The Fake News' Ecosystem

Screening, sieving and sorting through the massive amount of information created and shared online is challenging, even for the experts. 

Just talking about this ever-shifting landscape is confusing, with terms like “misinformation,” “disinformation” and “hoax” getting mixed up with buzzwords like “fake news”. 

“Fake news” is a term that has come to mean different things to different people. 

At its core, we are defining “fake news” as those news stories that are false: the story itself is fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or quotes. Sometimes these stories may be propaganda that is intentionally designed to mislead the reader, or may be designed as “clickbait” written for economic incentives (the writer profits on the number of people who click on the story). 

The universe of “fake news” is much larger than simply false news stories. Some stories may have a nugget of truth, but lack any contextualizing details. They may not include any verifiable facts or sources. Some stories may include basic verifiable facts, but are written using language that is deliberately inflammatory, leaves out pertinent details or only presents one viewpoint. 

"Fake news" exists within a larger ecosystem of mis- and disinformation and hoaxes. 

Misinformation is perhaps the most innocent of the terms – it’s misleading information created or shared without the intent to manipulate people. An example would be sharing a rumor that a celebrity died, before finding out it’s false. 

Disinformation, by contrast, refers to deliberate attempts to confuse or manipulate people with dishonest information. Often, it is coordinated across multiple social media accounts and may also use automated systems, called bots, to post and share information online. Disinformation can turn into misinformation when spread by unwitting readers who believe the material. 

Hoaxes, similar to disinformation, are created to persuade people that things that are unsupported by facts are true. For example, the person responsible for the celebrity-death story has created a hoax. 

Though many people are just paying attention to these problems now, they are not really new – and they even date as far back to ancient Rome. 

Around 31 BC, Octavian (left), a Roman military official, launched a smear campaign against his political enemy, Mark Antony. This effort used, as one writer put it, “short, sharp slogans written on coins in the style of archaic Tweets”. 

His campaign was built around the point that Antony was a soldier gone awry: a philanderer, a womanizer and a drunk not fit to hold office. It worked. Octavian, not Antony, became the first Roman emperor, taking the name Augustus Caesar. 

In the 21st century, new technology makes manipulation and fabrication of information even simpler. Social networks make it very easy for uncritical readers to dramatically amplify falsehoods peddled by governments, populist politicians and dishonest corporations.

Consider the Western media's twisted reporting on China. It's mostly fake news, a veritable combination of misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes. And that's because they have a sinister and spiteful mission – to unabashedly promote America's geopolitical agenda.

My take-home message is clear: Be cognizant and learn to recognize misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes because it helps you to stay better informed about what’s really happening.