The news platform has evolved over the centuries starting from the printing press, born around 1440 until today. Now we live in the new era where we have the Internet which connects people from all over the world regardless of time and distance in a short period of time. We cannot overestimate how the media influences people through various sources such as radio, television, social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.). There are so many news channels and so much news being released every day. Among these news, we can never know whether the news that has been published or made known to the people is reliable or not. Some sources may provide the facts and some may even manipulate them to increase viewership. In today's world, these media are more concerned with increasing viewership and profitability instead of conveying the facts to the people. At some point, we cannot tell whether the media is telling the truth or deceiving the people. One such source may be television, which has now specialized in providing “fake news” to people. However, there is no telling how good or bad “fake news” is as it depends on the viewer and the media providing the news. So, how serious is the problem of “fake news”? Let's see what Nietzsche and Baudrillard would say about “fake news”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay More recently though, fake news has become available practically everywhere with legitimate news publishers like National Report and Empire News flooding the internet with fake stories, somehow impacting people and politicians too. What makes viewers believe that news story is the way fake news stories are framed and headlined, making them appear more credible. While widespread fake news may not pose a serious problem, it has had a real impact on people and shaken the general public's trust in the media. For example, the news that the United States will destroy all nuclear warheads, that Israel will dismantle settlements; Recognize Palestinian Statehood, Sarah Palin Calls for Invasion of Czech Republic, and Republican Bill Calls for Immigrants to "Americanize" Their Names. All of these headlines seem plausible to many readers because they were published on websites that resembled legitimate news outlets' sites and contained information that many people want to believe. But none of these stories were real. In contrast, fake news intentionally misleads readers and makes it difficult for people to distinguish between fact and fiction. Nietzsche, however, would emphasize the relativity of knowledge, truth, belief systems, and moral systems to different cultures and different historical times and places. According to him, 'reason' is not entirely convincing as a vehicle for revealing truth, but perhaps it is the 'idea of truth' itself that is more of a problem than how we reveal it. He has a different view of the truth. Instead of looking for the complete truth, why not look for possibilities? In this context perhaps you don't disapprove of fake news? There are chances that what was assumed or considered to be fake news may turn out to be true at times. This is possible in the way news is processed and delivered to viewers. Nietzsche does not really believe in complete truth, but only in “perspective”. He rejects the idea of truth and states that there are no objective truths. So, what becomes truth is the perspective that prevails, and no perspective can be shown as absolute truth. Thereperspective is just an individual's subjective judgment of how things are and how people see them. They are the people who first develop their own opinions, beliefs and prejudices and then use rational philosophy as a means to justify their view. For example, there are two ads broadcast at the same time. One is an advertisement for chocolate milkshakes and another is a strawberry milkshake. Each of the ads is so specialized in how they try to convince people that their choice is better than another. Somehow, people will have a different view when it comes to choices, but if one of the advertisements (say chocolate milkshake) gets more viewers and more reviews, people will be led to believe that it is the truth. Fake news gets traction because it's really hard to know what the real news is, and if they get enough people supporting it, fake news can become real news. It is difficult for us to distinguish false from truth as the false news itself becomes ambiguous. For example, in a news ad it presents a perfect table in every way and people might be manipulated that, yes, this is the immutable perfect table and I should get one. But is that table really perfect? It might seem perfect as it was presented to people in the commercial but in reality that table needs to change in terms of colors and shapes. Another example of McDonald's advertisement, where they show you the biggest and most delicious Mac burger but once you go to the store, you may find it completely different from the advertisement. The announcement may last a couple of weeks and a month, but the store menu will continue to change. Even after the store's menu has changed over the years, it will always remain McDonald's. So, the point here is that regardless of the change in McDonald's menu and staff, it will still be called or seen as McDonald's, but we know that some things have changed in the process, but no one really cares or talks