On Fake News: Part I
Some problems take over the world and it feels like they are the biggest challenge facing humanity in moving forward. Fake News, today, feels like one of those problems. Question is why and what do we do about it?
Why News matter in evolution of our society?
Evolution of society is based on the cumulative efforts of its constituents in whatever way they can influence the society. These efforts could come in form of political actions (how we vote), economic actions (what we buy) or other actions like public outrage each having their own impact on the society. Cumulative being the “key” word, any impact on society requires that a large number of its constituents make efforts in the same direction. And that is why news play a key role in our society.
A spontaneous synchronisation of society, such that we all put our efforts in same direction, is possible but not probable owing to the fact that we all have very diverse contexts which leads to a diverse set of priorities. But certain events may trigger a synchronised response if they impact a large number of us directly. But even such events don’t happen very often.
A key characteristic of human beings is empathy and being influenced by stories in a manner similar to the direct influence. Even if an event doesn’t impact a large number of us directly, it can still synchronise our efforts if a very large number of us empathise with it. And that is where news play the part. They expose us to events which don’t impact us directly and with each such exposure increasing the probability of a synchronised response large enough to have an impact on our society.
What is Fake News and why is it so important?
The word “Fake” in Fake News corresponds to introduction of a deliberate lie in a News. Fake News has evolved from fabrication of entirely imagined events to changing specific details of an event and in some cases making a sublime change in the presentation of information in order to invoke a specific response.
What is important about fake news isn’t its definition, which of course will vary from person to person but how it impacts our society. The fundamental premise of fake news is that a news item is created in order to trigger a specific response in its consumers. The desired response and the target audience is what matters more than how the news is created.
What makes fake news important is that it can be used to influence evolution of society not on the basis of the actual state of the society and events happening in it but as desired by those who create and popularise that news. Being able to create and popularise fake news hence allows certain constituents of society to force the evolution of society according to their world view and to serve their own purpose.
Irrespective of morality of such control on the direction of evolution of society, such an evolution which exists irrespective of the reality is bound to become unsustainable and hence ultimately threaten the very survival of the society. Why? Because for any system to be sustainable, it has to be in equilibrium with its surroundings and that means that any change in the surroundings shall be accompanied by a change in the system. But in a society where the change is controlled not by the events and current state of society, at some point the equilibrium will break and the society will become unsustainable.
What can we do about it?
Because of the opportunity it creates for people who want to influence a change in the society, fake news will gather larger adoption over time. Any expectation of those who create or popularise fake news ceasing to do so hence is very low. What needs disruption is any possible influence fake news may have on the constituents of the society. If the influence ceases to exist then there will be no use of fake news.
The fight against fake news hence has to be focused on reducing the influence of the fake news on our society which can be achieved either by reducing the impact of fake news on individuals or reducing the reach of the fake news enough that a large enough synchronised response isn’t possible.
PS: What we must be aware of though is that fake news in itself can be used to achieve the same effect against actual news i.e. to reduce impact of events on individuals by providing contradictory information and to reduce the synchronised response by forcing individuals to invest their empathy on non-consequential events.
Continue Reading Part II here.
