Interesting explanation from the BBC of the BBC’s sinister and machiavellian attempt to brainwash schoolkids……note this is just another way to peddle the BBC’s own toxic messages about Trump whom they declare is falsely claiming the media is ‘fake news’ and is weaponising the term for his own illegitimate purposes, about ‘ fake news spikes around big news events, such as plebiscites that are too close to call.’.…ie Brexit and Trump’s election….
Nobody knows how big a problem fake news is, and many of those who talk about it have an incentive to inflate the threat.
As I’ve written before, for many people, fake news is a useful enemy. For Donald Trump, fake news is synonymous with a hostile media. By attacking the “fake news media”, Trump can motivate his base, obstruct scrutiny of his policies, and potentially undermine his opponents.
For ambitious politicians keen to flaunt their digital knowledge and boost their profile, the fake news phenomenon is a handy option.
For digital firms keen to display a social conscience, fake news provides an opportunity to clarify their purpose – “we’re technology companies, not media companies” – while showing that they do care, really, about democracy – even if their platforms are zones in which foreign autocrats interfere in domestic matters.
And for the mainstream media, which is suffering from a crisis of trust, seeing traditional business models turn into air, and completely failed to see the big stories of the past decade coming, the comparison with fake news is a way of making the case for professional journalists who go after the truth.
This is the context in which to see the BBC’s plans to tackle fake and false news through a new initiative, in which online mentoring and school visits (including from me) promote better judgement about misinformation online.
To resist them[the news fakers] requires knowledge (of the actual state of the world), intellectual tools (scrutiny to determine truth from falsehood), and courage (to call out liars).
This trinity, when combined, produces news literacy – and it is this, rather than fake news itself, that the BBC’s new initiative is aiming to promote.
Combating it requires an as yet unclear combination of action from governments, technology companies, and civil society more broadly.
It is within the last of these that this BBC initiative sits; and as the current trends in news accelerate, toward news that is more mobile, more social, and more partisan, I suspect the case for helping teenagers distinguish truth from falsehood will grow, even if – indeed especially if – believing there is such a thing as the truth becomes ever less fashionable.
It’s just a complete lie that ‘truth’ has become ever less fashionable…as if it ever was fashionable in the media. You didn’t see the BBC complaining when the Sun and the Times were supporting Labour with stories planted by Labour spinners such as Campbell and Baldwin. The idea that ‘echo chambers’ are new is total nonsense invented by the BBC to create alarm and fear about its biggest rival for news…the social media. People have always been in echo chambers that reinforce their ‘prejudices’…..how many vote as their fathers voted, how many only read a certain paper and how many would only vote for one party come what may…just look at the BBC now….so desperate to get a Labour government that they are prepared to hold their noses and cheerlead for someone who is basically a terrorist [ I make no distinction between those who support the use of violence and the ones who actually do it] and a marxist who would wreck the economy and create an incredibly violent and divided nation. The BBC bubble is the biggest echo chamber around.
Luckily the most of the BBC will be dead to the coming generation who grow up with smart phones; why on Earth subject yourself to BBC ‘news’ when you have magic in your pocket that allows you to do pretty much anything? Ideologues like the Beeb only succeed when they have a monopoly and they have lost that.
Plus they have squandered any trust they had through their disgraceful behaviour on Brexit and Trump, let alone all the terror et cetera which they thought best to totally ignore to our growing peril. It’s like when you have messed a girl around and you want to get back with her.
“How do I know you won’t change your mind again?”
And of course she never can because when you betray someone you cross the Rubicon. There is no way back now for the perfidious MSM now.
BB,
I wished that I agreed with you that the BBC will wither away but somehow I can’t believe it. The Hated corporation is an essential tool of the ruling liberal global elite in their control and exploitation of ordinary people. Unless and until this elite loses power the BBC will not only survive but it will grow and grow. We can already see that the elite are set on using the fake news story as an excuse to gain control of the internet which will soon mean that the range of news available on all devices will be narrowed down until the only news available is news that the elite approve of. The gap created by the censoring out of much of the current content will be filled by the likes of the BBC who will be given more tax payers money and have more influence over our lives.
We can see the power and ruthlessness of the elite in the way they are well down the road to thwarting Brexit and cutting President Trump off at the knees. I think that Brexit is a lost cause because the British people threw it away at the election. I’m not sure that the Tories would have delivered a clean Brexit even with a large majority but there was certainly more chance of that than there is with a minority government. Perhaps in the USA the American people will not make the same mistake and continue to wholeheartedly support DT and beat off the attacks by the elite. Hopefully the Poles and Hungarians stick with their democratic government Despite the attacks on them by the Brussels elites. If these things happen and the elites are defeated in the USA and Eastern Europe we may be saved from globalism. If not I think we are on a one way track and the BBC will be triumphalist mode. I hope I am being far too pessimistic .
Talking about brainwashing here is a story that the BBC hasn’t mentioned about a Pakistani bloke called khan who is currently visiting his homeland
UK should apologise to India over Jallianwala Bagh massacre: Sadiq Khan
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/uk-should-apologise-to-india-over-jallianwala-bagh-massacre-sadiq-khan
Pounce
If we were so bad why do so many come to live here ?
Brexit and Trump were indeed a shock to the Left who thought that we were all in their pockets. So this sort of response was to be expected.as they realise that there are adults still capable of independent thought. They need to get the children. .From Stalin to the Khmer Rouge Its been the Lefts modus operandi .I do wonder sometimes where Momentum will site their Killing fields..
“I do wonder sometimes where Momentum will site their killing fields.”
NHS hospitals
TBH – is there any difference between ‘fake news’ and ‘propaganda’? The latter of course the staple diet of left-wing authoritarian governments.
Guess what the current lead story is on the BBC’s children’s channel CBBC?
Australia introduces same-sex marriage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/42266654
Meanwhile on the BBC’s newsbeat channel for teenagers we have the following headline:
Porn star August Ames found dead
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/42265178/porn-star-august-ames-found-dead-at-home-in-california
There is also another newsbeat headline: The Big Food Porn Debate
Dear BBC – using a Google tool, which finds phrases in scanned books, I have found out that fake news has been around since 1810 before you existed. I would suggest rather than invest all this time in looking like the high priests of news and truth that you spend the time getting children to read as much as they can focusing on the likes of Carl Sagan, Douglas Murray, David Starkey, Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, Christopher Hitchens and your favorite George Orwell.
After reading and viewing these authors thoughts and opinions I believe that the children will have a better understanding of totalitarian views and freedom of thought and freedom of speech. I think you should then reveal how you as an organisation have failed in your remit to educate the news without bias. Using the site biasedbbc.tv to see your shortcomings and the different tactics to produce engineered news – the tools are: editing by replacing video with still images, cropping images, only showing partial video segments, ensure that the opinion you don’t want to hear is at the end of the interview so is cut short, skip the hard questions and of course just omit any story that contradicts the story you wish to tell.
Google Books Ngram Viewer: Search for “fake news”
Chwarae teg (fair play) MM.
A bit like introducing Income Tax (as a temporary measure)to support the war effort – against Napoleon????!!!!
That look to me like Google is not just picking up on the exact phrase “fake news”
It’s probably adding in the antonym “propaganda” as well
..hence it peaks in wartime
If I search on the word phone between 1800-1900 it comes up with lots of hits
but I don’e think anyone used that exact word much