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Jared Gilbert

English 1010

Professor Van Dahm

4-15-19

Project Three: Civic Engagement Meme Series

Introduction

Fake news, fake news, get your fake news! Did this statement catch your attention?

Probably not since it wasn’t posted to a social media account, and you are actually reading a

paper. Fake news has become an increasingly common word in today’s society, but yet there is

no actual definition of fake news in a dictionary. That is a big problem when we are using

words that have yet been giving an actual definition, but the bigger problem is fake news itself

and why it is so successful. This research and meme series will analyze what is fake news, why

it spreads like fire, and what we can do to stop it. I am choosing this topic as it was an issue

with the 2016 presidential campaign, and will most likely become a bigger issue with the

upcoming presidential primary and general elections.

While there are many opinions circulating out there, a common meaning and

explanation I found was written by Bente Kalsnes and published in Oxford Research

Encyclopedias and stated, “Reports of manipulation, disinformation, falseness, rumors, and

conspiracy theories- actions and behaviors that are frequently associated with the term—have

existed as long as humans have communicated. Nevertheless, new communication

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technologies have allowed for new ways to produce, distribute, and consume fake news, which

makes it harder to differentiate what information to trust.” Kalsnes summary of fake news

makes the most sense, and leads into my research questions of why it is so effective and

becoming more wide spread. The explanation by Kalsnes also touched on the fact that most

fake news reports are spread on social media.

Research of fake news

National Public Radio published an article, written by Camila Domonoske, about the

research completed by Stanford University that evaluated student’s ability to distinguish fake

news from real news. The study surveyed students from middle school through graduate

school, and found alarming rates at what students of all ages believed was real news. For every

ten middle school students, eight of them thought ads that said sponsored content were real

news articles. For older students, researchers posted a picture of odd shaped flowers with the

caption, “Fukushima Nuclear Flowers: Not much more to say, this is what happens when

flowers get nuclear birth defects" (Domonoske). There was nothing to relate the statement

with the picture, or any evidence of any kind, yet again, over eighty percent of students didn’t

question it and believed it true (Domonoske).

There have also been several news stories that are brushed off as fake news with no one

asking critical questions about some of the information. Some of the issues being under

reported are of great concern. One example is the WikiLeaks release in 2017 of numerous

classified documents focused on the issue of the release of classified information. A major

issue that surfaced was how the United States has been spying on other countries, and claims

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that illegal tactics have been used during this process. Numerous politicians did not want to

discuss these issues as it was an embarrassment to the government. The government denied

any illegal practice, but the misdirection failed to bring up the alarming number of private

government contractors that are violating laws and not following the rules.  This is one issue

that is under reported on, “the explosive growth of private contractors in the intelligence

community, which allows the CIA and other agencies to gain access to intelligence gathered by

methods they’re prohibited from using” (Rosenberg). So again this is only adding to the

problem of mistrust and under reporting as private business have far less public transparency

or oversight.

Analysis of meme’s

In picking my meme’s for civic engagement, I picked several to give examples of ideas to

make the viewer think about what they were looking at. Two of the meme’s target fake and

false news stories, and two of the meme’s target underreported news stories. The issues are all

similar in the sense that headlines and pictures often give the first impression to the reader.

Many readers already make a judgement about the facts of the article based on these two

things alone.

The first meme that represents fake news is about pictures and headlines. I picked a

picture of a guy that is the same picture side by side. The first picture, the guy is wearing a

sleeveless red shirt, and both arms are completely covered in tattoos. The guy looks tough, and

could fit the stereo type for several rougher stereo type images, such as a biker or someone just

released from jail. The red shirt even appeals to pathos for me as it is a strong color signifying

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this guy may have an attitude. This would be a guy I wouldn’t expect to sit back and be quite

about anything. The tattoos appeal to ethos with the way they are covered on his arms that he

is a rebel. The second picture is of the exact same male with the same background, facial

expressions, and even the same pose. The only difference is now the male is wearing a white

doctor coat which has his name or title embroidered on it, white collared shirt with tie under it,

and a stethoscope around his neck. You also can not see any tattoos on the male in this photo.

