher.’
One of my experiences on fake reporting was the Cable News Network (CNN’s) reporting on President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya in July 2015. Kenya is a country in East Africa. In its reporting on tour, the American network described Kenya as a ‘hotbed of terror.’ This forced many Kenyans to retaliate through social media platforms, particularly Twitter, demanding the network to pull down the post and apologize. The country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, while expressing his disappointment at the story, asked the network to focus on factual reporting. He also urged the network to exhibit much responsibility in its publication of news about Kenya relating to security. CNN was forced to apologize to the East African nation about its slur. Tonny Maddox, the network’s executive vice president overseeing the network’s global editorial policy was forced to travel to the targeted country and make an official apology. At the nation’s State House, Maddox admitted that the reporting was both unwarranted and ill-created (Nsehe).
Fake news plays a dangerous role in building extreme political divisions (Berneys). The events leading to the 2016 U.S. elections were characterized by fake news. President Obama and Pope Francis aired concerns about fake information and their potential negative influence on innocent individuals and political culture. Following false publication about a popular pizza restaurant in Washington D.C., that the restaurant harbored a child prostitution ring, a man from North Carolina brought a gun into the restaurant.
Fake news is a threat to the social well-being of communities. For instance, following the ‘hateful’ publication by the CNN about Kenya, there grew a relative hatred towards the Americans and the American media by the citizens of the affected country. Even after the network’s effort to apologize, many Kenyans still hold a skewed opinion of the general view of American Citizens towards other nationals. It is necessary to reinforce policies that will avert the negative influence of fake news media.
References
Berneys, Edward. Propaganda. 1928. Book.
Michael Barthel, Amy Mitchell and Jesse Holcomb. Many Americans Believe Fake News Is Sowing Confusion. Journalism and Media. Chicago: Pew Research Center, 2016. Website.
Nsehe, Mfonobong. “CNN Boss Apologizes To Kenya Over Terrorism Slur.” Forbes 13 Aug 2018. Website.