Fake News Article Summary
"A question for a dystopian age: what counts as fake news"
The article starts by comparing our current world with that of dystopian novels such as; Brave New World, 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. The article also mentions how popular these novels are in the current world. 1984 and Brave New World are now commonly purchased books on amazon and The Handmaid's Tale has had a popular TV adaptation that is popular in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
The article then goes on to discuss the Grenfell Tower tragedy and how fake news had surrounded that tragedy. After the tragedy suspicion aroused that the media was under reporting the number of dead. A blog named Skwawkbox ran a story claiming that an official DA notice had been issued to prevent the media from reporting the facts. The article then goes on to mention how the Telegraph accused left-wing blogs of ramping up tension. They did this under the headline "Corbyn supporters spread 'fake news' about Grenfell Tower death toll" The article mentions of this lack of knowledge for the public to what is true and what is 'fake' is dangerous and is leading to the public losing a vital part of their democracy.
The article then goes on to mention another piece of fake news that was a story about Hilary Clinton and thousands of bogus votes that was made up by a 23 year old who earned $5,000 for making the news.
After that the article looks at the other side of the spectrum. The article goes on once again to mention 1984 and more specifically "Big Brother" from 1984. The article states that in 1984 the truth was whatever Big Brother wanted to be and compares this to US president Donald Trump and how he is constant;y calling news he disagrees with fake news without any evidence to back his claims. The article also goes on to say that it believes that honest mistakes can not be counted as fake news and rather should be seen as mistakes.
The article then goes on to mention how our public are losing trust in the news and media. A YouGov survey of 1600 British adults found that 61% agreed that the term 'fake news' should be used to describe misleading and untrue news.
The article ends by stating that a democracy depend on an informed republic and totalitarian regimes on fake news. The article then goes on to mention dystopian novels one last time mentioning how the best of dystopian novels offer warning for our current and future times.
