Future Societies/ Global Citizenship

This article discusses the impact of fake news on global citizenship and IBM's internal rating system. It covers the rise of social media and fake news, how fake news is impacting global citizenship, and how it can influence a company's reputation. It also delves into the problems with IBM's internal rating system and the challenges it faces.

Running head: FUTURE SOCIETIES/ GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Future Societies/ Global Citizenship
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Table of Contents
Answer to Question 1......................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 2:.....................................................................................................................8
References:....................................................................................................................................16

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Answer to Question 1
The article put forward an insight into the disruption of the mainstream media by the
social media and the sudden flow of the fake news. Through the article, one can get an overview
of how the fake news is not only having a profound impact on the consumption of the news but
also on the various political processes. The article therefore tries to portray how the issues related
to the fake news relate to the Global Citizenship for corporations and individuals. The article
however commences with a discussion on the rise of social networks and fake news. In recent
times, there has been an emergence in the social media that is also acting as a means for
discovering news content. An average news site receives close to 7.5 percent referrals traffic
from one of the most popular social media site Facebook. The influence of social media has
rapidly spread through the newsroom and plays a key role in the manner in which the news
stories are broken, distributed and sourced thereby contributing to the speeding of news cycle.
The Rise of the Social Networks and Fake News:
The purpose of making new stories for entertaining or fooling people is not a new
concept. The arrival of the social media acted as a boon for the distribution of the fake stories
(Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). The presence of internet although has enabled the sharing of the
knowledge that the previous generations never could think but also acted as a medium where
fakeness prevailed faster than the actual truth. Research suggests that an increasing proportion of
the individuals receive rely on the news they receive from the social media thereby believing and
seeing information that is inaccurate but also made up. Besides social media, hundreds of news
website imitates newspapers, propaganda websites and other news medium for delivering fake
news. Such news website makes the fake news look legitimate by concentrating on the headline

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and the first few paragraphs. The motive behind publishing fake news remains in making huge
money through web advertising. Fake news is published initially as a hoax and after gaining
social attention, a story is written in a manner for making it seem real. From then on, it becomes
a chain of reaction (Tandoc, Lim & Ling, 2018). This is happening because; Journalists are
increasingly trying and writing innumerable stories with a motive for generating social attention
and traffic. The motive therefore lies in checking less and producing more.
How Fake News is Impacting Global Citizenship Particularly Individuals
The prevalence of fake news is gradually becoming a global concern viewed in the
context of the following countries
Impact of Fake News in United States:
In United States, Aleksandr Kogan, who worked for Strategic Communication
Laboratories (SCL) deleted the data he obtained from the personality test from Facebook and
inappropriately passed on to the third parties. However, there was fake news mentioning that
Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firms of SCL partnered with Donald Trump campaign in
leveraging the data of million of the Facebook users for targeting them with campaign material
and advertisements(Grassegger & Krogerus, 2017). Finally, with the revelation of the actual
report, there were suspension orders implemented for Strategic Communication Laboratories and
Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm.
Impact of Fake News in Germany:
The German politics increasingly expresses its concern about the impact of the fake news
on the federal elections (McCormick, 2017). Fake news is a serious threat to democratic process
of any country. One of the most prominent fake news hitting Germany has been the reports of

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13-year-old Russian girl named Lisa F raped by the refugees of Middle East in Berlin. The
German and Russian media reported allegations on her abduction on the way to school where the
rape took place. Later, the attack found fabricated when the Berlin police chief was quick in
pointing out that girl already knew the people and medical test proved that she has not been
raped.
This news had extensive coverage in various social media platforms that led to the
creation of a furor as hundreds of people took to street protests (Knight, 2016). The impact of the
news also led the foreign minister of Russia in accusing the German government in the deliberate
sweeping of the case under the carpet thereby heightening suspicion and causing trouble.
Impact of Fake News in France
France witnessed increasing cases of distortion and manipulation of news during the
periods of election. For instance, there was a distorted story that went into circulation by linking
the aspect of Muslim Brotherhood to the choice of the right presidential candidate of France
(Brattberg & Maurer, 2018). The circulated stories accused the presidential candidate Alain
Juppe on wanting to construct Mosque Cathedral in Bordeaux where he acted as a Mayor. The
story made round during the primary campaigns thereby leading to campaign against him.
Impact of Fake News in Brazil
Brazil also faced growing problem with the fake news whose importance grew as the
polarized political opinion in following closer re-election victory of the leftist president, Dilma
Rouseff in the year 2014 along with the controversial impeachment. In the year 2016, according
to BBC Brasil report, there were instances when the impeachment process followed by Rousseff
and her supporters got heated up leading to the publication of fake stories on Facebook

