Starving The Watchdogs: Who Foots The Bill When Newspapers Disappear? (NPR's Hidden Brain)→

Shankar Vedantam and NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast:

The value of local newspapers can hardly be overstated right now. We read our local papers to track the spread of COVID-19 in our states, and the availability of ICU beds at nearby hospitals. We read to get a sense of how nearby businesses are faring, and what nursing homes are doing to keep residents safe. More of us are reading more news all the time. But at the same time that readership is soaring, advertising revenue—which keeps newspapers financially afloat—is plummeting. As a result, a number of newspapers across the country are laying off workers, even shuttering. …

Whereas most of us treat newspapers like consumer products, new research from Paul Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy suggests that they might be more like police departments. Gao, Lee, and Murphy looked at how newspaper closures might affect the cost of borrowing in local governments. What they found is a price tag that may give many taxpayers sticker shock.

This week on Hidden Brain, we look at an unusual case of what economists refer to as a free-rider problem. And we ask, who bears the cost when nobody wants to pay?

Fake News... Can be... Fun?

Throughout the year, Critical Engagements has explored fake news and misinformation, and the various insidious ways it eats away at our society: climate change deniers, anti-vaxers, misrepresentations of the actions and beliefs of groups in our society, the erosion of trust in journalism, universities, and other trusted sources of information, and more.

But today, we’re taking a different angle on fake news. Sometimes, misinformation, especially an elaborate ruse meant to hoodwink large swaths of the population for nothing more than enjoyment, can be fun. Sometimes, it can lift our spirits when we buy into something for just a moment, then realize how gullible we were, and finally smile and say to ourselves, “That was a good one.” Sometimes, when "fake news” is called by another name, like “April Fools’ Day jokes,” we get a kick out of it. So today—April Fools’ Day—the fake news holiday—we share some classic April Fools’ pranks that have gone down in history. We’re sure you’ll be left smiling and saying “that’s a good one.”

The Left-handed Whopper: In 1998, Burger King took out a full-page advertisement in USA Today announcing their new menu item—a Whopper designed for south paws. The sandwich was rotated 180 degrees and the toppings were arranged in a mirror orientation to the original in order to accommodate the eating habits of lefties. Thousands of lefties (and maybe a few righties looking to live dangerously) went to their local Burger Kings asking for the new menu item, only to realize they were had by fake news.

Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect: According to celebrated and trusted British television personality and amateur astronomer Patrick Moore, on April 1, 1976, the perfect alignment of Jupiter and Pluto would cause, on Earth, a temporary reduction of the effect of gravity. He even told his BBC audience that those who jumped up in the air at 9:47 am would notice a floating sensation as a result. The BBC reported receiving hundreds of phone calls of people saying they noticed the decreased gravity… before it was announced that it was just a hoax.

Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, the corporate sponsorship of anything and everything was on the rise in America.** It was also a time of particular popularity for the rarely-out-of-fashion claim that government spending was out of control and the national debt would cripple our country. It was amid the confluence of these two aspects of American society that Taco Bell seized the moment and hatched the perfect April Fools’ Day stunt. Taco Bell took out full-page ads in several major newspapers on April 1 to announce that, in an effort to reduce the national debt, they were buying the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia—that hallowed symbol of American independence—and they were going to rename it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” Of course, the ad caused a visceral reaction. Thousands telephoned the National Park Service and Taco Bell to decry the spoof arrangement… until noon, when it was announced that Taco Bell was just playing with us.

**For those too young to remember, the White Sox played at Comiskey Park, not Guaranteed Rate Field, and the Orange Bowl was not the FedEx Orange Bowl or the Discover Orange Bowl or the Capital One Orange Bowl.

NPR’s “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?” Article: In 2014, NPR posted a story on their Facebook page with the headline “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?” Those who clicked on the story found a note telling readers that it seemed like people were commenting on news stories without actually reading the content. So, NPR decided to have some fun with this by asking those who actually read the story not to comment and simply “like” the story. Then, NPR and those who had read the story could watch the mayhem develop in the comments section. As you can imagine, comments akin to “We totally do, NPR. Shut up. We read all the time. We're reading your article right now!” appeared on Facebook comments. Happy April Fools’ Day.

