Response 2- JasonD, DanA, TreyS
Issue: Media Integrity
One of the hottest issues today is the trustworthiness of our media and the information that they supply. There has been a great deal of concern about the honesty and integrity of our news sources. In this, it is hard to tell if what is being discussed, or written about is a real source of information, or if the information was made up to enforce that person’s or organization’s view of what the news should be. News sources have been used to delegitimize real people, and to prop up issues that were never an issue before.
Fake news has been a concern of both people in authority, and the people who consume the information. Fact checking has become a normal part of our vocabulary, and Alt Facts has replaced the term Lie. It is frustrating to the consumer and messes with the integrity of society and culture.
The following are strategies for addressing this issue in particular
Method 1 – Media Jacking. In this strategy, we create a fake news site. Something that closely resembles a major news media outlet such as CNN, ABC, or Fox. What is done instead is that the news articles are actually fed into it from an opposing or differing news site using RSS feeds. For example, We take a CNN website format and feed news from Aljazeera. Or Use ABC’s format to feed The YoungTurks, or Fox to run BBC articles. Then we would share the news articles on various social sites.
Method 2 – Culture Jamming. This strategy would have us create infographics that represent real data or presents an honest cultural fact. Using popular culture graphics and memes to capture the attention of those viewing and draws them into the real message that we intend to share. This could take any recognizable media and twist it to give it a modern meaning. It could also allow us to take real images, and parody it to bring attention to it. Much in the same vein has political cartoons poke fun and make statements at the same time.
Method 3 – Identity Correction. Many news reporters and news sites have social media feeds. In this strategy, it is the intent to create a twitter handle and use it to fact check that media source’s information. For example, we start off by creating a twitter handle called @CNNFactCheck. Many persons may very well consider this to be an official fact checker feed that CNN has put on to regulate news of other sites or persons. Instead, it would be a fact checker on the site itself. Daily the twitter would post corrected facts that the news misreported on their website. Taking from many top stories, or their coverages of speeches and events, the information would be evaluated and re-reported.
In the first method, I would consider it to be more of a fun application of justice. It mixes up the expected and may throw people off, which would be the point. I imagine that the second method could also be more fun. However, there are aspects that I would want to protect. One image that I would have in mind is an image of citizens of Aleppo dealing with the war that is ravaging their city. In the image, I would edit-in party hats and make it look like a party with banners, and cake. Personally, I would find such a thing disgusting and inappropriate, but this would be the very thing that would draw people into the message, and maybe, get them thinking.
The last strategy would be more of a serious tone, keeping in with the tone that most news sites have when they present their information. It has to look legitimate, and believable for it to work right.
My greatest concern is safety. Both physical and mental. There is news in the world that has hurt people. Some of it strikes to the greatest fears that people harbor inside. Would it be correct to strike at those feelings to prove a point? One can make the argument that much of our past election cycle was founded on fear. Those emotions were toyed with and tossed around with no regard to the effects it would have on the people and the society at large. Fear is a tool, not a toy. I think too many people have treated it as the latter for too long.
What I do like about all the strategies, is that it builds off of something that already exists. There is no need to make things up or to burden the imagination with the effort to produce false information. The point is to present the truth and to be able to present it with a voice that people are not comfortable with.
One thought on “Response 2- JasonD, DanA, TreyS”
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Cool ideas.
What about letting the people write their own news?
kinda like youtube gave people an outlet for their own videos?
“Younews”?? (should I copyright this idea?) ; )