Social and Cultural Issues of Interactive Digital Media

Social and Cultural Issues of Interactive Digital Media 1
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES OF INTERACTIVE DIGITAL MEDIA
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Social and Cultural Issues of Interactive Digital Media 2
Background
Research has shown that sensationalism has in most cases sold well. As early as the
nineteenth century, that is during the dawn of modern newspapers although their work was to
tout news story and exposes, but it led to a rise in fake news getting into circulation. For
instance, at around 1835, the New York Sun “Great Moon Hoax” made a claim that there was
an alien civilization on the moon, which made the Sun become a profitable and leading
newspaper. In this sense, it means that false as well as distorted information is not a new
thing but has been there for more than one decade. According to Allcott, and Gentzkow,
(2017), false and distorted news has been part of the media history long before the recent
emergence of social media (p. 213). False and distorted information has been there since the
establishment of the printing press, and it is what sells tabloids. There are numerous instances
of fake news in history. For example, Nazi publicity machines to establish anti-Semitic fervor
utilized false report. In this sense, false statement played a significant part in catalysing the
illumination, when the false Catholic Church description regarding the 1775 Lisbon
Earthquake provoked Voltaire to talk contrary to the supremacy of religion. On the same
note, in the 1800s, the United States, chauvinistic sentiment resulted in the printing of false
reports regarding the African Americans as individuals that led to crimes and deficiencies
(Mustafaraj, and Metaxas, 2017, p. 235).
Towards the end of the 19th century that is the 1890s, William Hearts and Joseph
Pulitzer were competitive publishers of newspapers that contested over the viewers using
exaggeration and broadcasting fictitious stories as if they were fact. This exercise was
unmasked during the "yellow journalism." Indeed, the skeptical news by these two publishers
played a significant part amongst prominent states in the United States into the Spanish-
American Warfare of 1898. In the end, there was a counter attack due to a lack of editorial
veracity, whereby the community made a demand for a more reliable and objective source for

Social and Cultural Issues of Interactive Digital Media 3
news (McNair, 2017). As a result of the public demands for more reliable and unbiased
bulletin sources, it fashioned a niche which gave The New York Times that took over in the
twentieth century. For that reason, the yellow journalism became less popular; however, with
the emergence of web-based news broadcast, it has brought it all back in full force. A critical
motivator that led the newspapers in the 1890s involvement in yellow broadcasting is the
same reason that has led to the establishment of fake news in the modern world. Hobbs
(2013) argue that the exaggerated story has shocking headlines to draw the attention of
people so that it can sell and promote the sale of an advert. Typically, in the form of old-
fashioned news mass media, a majority of the individuals have learned well compared to
taking shameful news articles more earnestly as if they used to do in the height of yellow
journalism period. In the recent past, tabloids such as The New York Sun and The National
Enquirer as well as the fad magazines such as The Wet Dog and The Freak are typically
referred to as sources of false news. At the same time, individuals have started to
acknowledge the imitation news inventions on the World Wide Web and television featuring
satirical and sarcastic and current accounts for events that are not real.
Despite the fact that the administrative practise has a long past of propaganda and
prevalent misconceptions, information on social media has led to an extensive alarm over the
recent past. For instance, before the United States 2016 elections, and after the election, a
substantive number of adults in the United States were exposed to untrue news. According to
surveys, most of the individuals that read these stories believed them as genuine. Indeed, a
large number of people in the United States dispute that false news played a crucial part in
the 2016 polls as well as in the present ongoing administrative crises and divisions, which
have kept an eye on it (Flynn, Nyhan, and Reifler, 2017, p. 128). Consequently, as a reaction,
Facebook and other social networking corporations have come up with various algorithmic
and transformative strategy to restrict the spreading of incorrect information. However, the

Social and Cultural Issues of Interactive Digital Media 4
evidence regarding the effectiveness of these efforts to restrict the spread of false news
remains limited. Recent studies have indicated that false content is still a significant problem
on Facebook regardless of the recent transformations to the news platform feed system that
was implemented in 2018 (Giglietto, Iannelli, Rossi, and Valeriani, 2016). A considerable
number of articles have been rated falsely among leading fact-finding companies have not
been highlighted in Facebook's platform (Young, 2017). On the same note, there are still
some key fake broadcast sites that have faced limited or no deterioration in Facebook
involvements since 2016. Currently, Facebook’s superseded approach of dwindling erroneous
stories as “disputed” has been shown to decline the alleged precision of identified headlines
modestly. Nonetheless, some studied argue that the existence of cautions is likely to cause
untagged fabricated stories to be viewed as more precise. According to media commentators,
the strive to counter misinformation using fact-checking is not working; hence,
misinformation is becoming more and more unstoppable. This paper will discuss several
aspects in relation to fake stories like defining fake news and its origin, the evolution of fake
news, the influence of fake news to the society and media companies and technology
companies.
Fakes News
Gelfert (2018) describe fake news as evidence that is verifiably and deliberately
falsely designed to manipulate individuals’ perceptions about reality. In most cases, fake
news has been perpetrated to influence politics and promote advertisements. However, fake
news has become a strategy used to stir and amplify social conflict. Indeed, stories that are
not true that have intentionally mislead audience have resulted in growing mistrust amongst
Americans. It has been noted that in certain instances of suspicion, it has led to protest and
incivility over imaginary events and even violence (Rubin, Chen, and Conroy, 2015).