about it. You can't even think about this unless you start thinking philosophically. Nietzsche also states that just as words are arbitrary, so are perspectives and so is truth. For example, one news item states that “from 2018 there will be no more robberies in any shop or elsewhere as security measures have been strictly implemented.” This might create the stereotype in people's minds that there will be no more thieves, but is this really possible? Nietzsche would say that we cannot step outside of our own perspective, we can only accept what seems convincing to us, while knowing that it may not necessarily be true in any objective or absolute sense. In Baudrillard's theory, he talks about stimulation and hyper-reality. In reality it doesn't talk much about truth but about simulation, that is, the assumptions and expectations that people already have in mind. Hyperreality is the idea that there is a world where everything is experienced through media, our impression of reality is in fact completely removed from actual reality. However, what represents truth is not true at all, because it is so disconnected from anything empirical in the first place. At first glance, the idea seems ridiculous, not least because it is so disturbing. One of the most popular references to Baudrillard's idea is the film "The Matrix" (where a copy of the simulation is used as a prop). In the film, the world that seemed real soon turns out to be a simulation. A character mentions the book, calling it 'the desert of the real'. Despite its disturbing qualities, and if one accepts Baudrillard's assertion that the real does not exist at all, it is easy to accept his observation. In a mediated world, where everything is represented or reproduced rather than actuallyexperienced, it won't take long for notions of truthfulness to become questionable. In fact, questioning reality is now in itself a current thing. Baudrillard developed his simulation theories before the Internet dominated news and media. However, this makes his argument much easier to make. Now, with a few tweaks, we can use a standard WordPress theme to make a website look as seemingly authentically new as the New York Times. On top of that, Twitter and Facebook offer ready-made models for news production and dissemination, making it ridiculously easy to pretend to be real news producers. In the case of Facebook, the platform is said to be designed to encourage self-referentiality, uploading a video to the platform appears to drive more engagement than linking to it on YouTube, owned by Facebook's rival Google. Another example of simulation would be uploading Kim Kardashian's photo. The image we have of Kim Kardashian is different from reality. The way she is presented on social media is different from her real Kim Kardashian. We don't know what she is like in real life, but we have a stimulation of her that selectively presents itself in some respects as more real than the real Kim Kardashian. Through this simulation we are conditioned to think that the real Kim Kardashian is perfect as she appears on social media. This is all due to the way we think or the way people make assumptions about things. As Baudrillard stated in his theory, simulation is the assumptions or expectations that people make "before the fact." Another good example of hyperreality would be Disneyland. Disneyland is presented as imaginary to make us believe that the rest is real, while Los Angeles is no longer real but belongs to the hyperreal order and the simulation order. Baudrillard wrote a very controversial article titled “The Gulf War Didn't Take Place.” In it he suggests that the media sets the agenda on the narrative of the war, the war we saw on TV did not correspond to the real events. The media does not show all the truths; therefore, this limits knowledge and power. Let's take another example of the United States when it lost the Vietnam War. The films portray him as if they had won, but the more we see these portrayals the further away the truth is. When we look at celebrities, they are idealized and "hyperreal" because their reality is based on ideas that aren't real because people don't have perfect skin/huge butts, luscious hair, etc. When we see an advertisement on TV or social media, those advertisements are presented in such a way that what they show us seems so real but in reality they are all made up. For example, the dove ad, where the model wears a lot of makeup before the photoshoot and after the photoshoot the photographer actually changes most of the part to make the model more attractive. This therefore shows how the media can be deceptive and this is how fake news is invented. Conclusion Ultimately, from what Nietzsche and Baudrillard say about “truth” it is difficult to conclude how serious a problem “fake news” is. ' it is, since it depends on each individual's 'perspectives' (Nietzsche) and on the way people express judgement. Baudrillard didn't really believe in the truth. It explores a phenomenon called “hyperreality and simulation,” which is the idea that in a world where everything is experienced through media, our impression of “reality” is in fact completely removed from actual reality. Instead what represents the truth is not true at all, because it is so disconnected from anything empirical in the first place and if the truth is not the truth then how can.
tags