Fake news is content that deliberately presents a lie as truth . Its purpose is to confuse people, making them believe that certain fictitious data is real.
It is common for fake news to be referred to as fake news , an expression from the English language. These are texts, audios, photographs or videos that circulate through the media and social networks with the aim of misinforming .
Generally, fake news aims to manipulate the recipient . The idea is that the individual, by accessing the content, modifies his or her perception of a personality or an institution. The most common thing is that fake news has a political intention .
Suppose that an alleged newspaper article goes viral stating that a political leader has bank accounts, a fleet of twenty cars and several mansions that he never declared to the treasury. The note, which is not signed by any journalist and was published on an unknown blog , maintains that this politician enriched himself through acts of corruption. A journalist decides to investigate the topic and discovers that there are no judicial complaints regarding it. In addition, the aforementioned banks were contacted and the authorities denied the information. It can be stated, therefore, that it is nothing more than fake news that aims to harm the subject, who sees his chances of winning an election affected because of the lie.
Communication and political science experts associate fake news with post- truth . This notion refers to a distortion of reality to influence public opinion, minimizing the relevance of objective facts in pursuit of an appeal to beliefs and emotions .
Post-truth is also known as emotional lying and is very common today, thanks to the ease with which we can spread lies over the Internet. In the field of political culture, this concept is called post-factual or post-truth politics , and it is politics that sparks debates focused on emotions instead of facts.
The wave of fake news that circulates so naturally on social networks does not go unnoticed, although the future does not seem very promising either since there are many who benefit from it. However, there are also powerful people who speak out publicly against these tactics of manipulation and insult; Such is the case of Stephen King, who at the beginning of 2020 announced that he would close his Facebook account precisely because of this problem.
Claire Wardle , an expert in user-generated content who is dedicated to verifying its legitimacy to improve the quality of information circulating online, defines the concept of fake news as the conscious creation and dissemination of false data. This can be taken as a synonym for disinformation and is different from misinformation , which consists of spreading false information without knowing that it is false.
Depending on the degree of intent, Wardle recognizes seven categories of fake news:
* satire : also called parody , and does not seek to deceive but rather to cause amusement to the reader. Of course, the similarity of its format with that of a normal news item can lead to confusion;
* false connection : the content of the article does not correspond to the title;
* misleading content : false information about a person or topic is presented;
* false context : the content may be true but is placed in a context that is not;
* impostor content : genuine sources are spoofed;
* manipulated content : it is based on genuine data but is modified;
* invented content : everything in this type of fake news is invented by its author, from the supposed sources to the photographs.