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(Connolly et al., 2016). There was also a fake stories ranging from a false claim made by the
federal police on verifying why the leftist was given $9 billion to why Friboi became the third
largest meat company with close to 90, 150 shares.
Impact of Fake News in Australia
Australia is a country not immune to the issues of the untruths spreading on social media
platforms like Facebook (Segal, 2016). Some issues in Australia represent lighting rods of
untruths compared to the others. Despite a lack of evidence, the repeated link drawn by the
politicians between terrorism and halal certification industry has been quite persistent until an
inquiry was carried out last year. Despite the enquiry, there were stories concerning over halal
certification that failed in masking rampant Islamophobia published in social platforms like
Facebook.
Impact of Fake News in China
Over a decade now, China has faced problem with fraudulent reporters and fake news.
People often present them as journalist and threat companies with a negative coverage in the
attempt for extorting money. Further, the fake news spread on the Facebook in run-up for the
election during the United States Presidential election also spread to China.
The Chinese authorities have clamped the concept of the fake news since they consider it
as harming the social cohesiveness with special focus on the spread of the rumors that influenced
either property prices or the stories of the government thereby increasing the antagonism
between the rural and the urban residents. China also issued fresh set of rules designed for
curbing number of the stories that used information from the social media (Howard & Hussain,
2013). China also forbids the use of imagination and conjecture for distorting facts.

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Impacts of Fake News in India
In India, after the introduction and the announcement of the new 2000 rupee note, the
Smartphones across the country went buzzing with a fake news that the new note would have a
surveillance chip installed that would be linked to the satellite with the power of tracking the
notes even 120 meters below the ground. Such claims were although debunked by the Reserve
Bank of country but spread through various social media platforms for migrating into the
mainstream news (PTI, 2018). Thus, the episode of 2000-rupee episode illustrated the impact of
the fake news in a country where media is creative with the journalistic standards falling short.
How Fake News Can Influence a Company’s Reputation:
In the era of social media and fake news there are certain lesser scrupulous business that
makes use of the deceptive tactics for smearing the rivals (Clark & Zhou, 2015). Nevertheless,
the companies responsible for spreading fake news against the competitors finally experience the
brunt of reputational damage and negative publicity.
This was examined via a real life case in South Korea when a customer found a dead rat
in the loaf of the bread manufactured by one of the popular bakery brands of the country.
However, the business of the company plummeted until a rival bakery whipped such fake story.
In a sudden instance, the offending franchise found itself not only in the hot seat with effective
online and media presence. Further, the credibility of the offending firm and the associated
management practice also comes under doubted (Etter, Ravasi & Colleoni, 2017). It was found
that although the fake story damaged the reputation of the victim company however, it led to
lasting and significant damage to the company that concocted the fake story. In other words, the

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damage to victim company lasted a year but the impacts of the offender lingered for over two
years.
To conclude, one can say that with time, businesses are adopting technologies for
detecting the fake news thereby becoming increasingly precise. Social media services like the
Google, Twitter and Facebook now has sophisticated algorithms for the detection of fake news.
This implies that there is an increasing probability of the fake news being caught. In a practical
and ethical sense, there is no need for it as the truth ultimately prevails