Mt. Edgecumbe Eruption: This may be the most elaborate April Fools’ Day prank in history. Porky Bickar, a Sitka, Alaska, practical joker planned for four years to fake the eruption of a local dormant volcano—Mt. Edgecumbe. He needed the perfect day when the weather would be just right. So, on April 1, 1974, when he saw beautiful clear skies, he put his plan in the action. He worked with a team of co-conspirators to take a helicopter up to the mountain to ignite a ton of old car tires in the crater. The result was thick, black smoke that rose from the dormant volcano. Residents of Sitka, who saw the smoke and thought Mt. Edgecumbe was active again, started to worry. The Coast Guard was also alerted to the volcano's activity. When the Coast Guard sent a helicopter up to inspect, they found a large tire fire and, in 50-foot letters spray-painted in the snow, “APRIL FOOL.”

Bad Medicine: Misinformation as a Common Remedy During a Pandemic

What is it about public health emergencies that draw out the quacks to offer us tidbits of misinformation? If you have yet to catch wind of some of the untested (and frankly, dangerous!) remedies for COVID-19 that have been touted by non-medical professionals, then you have missed hare-brained notions such as drinking bleach to prevent infection, drinking water every fifteen minutes to “keep your mouth moist,” which supposedly prevents infection, drinking colloidal silver to kill the infection, and even taking cocaine.

None of these “treatments” will prevent you from contracting COVID-19 nor are they a cure. In fact, you are potentially doing more harm to your health by following them. To be sure, to protect Americans, infamous televangelist Jim Bakker has been sued by the State of Missouri and warned by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission for selling colloidal silver, which the FDA notes is not an actual treatment for COVID-19.  

But all of this “fake news” about COVID-19 is nothing new. This is not the first time a pandemic has changed life for millions around the World. And not the first time unscrupulous charlatans promoted outlandish remedies during a public health emergency. Just over 100 years ago, the World was in the grips of a deadly influenza pandemic. By the time the multiple waves of the virus circled the globe, about one quarter of the world’s population had contracted the flu and tens of millions had died as a result. Just as today, public health experts offered sound and responsible advice for staying safe—advice that will be remarkably familiar to anyone today. From the Oxford Leader, out of Oakland County, Michigan, you could “fool the flu” by:

• Not going to work while sick

• Not spitting in public

• Not visiting those who are sick

• Not going to indoor meetings

• Avoiding crowds

• Not panicking

• Covering your face when you cough and sneeze

• Getting plenty of rest

• Washing your hands and face often

• Calling a physician at the first sign of sickness

But that sensible advice wasn’t the only information circulating. Other less-reliable remedies were being printed in newspapers and spread by word of mouth. Advertisements for Laxative Bromo Quinine could be found touting the anti-cold and flu properties of the medicine. Camphor was another treatment that was suggested as a cure for the flu—it was even said to be effective when a piece of camphor was mixed with the tobacco in a cigarette or a pipe!

Eating onions was also put forward as a treatment for the flu. Raw onions were said to be better than cooked onions. But syrup from onions was thought to be beneficial, too. And it seems that people didn’t even need to eat the onions for the benefits—a mother in wrapped her daughter head-to-toe in onions to keep her healthy. Maybe the joke printed in the El Paso Herald was actually the most true benefit of the onion treatment:

“Eat onions. No germ likes onions and, besides, if you eat onions people will keep away from you, and that is important in checking the influenza epidemic.”

100+ years later, we can easily dismiss eating onions or crumbling some camphor into a tobacco pipe as “snake oil.”  But, now that we are in a similarly extraordinary and uncertain time, we see how an off-the-wall idea might be appealing if there is any hope that it might keep us safe. In such times, the best ways to stay safe are to follow the advice of the most trusted experts—experts who don’t peddle in fake news, but provide information based on the best research and data available. Check with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the State of Michigan’s coronoavirus-specific webpage for more information about protecting yourself and others from COVID-19.

Historic information about remedies during the 1918 influenza pandemic drawn from Catharine Arnold’s “Eat More Onions,” found in Lapham’s Quarterly, September 13, 2018.

