\u00a0\u2018One of the greatest of all terms I\u2019ve come up with\u2019<\/h3>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Donald_J._Trump_at_Marriott_Marquis_NYC_September_7th_2016_04-2.jpg\")
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US President Donald Trump (photo credit: Michael Vadon, Wikipedia).<\/p>\n
Trump may have taken credit for coining the term \u2018fake news\u2019. He is certainly the catalyst for its heightened use. The existence of the term, however, can be traced to a much earlier period in history. Merriam-Webster has found three examples of the term used in late 19th<\/sup> century newspapers, and by that count the term is at least 125 years old. And, we know that propaganda, lies and misinformation are not new.<\/p>\n Why does Trump constantly refer to certain US media outlets as \u2018fake news\u2019?<\/p>\n Associate Professor Joseph Fernandez<\/a> from Curtin\u2019s School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry<\/a>\u00a0says Trump exploits the term \u2018fake news\u2019 as a political device to delegitimise media outlets and journalists who disagree with him.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s claims about fake news started during the 2016 presidential election campaign and continued in 2017. His first attack on the media began on his first full day in office when he unleashed his fury at the news media for deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd.<\/p>\n Trump claimed the crowd \u201clooked like a million, million-and-a-half\u201d but one television network put the crowd at 250,000 people. Then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer claimed that Trump had \u201cthe largest audience to witness an inauguration, period\u201d. This claim was, however, roundly challenged by the Pulitzer-prize winning Politifact<\/em>, which considered various data and rated Spicer\u2019s claims as \u2018Pants On Fire\u2019.<\/p>\n Fernandez says: \u201cThe media has an obligation to verify claims that people make and those who scrutinise such claims can be a nuisance to someone like Trump who would rather that people believe his version of things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrump uses the term \u2018fake news\u2019 to kill off uncomfortable debate. And to some extent it appears to be working! Just look at his Twitter account and the number of retweets and likes that he attracts.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Fernandez points out that the attempts to attack the media as being \u2018fake news\u2019 has energised the media to review its own performance as a scrutineer of power and it has also forced the tech giants such as Google and Facebook to review their own roles in the distribution of information.<\/p>\n This Google Trends graph shows the relative increase of \u2018fake news\u2019 being searched in Google. The first spike occurs during the week beginning 13 November 2016 (a week after the US election results), while it was at its peak during the week beginning 8 January 2017 (where President-elect Trump told a CNN reporter he was \u2018fake news\u2019).<\/p>\n Fernandez says leaving the \u2018fake news\u2019 phenomenon unchallenged can have serious repercussions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a danger that if people stop trusting the news, they will stop trusting institutions and each other and will stop participating in important public debates or participate in an ill-informed way.\u201d<\/p>\n With a career in journalism practice and tertiary teaching spanning four decades, including a 14-year stint as chief editor of Malaysia\u2019s The Daily Express<\/em>, Fernandez has been hardwired to scrutinise power that individuals and institutions wield.<\/p>\n In a recent submission to the Australian Senate Committee on the Future of Public Interest Journalism, Fernandez focussed on the \u2018fake news\u2019 phenomenon.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my submission, I argued that it is important to define \u2018fake news\u2019 so that it is not used oppressively against the ideals of freedom of expression,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe war on \u2018fake news\u2019 should focus on those who are out to deliberately peddle false news with an ulterior purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the media makes honest mistakes, we should trust the existing mechanisms for redress. Genuine errors can generally be fixed by demanding that the prevailing rules and the dictates of professionalism are observed.\u201d<\/p>\n The spread of misinformation can obviously have a profound effect on power and politics. A 2012 article in Europe\u2019s Journal of Psychology <\/em>by a Central Washington University researcher found \u201csimply exposing participants to false information will increase belief in the false information\u201d. Meanwhile, an analysis by Buzzfeed News of the final three months of the US election found fake news stories performed better than authentic stories on Facebook.<\/p>\n Fernandez says: \u201cIf the \u2018fake news\u2019 phenomenon is left unchecked, it will lead to ill-informed voters making choices about who should govern and democracy itself stands to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n Aung San Suu Kyi greeting supporters from Myanmar\u2019s Bago State in 2011 (photo credit: Htoo Tay Zar, Wikimedia Commons).<\/p>\n Fernandez says one recent example of \u2018fake news\u2019 corrupting public discussion occurred in the context of the flight of Myanmar\u2019s Rohingya people to Bangladesh to escape persecution from the Myanmar Army.<\/p>\n In late August, Turkey\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister tweeted four photographs that allegedly showed Rohingya people in serious danger. The BBC later confirmed these particular photos were not related to the violence. The de facto Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi hit back: \u201cThat kind of fake information\u2026was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different communities and with the aim of promoting the interest of the terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n Suu Kyi has been widely criticised for not living up to the Nobel Peace Prize ideals and for presiding over ethnic cleansing while the United Nations refugee agency has expressed concerns about the humanitarian condition of up to 15,000 stranded refugees.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone of Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s stature should be slow to use the \u2018fake news\u2019 tactic to dismiss her critics,\u201d Fernandez says.<\/p>\n Google and Facebook have claimed that they are addressing the \u2018fake news\u2019 phenomenon. Facebook recently turned over about 3,000 Russia-linked advertisements to congressional committees investigating Moscow\u2019s influence over the 2016 presidential election. Google and Facebook are also deploying algorithms that will improve the quality and accuracy of their search results, but these haven\u2019t yet been implemented. While Facebook has claimed that it was making a stronger commitment to introducing better fact-checking, journalists working for Facebook say the social media site\u2019s fact-checking tools have largely failed.<\/p>\n Fernandez suggests that in trying to address any problem that is claimed to arise from the \u2018fake news\u2019 phenomenon, the first step should be to decide what exactly the term means and what the problem is. The next step should be to see whether existing redress mechanisms provide a solution. For instance, if the nature of the claims in the publication concerned causes reputational damage, the laws and rules are well established and they should apply.<\/p>\n He says not every complaint can afford to be put through the court process. He adds that the media\u2019s own watchdogs should be more active in promoting professionalism and in ensuring that their complaints mechanisms are effective and overseen by people with the right competencies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe regulatory initiatives, however, should not turn into an anti-speech monster,\u201d says Fernandez.<\/p>\n He says governments could play a role by more strongly holding the tech giants to account while the courts could also ensure that the penalties meted out for egregious breaches better match the breaches.<\/p>\n![\"Fake-News-Google-Trends-graph\"](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Fake-News-Google-Trends-graph.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTop fake news stories of 2017 and 2016<\/h3>\n
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What\u2019s the problem?<\/h2>\n
Crisis in Myanmar<\/h3>\n
![\"Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_greeting_supporters_from_Bago_State\"](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_greeting_supporters_from_Bago_State-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the solution?<\/h2>\n