What is fake news anyway?
Published: 24 May. 2023, 19:57
The author is the head of the Innovation Lab of the Joongang Ilbo.
In the United States, abortion is a controversial issue. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the abortion ban was not unconstitutional. Since then, the red states have been pushing for legislation to strengthen abortion bans.
It is estimated that mothers who die from abortion procedures outside hospitals account for about 4.7 percent to 13.2 percent of all maternal deaths. Let’s say a media outlet wrote an exaggerating story about how “abortion kills mothers — as many as 13.2 percent of maternal deaths result from abortion.” Would people think the news is true or false?
Researchers at Boston University presented test participants with both scientific facts and distorted articles with arbitrary identification of media sources in order to find how they judge them. Regarding the same news, they were more likely to think a story was fake when it came from a media outlet representing a different political view. The results mean that personal prejudice and political tendencies are involved when people judge if something is real or fake.
Fake news has become a global problem since the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The election was shaken by the mass distribution of fake news slandering a candidate. Donald Trump, who won the election, attacked the media critical of him as fake news. He put the fake news frame on the established media.
In 2017, four international organizations, including the United Nations, declared that regulations based on the ambiguous concept of fake news do not meet the international standards for restrictions on the freedom of expression.
In a 2018 report titled “A multi-dimensional approach to disinformation,” the European Commission recommended the use of the term “disinformation” instead of “fake news.” There are various types of disinformation, such as images and videos.
The European Commission expressed concern that the term “fake news” could lead to the misconception that false information is limited to news reports and that it could suppress the freedom of the press, as many politicians attack unfavorable reports as fake news.
The Korea Press Foundation recently set up a counseling center for reporting damage from fake news. It’s part of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s “all-out war to combat fake news,” said the president a day after he said fake news was threatening democracy. I hope Yoon defines fake news again.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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