Conspiracy theorists blame U.S. for Coronavirus. China is happy to encourage them. (Washington Post)→

From Washington Post China correspondent Gerry Shih:

As new coronavirus cases and the sense of panic ebb in China, the country that was first struck by the disease has been gripped by a wave of nationalist pride, conspiracy theories and a perennial mix of anti-American sentiments: suspicion, superiority, schadenfreude.

With An Election On The Horizon, Older Adults Get Help Spotting Fake News (NPR)

NPR’s Sam Gringlas, February 26, 2020: “With An Election On The Horizon, Older Adults Get Help Spotting Fake News.”

Special thanks to WCMU’s Amy Robinson for alerting us to this story.

Coronavirus: An Epidemic of Misinformation (Washington Post)→

From the Post Reports podcast, Kim Bellware on how disinformation about the coronavirus is spreading online.

→ See also, from the same source, “The coronavirus is spreading rapidly. So is misinformation about it.”

Wes Lowery Livestream

From our Evening With Wes Lowery (January 23):

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wes Lowery visits Central Michigan University. Lowery is a journalist for The Washington Post and a CNN political contributor. He is the author of They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement (2016), which describes his experiences while reporting on the 2016 Ferguson unrest and also chronicles the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

How to Misinform Yourself About the Coronavirus (The Atlantic)→

CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS / REUTERS

Even if you avoid the conspiracy theories, tweeting through a global emergency is messy, context-free, and disorienting.

Alexis C. Madrigal, reporting for the Atlantic.

“An Evening with Wes Lowery” (January 23)→

Please join us on January 23 at 7:00 PM in the Bovee University Center Auditorium for “An Evening with Wes Lowery.” Wesley Lowery is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist for The Washington Post, a CNN political contributor, the author of They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement (2016), which describes his experiences while reporting on the 2016 Ferguson unrest and also chronicles the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

This event is free and open to the public and will also be available on our livestream starting a few minutes before 7:00 PM. Sponsored by the Department of Journalism, the College of Arts and Media, and Critical Engagements.

→ Open event flyer

‘Disinformation’ Is the Word of the Year — And A Sign Of What's To Come (NPR)→

Fresh Air’s Geoff Nunberg:

My choice of “disinformation” needs some explaining. It isn't a new word — just one of the family of names we give to the malignancies that contaminate the public discourse, along with “propaganda,” and in particular “misinformation” and “fake news.” Each of those last two was chosen as word of the year by some dictionary or organization in 2017.

But over the past couple of years “disinformation” has been on a tear — it's 10 times as common in media headlines as it was five years ago, to the point where it's nudged its siblings aside. That rise suggests a basic shift in focus: What most troubles us now isn't just the plague of deceptive information on the Internet, but the organized campaigns that are spreading the infection.

Terminally Ill at 25 and Fighting Fake News on Vaccines (NYT)→

In 2015, an anti-vaccination campaign in Ireland caused a sudden fall in the uptake of the HPV vaccine. Then Laura Brennan got involved. New York Times Video Op-Ed by Adam Westbrook, featuring cancer researcher David Robert Grimes.

Britain’s Secret Propaganda War (BBC)→

BBC Witness History (9 minutes, audio) on “Britain’s Secret Propanda War: How Sex, Jazz and ‘Fake News’ Were Used to Undermine the Nazis in World War Two”:

In 1941, the UK created a top secret propaganda department, the Political Warfare Executive, to wage psychological warfare on the German war machine. It was responsible for spreading rumours, generating fake news, leaflet drops and creating fake clandestine German radio stations to spread misinformation and erode enemy morale. We hear archive recordings of those involved and speak to professor Jo Fox of the Institute of Historical Research about the secret history of British “black propaganda.”

“Open-Label Placebos and Self-Deception” (Brian Coleman, November 22)→

Join us on November 22 (2:00 PM, Anspach 167) for a Philosophy Lecture and Colloquium on “Open-Label Placebos and Self-Deception” led by Dr. James Brian Coleman (CMU).

The placebo effect has long been seen as a kind of “fake news” of the medical world: intentionally deceptive medicine that happens somehow to have real results. But could placebos in fact be a sort of fake news patients tell themselves?

