Fake News is an unhealthy, popular trend which is negatively affecting society and our values
Recent high-profile cases of the Royals, Jesy Nelson from Little Mix and latterly Coleen Rooney utilising fake news to ultimately protect some semblance of privacy can help us all in understanding what this phenomena entails and how, if not combatting it, then learning to spot it and decide how many grains of salt these stories should come with. Theres no getting away from this era of fake news, but is the term bandied about too easily to dismiss anybodys views you simply dont agree with?
In order to understand it, its crucial to know what this actually means and what the implications are. That in itself is no easy task. The BBC distinguished two types of fake news, the first one being false stories that are deliberately published in order to mislead the reader. In this case, the author of these stories knowingly and dangerously fabricates news for distribution.
Additionally, fake news can also involve stories that have a degree of truth, however, are not completely accurate. And its easy to see why, no matter what your colours, the political landscape has been mired in the practice. Whether youre Trump, Corbyn or Johnson, its has sadly become too easy to dismiss things you dont wish to be accountable for under the banner of fake news.
But its not just at the sharp end of politics or celebrity that fake news becomes a reality. How many times have you shared a heart-rending picture of a particular plight on Facebook of a certain situation without even thinking about its validity? How many of us really wanted to believe, three years ago, that £350m a week would be spent on the NHS once we exited Europe. Its easily done and easy feel to feel angry when you become the victim.
Last month, the Royals assumed a particularly unRoyal standpoint on their relationship with the media as Meghan and Harry fought back against what they said were cruel, unfair media depictions of Meghan. They took the very rare step of issuing legal proceedings against the Mail on Sunday.
The publication and representation of Meghans private letter to her father showcases the manipulation of news, in the Royals view, to fit their own agenda. Let alone the publication of a deeply personal letter, moreover crucial passages that Meghan wrote were redacted from publication in order to fit this agenda, says the Windsors.
It was only a few weeks before, that Jesy Nelson from Little Mix was widely applauded for her brave and difficult BBC documentary, highlighting the negativity and mistruths she saw spread about her during her rise to stardom with the popular pop band. Within that, she has been championed for her efforts in highlighting media harassment. This poses the question: why can Jesy be supported, yet Meghan is condemned for making a similar stand?
Royal, celebrity, person on the street. We are, after all, only human. And then most recently, the tabloid world was in a spin over the spat between so-called WAGS, Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy. The former had deliberately set up an intricate web of fake accounts of her life in order to find out who had been leaking information about her to the newspapers. Coleen says it was…Rebekah Vardys account.
Embarrassing backtracking of those stories from certain tabloid newspapers aside, its very easy to see how quickly and how permanent these things can become once wider consumption in media and social media takes hold. Many might dismiss fake news as a bit of media or political horseplay, but once the genie is out of the bottle, it can be almost impossible to coax it back in.
