Following months of confusion as main and alternative sources of news publish masses of contradicting articles – particularly noticeable during both the UK Referendum campaign and the Trump presidential campaign – directly influencing individual’s ability to make informed decision, the UK Government’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee has launched an inquiry into ‘fake news’.
While greater access to information has fundamentally revolutionised the manner in which we receive information, it has also significantly influenced the democratic processes within many countries through facilitating the dissemination of inaccurate information, whether deliberately used to propagate particular views, or shared unwittingly as an assumed truth.
The call for evidence explores:
- ‘What is ‘fake news’? Where does biased but legitimate commentary shade into propaganda and lies?
- What impact has fake news on public understanding of the world, and also on the public response to traditional journalism? If all views are equally valid, does objectivity and balance lose all value?
- Is there any difference in the way people of different ages, social backgrounds, genders etc use and respond to fake news?
- Have changes in the selling and placing of advertising encouraged the growth of fake news, for example by making it profitable to use fake news to attract more hits to websites, and thus more income from advertisers?
- What responsibilities do search engines and social media platforms have, particularly those which are accessible to young people? Is it viable to use computer-generated algorithms to root out ‘fake news’ from genuine reporting?
- How can we educate people in how to assess and use different sources of news?
- Are there differences between the UK and other countries in the degree to which people accept ‘fake news’, given our tradition of public service broadcasting and newspaper readership?
- How have other governments responded to fake news?’
Mass dissemination of fake news has become a growing concern. A report released last year by the Stanford History Education Group suggested that students, for example, were unable to ‘distinguish credible sources from unreliable ones’ online, adding the risks this has on democracy because ‘disinformation about civic issues is allowed to spread and flourish’.
Indeed, universities have a key role in tackling this widespread phenomena by educating students to be able to think critically and identify misinformation through sound judgement and good analysis. Recently, however, Cambridge University scientists claimed to find a ‘psychological vaccine’ that could help ‘immunise’ the public against fake news. Sounding as a fake story in itself, the study suggests that if you ‘provide a cognitive repertoire that helps build up resistance to misinformation […] next time people come across it they are less susceptible.’ Just like a real vaccine, the idea is to expose people to small dose of misinformation making them less susceptible to fake news.
The deadline for written submissions is Friday 3 March 2017.