Recent research on the placebo effect shows that there can be a positive therapeutic result even when the patient is fully informed of the placebo’s inert content. The medical literature refers to such placebos as “open-label placebos.” Traditionally, objections to placebo use center on the apparent requirement of some degree of deception in their application, which violates requirements on respect for patient autonomy. But do open-label placebos involve some form of deception? The question this paper pursues is whether open-label placebos imply self-deception. If so, is this ethically problematic? The paper concludes by speculating about the implications of the relation between self-deception and autonomy for clinical medicine in general.

 Free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and Religion.

→ Open event page

Archives: The Solution to Fake News?

If you spend time on social media—or with any media, for that matter—you are probably sick of seeing and hearing accusations of “Fake News!” You may feel frustrated and helpless in the face of the onslaught. After all, here in the United States misinformation and lies are protected by the First Amendment, as the Supreme Court reaffirmed in U.S. v. Alvarez in 2016. 

But fear not: You have a friend in archives. Archives contain evidence, and it’s the mission of archives to preserve evidence, so that people can use it to distinguish fact from fiction. 

In her recent book, A Matter of Facts: The Value of Evidence in an Information Age (Chicago: ALA/Neal-Schuman/SAA), scholar Laura A. Millar distinguishes between facts and evidence. “A fact is a statement that is consistent with reality or that can be proven by an analysis of available evidence. Evidence is any source of information that provides demonstrable truth.” (13) Verifiable documentary evidence, such as undoctored photos, textual documents, electronic messages, and other materials held and protected by archival institutions can be used to prove something is or isn’t true.

I work for the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, which is one of the 14 presidential libraries that is part of the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA.* It is NARA’s goal to have 500 million pages scanned and available online by 2024. As of the most recent count NARA has more than 86 million pages available online (out of 235 million pages scanned), so the goal may not be as outrageous as it initially sounds. 

If you think at all about the National Archives, you probably know it as the place that keeps the documents that define our nation. Yet the records protected by NARA are at the forefront of today’s news. For example, NARA continues to release documentation on the pre-Supreme Court career of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh served on the staff of President George W. Bush and worked as an assistant independent counsel under Kenneth Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton. 

Many of Kavanaugh’s records are in the form of emails, which raises another issue that must be addressed in the battle against fake news. The most critical struggle archives face is the need to protect and preserve electronic records that are considered permanent but are in imminent danger of erasure or obsolescence. Regular backups, multiple storage locations, trusted digital repositories, and frequent checks for data corruption are all weapons archives are using to fight the digital preservation battle. 

Posting digitized records to prove the truth or falsity of a statement is one way to quickly support an argument or discredit a claim. I’m on the social media team at the Carter Library. While all of NARA’s dozens of social media accounts operate under certain guidelines, including ones specific to federal employees, NARA generally gives us free rein to promote our collections and our facilities in ways we see fit. 

I have discovered that Twitter can be useful for clearing up misconceptions, correcting the record, and answering questions. I refuted the frequently cited claim that Jimmy Carter’s favorite movie was Gone With the Wind by finding a clip of the President speaking to the audience at the American Film Institute’s 10th anniversary gala in 1977. What he said then was, “It was a great movie. It’s not quite as good now as it was then,” which is not exactly a ringing endorsement. 

Another repeated tale suggests President Carter switched his hair part from the right to the left side, which is why he lost the 1980 election. Google “hair part theory” and you’ll discover there is a field of study that measures the success of people who move their hair part from one side of their head to the other. I found a letter to Carter suggesting he change his part, but if you look at the letterhead, you’ll see that it’s from a college fraternity! So was it a prank? We know from photos that Carter did change the hair part soon after the letter arrived … but we can’t prove cause and effect. I posted the letter to Twitter to get it “out there” for search engines.

In July, historian Andrew Rudalevige tweeted that I fact-checked him by retweeting him a copy of a page from the President’s Daily Diary, because Rudalevige cited the incorrect date for the president’s famous “Crisis of Confidence” speech. And I also used Twitter to respond to a blogger’s post about Carter’s alleged UFO sighting, offering the president’s own version of that event. 

In all these cases the documents and footage provided the evidence, and Twitter served as the means of dissemination. If you can throw facts “into the universe,” as historian Kevin Cruse suggests, they can live on and show up in searches when future inquiring minds are seeking answers.

