my neighbour, the conspiracy theorist. has fake news manipulated the masses?
So I live in Byron Bay aka the anti-vaccination capital of Australia. At first when I had read this statement I wasn’t sure about it’s validity with all of the Hollywood newcomers and bougie beach babes, however as I have lived here through the COVID-19 pandemic and watched the tourism industry die, I have seen the town unravel and the ugly truth is for somewhere so beautiful, this is the epicentre of a growing movement of mainstream media distrust and it reflects the damaging effects of fake news manipulating the masses.
We are currently in a statewide lockdown in NSW with thousands of COVID-19 cases emerging each day and yet our fight to a more free way of living is by battling the anti-vaccination movement, I never in my time thought I would write those words.
Recently neighbour, a kind hearted old lady, leaned over the fence one day to tell me about the news she had been reading, I looked up in disbelief as she spouted conspiracy theories, I asked her what the news source was and when she said the name I immediately questioned it’s credibility.
It made me think, are people really that gullible that they believe everything they read on the internet…
I got researching and unravelled a shocking 56% of Facebook users can’t recognise fake news that aligns with their beliefs. (Djordjevic 2021) and many individuals don’t even question the authorship of the information they find online. Let me tell you something people!! Just because you read it on the internet does not mean it’s true!!!
With global distrust of mainstream media dropping an alarming 8.8% over the last year between 2020-2021 (Djordjevic 2021), we can see patterns emerging with the general population looking for more alternative sources of information to find their world news. With a the majority turning to social media platforms and the internet to source their information, people are being lead astray with the spread of misinformation and micro-targeted information from fake news.
So what is fake news and how do we know it is fake news?!
Fake news can mostly be distinguished by characteristics of bias and objectivity, it is often driven by opinion or a story which people then re-share and can potentially become viral without checking it’s authority or credibility.
I must say at time point, I am grateful for the fantastic education I have received that has taught me Metzgers Criteria, a theory to help distinguish the credibility of online material. Metzger argues that in order to deem a piece of information credible we must look at the accuracy by cross referencing and looking to the authorships credibility as a writer, the publishing date to distinguish whether or not it is current and relevant information, then by observing if the written piece is bias or factual and by monitoring how covered the issue is. This criteria would be helpful for those currently trying to source relevant information online if you do decide to go astray from mainstream media.
Mainstream media has been disrupted by the rise of misinformation due to fake news manipulating the masses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is partially because in December of 2019 when COVID-19 began to rapidly spread throughout the world, mainstream media sources could only provide the public with what they knew and with scientists scrambling to find the answers there was a gap in the media. This crucial time in the beginning of the pandemic created a platform for fake news and it spread just as rapidly as COVID-19. The harmful effects of misinformation around the pandemic has created the anti- vaccination movement.
The anti-vaccination movement against COVID-19 is a direct result of misinformation, it operates as a premise to encourage individuals to question scientific authority, yet these very individuals do not question the credibility of the information they have sourced online. The anti-vaccination movement is dangerous because it has installed fear and anxieties in people around taking the vaccine and has contributed to the spiralling effects and spread of fake news and information around the virus. During the pandemic an Australian anti-vaccination facebook group grew 300% according to the Australian institute of science. The threat of these movements is at the risk of public safety, by participating through these movements individuals are not only downplaying the risks of the virus but also endangering their friends, family and co-workers. Dr Greg Nyilasy from the university of Melbourne offers an analogy between the way we watch health campaigns for smoking and alcohol consumption and the way we consume news and information. “We have a tendency to downplay factual information that is threatening. This is something we’ve seen before with other health campaigns, such as on the dangers of cigarettes and alcohol consumption. Some people block out the real threat of COVID-19 by downplaying the risk, paying attention only to favourable pieces of information, for example, “I’m young, so this virus can’t hurt me” or “It’s no worse than the flu”. (Nyilasy 2021)
Luckily the Australian Institute of Science has put together a guide for the science behind immunisation found on the Australian Government department of health you can access this information by following this link: https://www.health.gov.au/news/the-science-of-immunisation-your-questions-answered
Through finding credible and reliable sources of information as individuals we can contribute to a more educated and well informed society and stop the spread of fake news by checking our sources before we repost!
References|
Department of Health. 2021. The science of immunsation your questions answered. [online] Available at: <https://www.health.gov.au/news/the-science-of-immunisation-your-questions-answered> [Accessed 25 August 2021].
Djordjevic, M., 2021. 27 Alarming Fake News Statistics [The 2021 Edition]. [online] Letter.ly. Available at: <https://letter.ly/fake-news-statistics/> [Accessed 20 August 2021].
Judd, B., 2021. It's known as Australia's 'anti-vaxx' capital, but one group of locals are determined to change the narrative. [online] Abc.net.au. Available at: <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-14/mullumbimby-anti-coronavirus-vaccination-changing-narrative/13109238> [Accessed 21 August 2021].
Metzger, M., 2007. Making Sense of Credibility on the Web: Models for Evaluating Online Information and Recommendations for Future Research. [online] Research Gate. Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220435471_Making_Sense_of_Credibility_on_the_Web_Models_for_Evaluating_Online_Information_and_Recommendations_for_Future_Research> [Accessed 21 August 2021].
Nyilasy, D., 2021. Fake News in the Age of COVID-19. [online] Faculty of Business and Economics. Available at: <https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/fake-news-in-the-age-of-covid-19> [Accessed 24 August 2021].
Rand, D. and Pennycook, G., 2021. The Psychology of Fake News. [online] Science Direct. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661321000516> [Accessed 20 August 2021].
Tsirtsakis, A., 2021. newsGP - Online Australian anti-vaxx groups grow by nearly 300%: Report. [online] NewsGP. Available at: <https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/online-australian-anti-vaxx-groups-grow-by-nearly> [Accessed 20 August 2021].