I think I first heard the phrase used by President Trump. ‘Fake
News’ became the ‘word of the year’ for 2017 according to the Daily Telegraph;
despite it being two words!
But the concept has been around forever. Ever since the lies
in the Garden of Eden, Fake News has been in existence. The Times comments that
‘a lie is halfway round the world before truth has got its boots on’. Why?
Because too many of us love to gossip and are fascinated with the failure of
others.
A new study from Science Magazine is extremely thorough. The
report indicated that Fake News travels ‘faster, deeper and more broadly’ than
the truth. Truth on social media platforms takes six times longer to circulate
than lies. Twitter gets the most Fake News, with other social media not far
behind. People tweet and retweet what they consider to be a surprise, to be
provocative or disgusting. Indeed, it may be disgusting- but was it true?
I remember a debate on the BBC some years ago - I haven’t
been able to source it so it may be Fake News! - where these issues were
discussed. There was a concern from the Corporation that they were showing
drama dressed up as history. I guess the concerns didn’t win. I loved watching
Netflix series ‘The Crown’. Claire Foy was amazing as the Queen. But there was so
much fiction in there. It made Prince Philip out to be some sort of mad egoist
and misogynist. History doesn’t back that up. But how many now have a view of
the Royal Family based on this new fiction?
Or take the simplest of lies. I spotted a quote on Facebook
the other day attributed to C S Lewis. In
fact it was a quote from a motivational speaker called Les Brown. Does it
matter? The quote was a good one, so who cares? But that’s the point! We need
to care. Without a truth filter, we are creating a future full of false news
for the next generation.
As someone that works with Christian History, I’m taught to
verify what I teach. I try and find the original source of a story. If I can’t,
I check it out with accepted historians with a good track record. I see whether
the story is regularly reported in Christian History books, or is it an outlier
in just one or two? I check who is recording the story and as much as possible,
whether they have a particular slant on Christian History they want to convey.
We can’t do that with Twitter. So, much as I value free
speech, I agree with the conclusion in The Times: ‘[Social media companies]must
be forthcoming, transparent and co-operative in helping their users distinguish
lies from the truth, and in helping understand why the former should not be so
blithely spread.’
We need to care what is true and what is a lie. Or maybe we
just prefer to gossip?