When Fact-Checking and ‘BBC Standards’ Are Helpless: ‘Fake Newsworthy Event’ Manipulation and the Reaction of the ‘High-Quality Media’ on It

Abstract

Fact-checking and journalists professional standards usually are considered to be the best fail-safe against manipulations in media. However, we found that newsmakers are able to manipulate even the audience of so-called ‘high-quality media’ who practice all mentioned approaches. To prove this we have refined the concept of ‘pseudo-event’, introduced by D.J. Boorstin, by defining the term ‘fake newsworthy event’ as an event created by newsmakers, that is high-profile and attractive for media, but the only or particular aim of these actions is an agenda-setting, and this aim is not obvious from the origin of the action. Namely, the member of parliament may file some bill realizing that it cannot be adopted and trying just to shape the public opinion. Or some person may claim against a celebrity or businessman having no chance to win at trial. On the example of Ukrainian ‘high-quality media’ we showed that journalists usually do not take into account whether some topics are launched just for manipulating agenda-setting. To prove that we gathered the data about publications focused on such topics in Ukrainian ‘high-quality media’, we provided their discourse analysis, and compared the result with experts’ evaluations of ‘media quality’ and ‘artificiality rate’ of the topic. We have not found correlations between ‘artificiality’ of the topic and the number of publications. Recommendations were elaborated for the media workers if they want to avoid this type of manipulation.

Reviewing Stranger on the Internet: The Role of Identifiability through “Reputation” in Online Decision Making

“…On the other, reputation "persuasiveness" could be useful for coping with the typical free-riding and social-loafing dynamics of social virtual systems. Therefore, a wise use of identifiability features within virtual environments may help in effectively managing online interaction (e.g., Web Projects) [62] and to contrast some dysfunctional dynamics appearing in public information [63].…”

Text Analysis Methods for Misinformation–Related Research on Finnish Language Twitter

“…Thus, investigating the spread of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and propaganda in the discourse of Finnish Twitter is a relevant research topic. Previous research has also identified that users have difficulty in recognizing manipulation of information in news [20], which supports the need for further research on the topic. Methods to study and analyze social media data, also regarding misinformation, are currently evolving alongside social media applications.…”

“…The only two differences are the lack of objectivity, including the opinion of their author(s) and the value of impact because fake news sites focus on trivial stories [29]. Thus, the recipient, journalist, or reader of a news article usually cannot recognize the manipulation [20].…”

“…A third of Finns tend to trust or totally trust news and information they receive through online social networks and messaging apps, according to the Flash Eurobarometer [19]. Therefore, investigating the spread of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and propaganda on Finnish Twitter is a relevant research topic, as it has been recognized that the recipient (whether journalist or reader) usually cannot recognize the manipulation [20].…”

FMFN: Fine-Grained Multimodal Fusion Networks for Fake News Detection

“…Due to its convenience, people are increasingly seeking out and consuming news through social media. However, the convenience also facilitates the rapid spread and proliferation of fake news [2], which has a devasting impact on individuals and society [3].…”