Red Herring

Dramatic isn't it??

let's put this in simpler terms, "US" and "THEM"....

I guess things are basically working on assumptions these days, where you have to just assume that the percentage of fakeness involved is as low as your IQ level (LOL)....

Fake news has always created havoc, be it in any industry or even your damn life, reason- targeting the emotions becomes easy when the sources are slow, everything is based on reasons (biased ones) and the origin is it's own worst enemy.

This one also comes with an Indian version: where you only need a target and here I, Mrs. Bhalla, present to you my very own biased series" SHARMA JI KI LADKI, featuring any random guy"

Jokes apart, media is just an ordinary classroom of "us" and "them" , where us is the public and them is the media , and as a part of our efforts to battle the fake part we also need to acknowledge our own confirmation bias- the tendency to look for the resources and opinions that align with their preconceived notions.

The problem not always lies within the conception of biased individuals and groups but also that we ourselves cannot always distinguish between the truth and deceptions , so the bold line between us and them is often blurred leaving the chances of elimination to bare minimal. Every other person is biased and the confirmation bias is just a part of it. Umm, actually there are a lot more - but over the last decades, so-called implicit bias have attracted much attention which is used to describe our subconscious attitudes about different social groups: what/whom we like and dislike, what we expect from others, and what kind of behavior we deem normal and unacceptable.

The big question arises that if we all have hidden biases that influence our perceptions and behavior then how are we to frame our conversation about fake news if apparently we are all biased in one way or the another???

Technically , even our perceptions and actions are affected by concepts like:

1.the more time or emotions we invest into something the more we want to keep investing

2.if a lot of people act or think in a certain way, we tend to act or think the same

3.we will have more trust in somebody whom we find attractive

4.the first piece of information we hear tends to have more influence on us, and many more.................

Debating on the accuracy of fakeness is bit complicated and opinionated ,maybe, but it always ends up distinguishing facts from deceptions and finding out who is responsible for falsifications. If considered that we all are biased then the task of finding the objective truth and sticking to the data you have found becomes comparatively complicated.

Focusing on power balance: even though all may seem biased but whose words and actions can affect more people matters the most. If I myself create a biased message, I may cause a biased media message but if a biased message is created by a media company that would reach millions of people then it would cause a much more severe impact then mine.

Fake isn't fake until someone finds out it's fake , implying there's a back story to everything. While finding out who funds the different side of an argument , one should keep in mind the concept of "follow the money"...media presents everything with different intentions like when gender and racial stereotypes are reinforced it is not necessarily coz the presenters want the gender and racial inequalities to persist but often because of certain dominant ideologies that persist due to hidden biases shared by many people. But at the same place it would be naïve to deny the existence of intentional malicious propaganda. Fake news is sometimes created purposefully coz of the benefit from misinformation financially, but it’s not the same as creating a biased message coz this person lacks awareness of their bias themselves.

Creators of fake news: 2 reasons could be: 1. Well planned strategies with political ground having purpose of transmitting certain type of ideologies, old but still capable of deceiving. 2. Financial one, the digital ads make money by the number of clicks and they use often clickbait titles with this scope.

Emotions are triggered at the expense of knowledge and facts with the intention of creating fear of money and the so-called ideologies which I guess are just like Cinderella's shoes coz if the shoe fits you, then where it bitch..

Intentions can never be the same be it be malicious intent, economic interest or desire to keep one's power. Each one of us participates in the information circulation which directly or indirectly contributes to the existence of opinionated ideologies and power imbalances ...

Being a strong blend of fabricated facts and acknowledged information , fake news validation can be challenging and studies show that the young people may not be able to distinguish the real facts with fake ones being the considerable users of internet..

Matteo Salvini says : "like Trump , I would say that fake news is distributed 24hrs a day"

do let me know your views on this one........