All the scans attached to records in the National Archives Catalog can be downloaded for free. They are in the public domain. Several years ago when I worked at the National Archives at St. Louis, PBS aired an episode of American Masters about legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, which contained false and misleading information about his military career. NARA-St. Louis had Hendrix’s official military personnel file (OMPF), so we knew he did not receive an honorable discharge due to injury or awards of valor for jumping out of planes. The misinformation was subsequently repeated on Wikipedia, a CBS News webpage, and at a commercial military-themed site.

Shortly after the American Masters episode aired, NARA’s cataloging staff decided to add records from the St. Louis archives’ Persons of Exceptional Prominence collection to the National Archives catalog. And we had James Marshall Hendrix’s OMPFuploaded in the first batch, so the evidence would be there for people to read for themselves. I had the Wikipedia page changed by using the link to his record as evidence, to correct the error.    

You too can take advantage of the National Archives’ records, or records that are digitized and freely available on the websites of hundreds of other archival repositories, to fight for the truth. And here are some other suggestions for fighting fake news:

• Become a News Searcher. As Nat Eliason says in “The Destructive Switch from Search to Social,” news consumers need to start “focusing on searching for information, instead of letting it get pushed onto you. If you use the Internet in a way where you primarily pull for information you’re trying to find, your attention span stays intact.”

• Read laterally! Investigate what lies inside the links presented in a questionable news story. A study by the Stanford History Education Group pointed out that historians and students read vertically, staying within a website to evaluate its reliability, while fact checkers read laterally, opening up new browser tabs in order to judge the credibility of a site. 

• Ask the 9 questions to help you evaluate the credibility of news sources supplied by the Poynter Institute. 

• Follow a fact-checking site, such as Factcheck.org, from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, or Poynter’s PolitiFact.

• Try your hand at reverse image searching, with a website such as Tineye or Google Images, to see if a photo has been doctored. 

With tools such as these, you’ll have a better chance of being able to arm yourself against fake news. And remember, the evidence is in the records. 

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* Daria Labinsky has been with the National Archives and Records Administration since 2010 and has been an archivist at the Jimmy Carter Library since 2017. She worked as a journalist, editor, and indexer for 25 years and has co-authored four books. The opinions reflected here are her own and not necessarily those of the National Archives and Records Administration. This blog post is based on a presentation originally given at the 2019 Council of State Archivists—Society of American Archivists’ Joint Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas.

“Facebook and Fake News: How Misinformation Is Spread and Why We Fall For It” (November 20)→

Please join us on November 20 (6:00–8:00 PM, Anspach 162) to learn more about the role of social media in spreading “fake news” and the psychology behind why we believe untrue messages. After a screening of the PBS special The Facebook Dilemma, CMU psychology faculty members Sarah Domoff, Kimberly O'Brien, Kyle Scherr, and experimental psychology graduate student Brian Kissell will lead a panel discussion. Sponsored by the Department of Psychology and Critical Engagements.

→ Open event flier (PDF)

“The Alternative University” (Robert Davies and David Staley, November 18)

Please join CMU President Dr. Robert O. Davies and Dr. David Staley on November 18 (5:30–6:30 PM, Opperman Auditorium, Park Library) for a conversation about innovative visions of higher education. 

Dr. Staley is director of the Humanities Institute and associate professor of history at The Ohio State University. His book, Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education, examines opportunities to re-envision the university. What do the universities of the future look like? What will the students of the future need? Will their universities have buildings, gen-ed, or traditional disciplines? 

→ Open event flier (PDF)

Fake News, November 7, and the Not-Quite-End of “the War that Will End War”

November 7, 1918 Seattle Star headline

November 11 holds a special place across Europe and the world as a day to remember the bloody, world-changing event that was supposed to be “the war that will end war.” In November of 1918, when World War I came to an end, people celebrated across the globe. In France, “they rang the church bells enough to break them,” according to Fred Sigourney, a doughboy from Gratiot County, Michigan. 4,000 miles from the front; in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, “the Liberty Band appeared on the streets and played a ‘Hot Time’ on all the downtown streets. A platform was built on the corner of Main and Broadway, and in the evening a regular old-fashioned jollification was held. There was lots of music, red hot speeches, and everybody rejoiced.” In Lansing, the governor of Michigan, Albert Sleeper, commented, “That is the best news the world has ever heard, if true.”

