Fake news has always been a prominent part of media. We encounter it on a daily basis, may it be on WhatsApp, Facebook, local news outlets, and international news etc. The screenshot above is of an article written by “AsiaNews”, an article claiming the plausibility of COVID-19 having originated in China. Though the article never explicitly pretends to have proof of such allegations, it does not fall short in enforcing them. By utilizing the infographic provided by “eavia”, this article can be categorized into multiple factions (Steinberg, 2017). First, this article enforces propaganda, this is due to the political tension between the United States and China that has been escalating the blame game (Steinberg, 2017). Secondly, the title is in itself a clickbait (Steinberg, 2017). As shown in the screenshot, the title portrays a sense of certainty or existence of some sort of proof, though the article is quick to note that it lacks any semblance of such. Clickbait is useful to get clicks on the site, ultimately generating ad revenue (Steinberg, 2017). Thirdly, the article enforces a conspiracy theory revolving around the idea that China has some sort of political and economic gain from spreading the virus and succeeds at doing so considering the fear and anxiety revolving the virus around the world (Steinberg, 2017). Furthermore, the article specifies that all it says is speculation, thus making its theory unfalsifiable due to lack of proof to contest. Finally, in order to combat this spread of fake news, one of the most important game-changing factors according to Kumanyika (2018) is making sure that people have the tools to identify fake news, in other words be well versed in media literacy so they may think critically of fake news and disregard it directly.
References
Kumanyika, C. (2018). Pour en finir avec les fausses nouvelles. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t10ErbfwG14&feature=youtu.be
Steinberg, L. (2020). Infographic: Beyond Fake News – 10 Types of Misleading News – Sixteen Languages. Retrieved from https://eavi.eu/beyond-fake-news-10-types-misleading-info/
Milanese, R. (2020). The hypothesis of coronavirus originating from a laboratory in Wuhan is plausible. Retrieved from http://www.asianews.it/news-en/The-hypothesis-of-coronavirus-originating-from-a-laboratory-in-Wuhan-is-plausible-49550.html
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