This week’s reading by McIntyre Lee is about post-truth. McIntyre,2018 describes post-truth as “in the sense that truth has been eclipsed— that it is irrelevant”. He reflects on this idea by using the example of Donald Trump’s inauguration and his often speeches that include many dramatic often disinformation knowledge he puts on his audience. In that way, he reflects how truth can sometimes be “shaded, selected, and presented within a political context that favours one interpretation of truth over another”.In a way that can be done purposely to give one more power and admiration. He also describes that post-truth is not the only way people can spread disinformation it can also happen in three other ways. A term which he refers to as “false-hood”a term which he describes as unconsciously spreading false information.”Willful ignorance” is when we know something is certainly not true but still go ahead and share it. and lastly lying which is “when we tell a falsehood with intent to deceive.”
Disinformation is something that’s been happening for centuries seeing often as a way to twist and form a certain political view. An example of this is in 1782 famously Benjamin Franklin worked with Boston newspapers to create a false narrative regardless of Native Americans. The paper claimed that the British hired Native Americans to scalp soldiers and civilians. This was widely spread in other newspapers creating a negative for Native Americans and hate towards them. The reason for this false narrative was to build sympathy for the American Revolution and Benjamin Franklin chose to pin the minority group of the country to that. Disinformation in a way was more dangerous then because there wasn’t any research that individuals could do regardless of fact check making it believable to anyone. In Mclntyre’s 2018 post-truth reading this could be considered deliberately lying, done to gain control and sympathy from his country in times of conflict.
Disinformation in recent years has been expanded through the growth of social media outlets and fake news websites. An example of one of many disinformation news after the inauguration of Donald Trump is a fake news report published in May 2017 on the website before its news which went viral all over social media titled “Trump just sent Michelle Obama a bill she’ll never be able to pay in her lifetime”. People sharing the article used willful ignorance (Mclntyre ,2018) as a way to spread disinformation regardless of the amount of money Michelle Obama spends regularly and how she is losing all her money from excessive spending. The article states that Trump has ordered her to send a bill worth 11 billion dollars for everything she spends using government money. This ridiculous fake news spread fast into all media outlets having many believe it was the truth. Before its news website, is known to have many random uneducated authors publishing news without any licences. Their news website is known as fake with outrageous and dramatic thumbnails but it was never stated as false news when it was shared with other media outlets making it viewed as a disinformative article.
REFERENCES:
McIntyre, L 2018, Post-Truth, MIT Press, Cambridge. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [9 March 2024].
Harrington, H.T. (2015a) Propaganda warfare: Benjamin Franklin fakes a newspaper, Journal of the American Revolution. Available at: https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/11/propaganda-warfare-benjamin-franklin-fakes-a-newspaper/ (Accessed: 09 March 2024).
Fader, C. (2017) Fact check: Did Donald Trump send Michelle Obama a Bill?, The Florida Times-Union. Available at: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/reason/2017/05/27/fact-check-did-donald-trump-send-michelle-obama-bill/15362818007/ (Accessed: 08 March 2024).
Libguides: Misinformation & Fake News: Case Studies & Examples (Jun 27, 2023 ) Case Studies & Examples – Misinformation & Fake News – LibGuides at Central Washington University. Available at: https://libguides.lib.cwu.edu/c.php?g=625394&p=4391900 (Accessed: 08 March 2024).