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Answer to Question 2:
The article provides an insight into the rating system of IBM. The company was found in
the year 1911 and by the year 1964, it became one of the leaders of the computing industry
across the world (ibm.com, 2018). However, the company had stagnated growth with net losses
close to $8 million by the year 1993. To overcome this and in turning the company around, Lou
Gerster, was hired who helped in transforming IBM from the vertically integrated manufacturer
of hardware to a company having varied business ranging from hardware, services and software.
Presently the company has close top 40000 employees with a total revenue generation of close to
$103 billion. The company also launched the agenda for the “Smarter Planet” which actually
represents the call for the world for rethinking the manner in which it works.
Nike Inc on the other hand launched in the year 2008 with close top 50000 product lines
across three product lines and represented one of the leading brands in athletic apparel, footwear
and equipment across the world (nike.com 2018). The brand Nike is the subsidiary of Nike Inc
having over thirty categories of products in consumer niches such as Basketball and Running.
The company earned revenue close to $18.6 billion out of which the brand Nike accounted for
almost 86 percent.
Problems with Internal Rating System of IBM
The internal rating system refers to the precondition for the management of advanced
credit risk where each of the financial institution expected for developing its own system of
rating. Each institution however faces different business ambience so each of the system has its
own specific design. The problems with the internal rating system of IBM include:

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Issues of Consumerism: IBM identified consumers being aware of the environmental,
safety and the energy attributes of any products (Wirt, 2017). The challenge lay in designing the
products in a manner that had increasing consumer interest and the environmental attributes in a
in a transparent, credible and comprehendible manner.
Issues of Credibility: This referred to earning the faith of the people when the industry is
portrayed as the key contributor to the problems related to the environment. IBM also observed
that there existed a lack of belief between the business and the business organizations and the
environmental organization (Holland & Albrecht, 2013). The challenge for IBM lay in the fact
that it would no longer be sufficient for the company to mention that it has practices and policies
that met law and the company performed well and was in compliance. Instead, the company had
to provide a proof.
Issues of Communication: Various corporate events like the chemical accident of Union
Carbide in India and the oil spill of Exxon Mobil had negatively influenced the perception of the
public regarding the companies (Beebe & Mottet, 2013). This called in for an increasing demand
for corporate disclosure. The challenge for the IBM lay in communicating the environmental
programs, objectives, policies and the results of the stewardship activities along with a mention
of the environmental impact that satisfied and anticipated such a demand.
Issue Related to Coordination: The complexity related to environmental issues along
with the increasing demand for the business in becoming more involved acts as another
challenge. Some issues related to the activities of the IBM whereas others were not (Foss &
Loasby, 2013). The company alleged that it faced vital challenges in coordinating te

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the worldwide posture on the issues that ranged from communications and actions to
contributions and support.
Issues of Regulation and Public Policy: There was a constant evolution and change of
the environmental regulation and policy. The primary challenge of Corporate Environmental
Affairs (CEA) had been in providing intelligence on such changes and requirements across IBM
thereby ensuring well communication across board (Henderson and Ponce, 2009). As an
international company, IBM also faced challenges in dealing with the regulations varying
geographically. The company also sought for speaking with a single voice on the policy matters.
Issues Related in Building Success Records: By the year 1990, IBM gathered series of
environmental accomplishments that helped in placing the firm ahead of the industry. The staffs
belonging to CEA felt that they have adopted the easier means of implementing changes such as
the reduction of the energy consumptions in the operations. The challenge however lies in
continuing to build the success records and in demonstrating the environmental leadership.
The IBM issues faced in the year 2009 have not been very different from the ones in the
1990s (ibm.com, 2018). In addition to the changes with the business of IBM, there persist newer
challenges that included the necessity of focusing on the improvement of environmental
performance of the supply chain thereby ensuring the fact that Environmental Management
System (EMS) proved effective for the IBM people in developing the innovative solutions for
the IBM clients.
Comparison of Use of Metrics at IBM and the use of Metrics by Nike
Use of IBM Metrics is as follows:

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 In Using Recycled Plastics in the Hardware Product of IBM:
The metrics tracked here includes the type of resin, treatment of recycled resin, and the
whole amount of the plastics that IBM procures for applying in hardware products. Through
the usage of the metrics, IBM was able to increase its goal of recycled plastic from 2 percent
in the year 1997 to 10 percent in the year 2001(ibm.com, 2018). The ability of meeting the 10
percent goal influenced hugely by decreasing the applications of the recycled plastics in the
products of the company that underwent major changes in the material use through the shift
from the plastic enclosure to the metal made enclosures.
Figure: Metric Performance Based on IBM’s Recycled Plastic Content Resin Usage
Source: (ibm.com, 2018)
 In Avoiding the Use of Powder Coatings and Volatile Organic Compounds:
In this aspect, IBM’s metrics lay in using the powder coatings instead of the liquid paints
used for close to ninety percent of it’s the decorative products.

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Figure: Metric Performance Based on Usage of Powder Coatings by IBM
Source: (ibm.com, 2006)
 In Minimizing the Environmental Impact of the End of Life (EOL) IT Products and
it’s Waste
Here the metrics includes the total amount of the End of Life (EOL) IT products and its
waste processed globally by IBM along with avoiding the use of incineration and landfills for
the disposition of the EOL IT products and its waste. IBM also offered take back program for
EOL IT product in Europe that it enhanced and extended over years. In present times, the
Global Asset Recovery Service organization put forward recovery solution of its assets to the
commercial customers in close to 57 countries.

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Figure: The EOL Management Result of IBM for the year 2007
Source: (Witik et al., 2013)
Use of Nike Metrics is as follows:
Compared to IBM, it is said that in spite of the varied sustainability initiatives the
environmental responsibility did not penetrate into the day-to-day business decision of Nike.
Hannah Jones and Mark Parker, the vice president of the Corporate Responsibility reporting and
the co-president of Nike brand initiated various performance metrics for Nike. The vice president
initiated the development of strategic approach towards the Corporate Responsibility (CR)
emphasizing the collaboration with the business units, value creation and strategic planning
(Henderson et al., 2009). Jones ensured setting up conceptual metric of Return on Investment or
‘ROI’ as the newer strategic compass of CR thereby emphasizing the fact that business decisions

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included both the corporate responsibility and financial returns. According to Jones, if the CR
delivers ROI then it helped the business in succeeding and improving the environmental and
social footprint. The VP also hoped that through organizing the CR around the ROI, it would
appear to be an intrinsic part of the business model along with sustainable growth and
profitability rather than appearing as an unwanted cost. There was necessary guidance from
Mark Parker as well. Thus, under the guidance of and the influence of the Parker, Jones along
with her team started in tackling the environmental footprint of Nike using the new strategy and
considered product design as the vital point for intervention. The insight of Parker as a designer
acted as the driving force behind the newer approach. The position at the beginning of the supply
chain offered great opportunity to the design function for designing the environmental issues.
Thus, Nike taught itself in designing shoes where they did not use the facial mask for handling
the toxic chemicals.
To conclude, it can be said that IBM’s use of metrics enabled it to develop products with
the consideration of their reusability and recyclability at the end of product life. It also enabled
the company in developing products by considering upgradability for extension of the product
life. By using metrics, IBM, is able to dispose a product at the end of its life. It also enables the
company in the development and manufacture of the recycled materials that is justifiable
technically and economically. IBM will also put forward improved products that are energy
efficient or have reduced consumption of energy. In addition, the use of metrics also allowed
IBM in minimizing the use of resources and the environmental impact through selecting
environment friendly materials, finishes and materials.
On the other hand, Nike achieved its sustainability goals through the formation of
Considered Group that represented a means for diffusing considered ethos of higher performance

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and greener products. At the same time, the group represented a toolbox, think tank, competitive
catalyst, internal consultancy, antenna and an innovative end of the sustainability aspect to
outside world whose mission remained in serving as the hub of design ethos.

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