November 8, 1918 Isabella County Enterprise headline

Governor Sleeper’s statement hit the nail on the head—the news wasn’t true. The celebrations in Mt. Pleasant, Lansing, and numerous other American communities were four days ahead of history. From Washington, DC to Seattle, newspapers carried United Press (UP) agency’s reports that the Great War was over. But while many Americans prematurely popped the corks on the celebratory champagne, the war raged on another four days. Casualties continued to mount until just moments before 11:00 am, November 11, when the actual armistice took effect. 

How did United Press get it wrong? Admiral Henry B. Wilson, commander of the American Navy, issued a comment on November 8: “The statement of the United Press relative to the signing of the armistice was made public from my office on the basis of what appeared to be official and authoritative information. l am in a position to know that the United Press and its representatives acted in perfect good faith and that the premature announcement was the result of an error for which the agency was in no wise responsible." Admiral Wilson received news of a ceasefire and, due to a miscommunication, was under the impression it was a total armistice. It was instead a local ceasefire in a single location.

November 7, 1918 Washington Times headline

The fallout from the false reports came swiftly. On November 8, papers that worked with the Associated Press, UP’s rival, ran bold headlines refuting the claims that the war was over. The papers also carried a blurb that President Woodrow Wilson would announce the signing of the armistice as soon as he had official news of it—in other words, if it didn’t come from the President, it should be considered untrue. On November 10, the Detroit Free Press reported that the US Attorney’s office in Toledo sent copies of the Toledo newspaper “containing the United Press ‘fake’ armistice dispatch” to the US. Attorney General in consideration of charges against UP. The justification was because the “fake armistice dispatch” led to undue jubilation that disrupted work and harmed the war production effort.

November 15, 1918 Isabella County Enterprise story

Amidst the blowback due to the “fake dispatch,” word that the armistice was truly agreed to on November 11 quickly spread across the Atlantic. When the news hit American shores, the celebrations began for a second time. As the Isabella County Enterprise of November 15 noted, “Monday [November 11] the real thing happened and again the town [Mt. Pleasant] went wild.” The hearty souls in Mt. Pleasant, and Americans from coast to coast, had it in them to celebrate two times in four days. 

In Mt. Pleasant, the second celebration turned into an event that went on for multiple days. Wednesday, November 13 was a “cold, uncomfortable day,” but the miserable weather could not stop the revelry. An ox roast was held and “not hundreds—but everybody—came to the barbecue.” The students from Central, including those in the Student Army Training Corps, joined in a parade with many other citizens and groups from Isabella County. The parade wound through Mt. Pleasant to Island Park, where a band played and whoops and hollers filled the air.”

As the Enterprise noted in closing, “Never in the world’s history of mankind has there been an occasion for such a celebration.” Whether or not he was concerned, Governor Sleeper didn’t have to worry that the “best news the world has ever heard” wasn’t true after November 11.

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Bryan Whitledge is the Archivist for University Digital Records at the Clarke Historical Library, where he works with the history of CMU.

“The Intersection of Environmental Reporting and Fake News” (Tom Henry, November 14)→

Please join us on November 14 for a presentation by Tom Henry, former student reporter for CM Life and now an award-winning environmental-energy writer and reporter for the Toledo Blade, on “The Intersection of Environmental Reporting and Fake News.” Sponsored by the Clarke Historical Library and Critical Engagements.

What Is Fake News? Answers From a Professor and Journalist

The following are my answers to a Michigan high school student who sent me a series of questions as part of a project on fake news. Eleven states in the past five years have passed laws mandating media literacy in secondary education. The premise of these laws, which Michigan has yet to debate, is that an informed electorate must be able to consume reliable news and information in order to make rational decisions about their states and communities. The most recent development in this trend is not just examining media in general, such as movies and popular music, but news in particular. This has given rise to discussions about news literacy, a growing field in academia that seeks to develop curriculum at both the secondary and higher education levels aimed at equipping our future generations with the skills necessary to thrive in a chaotic information ecosystem.

What is fake news?

Fake news is journalism that those in positions of power and authority disagree with. We now talk in terms of fake news, false news and mistaken news. Fake news, as used by President Trump and others, is an attack on established media for reporting things that they believe make them look bad. False news is information written and produced to look like traditional news reports but is actually designed to persuade or deceive. The U.S. Senate released a report recently on the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency, which created hundreds of social media accounts and created tens of thousands of false posts in order to divide and mislead the American public. Mistaken news is simply that, mistakes. News organizations sometimes make mistakes. These are sometimes pounced on as evidence that all media is “fake.”

How has the manipulation of mass information been untrue in the past, before the word “fake news”?

There have been many episodes in the past where information has been twisted or outright fabricated. Our second president John Adams was noted for his hostile attitude (and actions) toward the opposition press. Though he did not use the term “fake news,” he regularly criticized the partisan press for distorting facts. And they often did.

What has been your personal experience with “fake news” as a journalist? How were you able see it affect your profession?

When I was a daily working journalist, the phrase was not commonly used. But, myself and the outlets for which I worked were often criticized for being wrong, twisting the truth, being partisan, and so on. This comes with the business. Truth tellers are rarely welcomed, but most people understand they are essential. Even countries where democracy has not yet taken root understand that truth – defined in the journalistic context as verifiable fact that presents a situation or issue fairly and accurately – is the foundation of a civil society.

How is the idea of fake news affecting the media?”

There was an initial effect on mainstream media when President Trump became the Republican nominee and a major part of his campaign message was pointing a finger at the mainstream press and calling journalists “fake news.” The media, too often in my view, tried to fight back by saying, “We are not fake news and you are destroying democracy by saying so.” Many politicians throughout the years have used the press as a target. Trump, in the age of social media, has been particularly good at it. But, overall, the media seems to have settled back into its more helpful mode of reporting what they find out and ignoring many of the critics.

How do journalists battle “fake news”?

Journalists, in my view, can best fight the concept of fake, or false, news by staying true to what we have always done, follow the core ethics of our profession, as stated by the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics: Seek truth; Be Accountable; Minimize Harm, and Act Independently. Those values, I am confident, will outlast any enemies of the truth.

Do journalists in this time have it harder than before?

Well, not harder per se, but more precarious. The Digital Age, especially and including social media, has shattered the traditional business model. Doing journalism is no more difficult than before, but there is less profit in it. That means fewer jobs in traditional news but far more jobs in more generic media. That is a problem society needs to address.

What does it take for someone to be a journalist in this time?

We are living in a period of generalization, by which I mean journalists not only need to be competent in the traditional disciplines of writing and gathering information but also in visual and digital skills. This is different from when I was in college, when you crafted yourself as either a reporter, editor or photographer. This means a university education is all the more important.

How does the idea of fake news affect the audience?

This is the essential question. Social media is not going away, though I suspect it will change over time. Skills once left to editors and producers now must be used by the audience. These include critically analyzing sources, understanding how things work and how previous information fits into new information. It is vital the audience understand the difference between trusted journalism and something designed to look like trusted journalism. If society is to govern itself through elected leaders, information used to make decisions about those leaders must be fair, accurate and true. This only comes from journalism.

How do you think we should try to see the media in the future?

This is a difficult question. The media is there to inform, enlighten and entertain us. How we use that source is up to each of us. If we fail to put in the effort to educate ourselves or lack the will to exercise our minds, we will be trapped in the information silos we build for ourselves. We will never experience the thrill of discovery or the challenge of a new idea that shatters our preconceptions. We must be the master of our information, not the other way around. Russian troll factories only have influence if we fail to think. We must think.

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Ed Simpson is an associate professor of digital journalism and public affairs at CMU. He spent 19 years in the news business and earned his doctorate in journalism from Ohio University. He is the author of Rise of the Audience: News, Public Affairs and the Public Sphere in a Digital Nation, which explores what happens in communities when daily journalism retreats.

“The Naked Sphere: Trolls, Fake News and Other Audience Shenanigans” (November 7)→

Join us on November 7 for a panel discussion on how CMU faculty are researching what happens in the public sphere; how consumers react to digital advertising; the impact of presidential rhetoric, “fake news,” and conspiracy on YouTube; and other matters. Panelists include Dr. Edward Hinck, Dr. Jinhee Lee, Dr. Shelly Hinck, and Dr. Zulfia Zaher. See the event page for full details.

→ Open event flier