The male looks trust worthy and like a seasoned doctor that you could confide confidential

information to. This image appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos. The name being embroidered

is giving credibility that this is a seasoned doctor, the stethoscope shows he has tools and know

how to do the job, and the color white for the coat give a sense of purity and trust for

emotions. The white coat also shows leadership or being in charge. This is reflected in many

occupations such as the culinary industry when the head chef wears the white coat typically,

and the staff wears black. The title about pictures and headlines worth 1,000 words in relation

to fake news is showing that more thought is needed, rather than just skimming headlines and

photos only partially educated ourselves. The viewer must realize that either picture could be

correct for the person in it, but the point is to show how prejudgment based on headline and

pictures is an issue.

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The second meme about fake news is a photo of Maury Povich in which he is reading off

of a que card. This photo is classic to what happens on his typical shows when someone is in

denial of an issue and a lie detector or paternity test is given. The headline of the meme states

that the lie detector revealed it was fake news. This is humorous to those I have shown as

many recognize the daytime drama show. Thinking about this more critically shows that lie

detectors themselves have been proven unreliable and not valid investigative tools that hold up

in a court of law. So the title of the meme with the picture of The Maury Show, is to create

awareness of fake news, but more points to the drama of fake news. Fake news gets blamed

for any accusations that can be redirected, whether true or false. This is similar to the show

when someone is denying they father a child or cheated on someone. Sometimes when

evidence supports a claim, subjects such as politicians, will just blame fake news even when

there is no basis for this claim. The three dots I added to the upper sentence of the meme are

to create the idea if a drum roll or suspense which furthers the drama of the whole show. It

sensationalizes it, especially because they will cut to a commercial break. This is very typical

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with many fake news stories as there is a wow factor.

The third meme is about under reported news that is intentionally diverted from main

stream media. The meme is a picture from the movie series Star Wars, in which the Jedi use

mind tricks to control people and even their thoughts. For this picture the Jedi is smuggling two

droids that are wanted past a check point. It is a well-known and quoted movie line and very

recognizable. I searched and found the best image and added the title for the meme that

“these are not the news stories you are looking for”. I made the “you are looking for” much

larger as many under reported news stories aren’t searched for. Some of this is due to how

they are released and who they are released to as revealed in the research portion earlier in my

paper. I have the side by side picture as it shows the red on the shoulder of the clone army

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commander to signify authority. This was to show that no one is above being duped, and

education on the issues is required. The image is iconic and the Jedi mind trick is pointing out

that this is something you don’t want to look into, again a point at self-education. This meme

again is targeting the audience on social media, and that most people get news information

solely from the internet. I left it at that so the viewer of the meme could decide if it was

something to be looked at because it was damaging information in the article, or it wasn’t

sensationalized enough to be considered “news worthy”. Either way the point of this meme is

for the viewer to think more critically and actually read the articles to form their own opinion.

My last meme is a side by side of former president Bill Clinton with his wife Hillary, and

the current President Donald Trump. The title, “Is it too late for me to claim fake news,” is

meant to be humorous about Donald Trump placing the blame for many things on fake news

that is known to be true. The humor is the sentence in the meme that is pondering if it was too

late for Bill Clinton to go back in time and claim fake news for his well-known scandal. Bill

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Clinton just flat out denied the allegation when it was investigated and found to be true. The

image shows Donald holding his hand up in the air and is proud. The image of Hilary and bill

shows Bill looking to his right and Hilary staring straight ahead with a serious look that could be

construed as mad. The layout looks as if Bill is looking to Donald and asking the question the

meme is proposing which was deliberate. The meme is to show how fake news is more known

and accepted today in society than when Bill Clinton was president in the 1990’s. The image of

two powerful men and how neither one of them to date has slipped out of the public eye

because of mistrust in opposing views and political affiliations. The issues of fake news is

furthering the divide in this country about mistrust in the media and politics as well. The

audience is for both political parties as both presidents are from opposing parties, Republican

and Democrat, and the meme is meant to be neutral politically.

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Conclusion

You can see from several of the meme’s and research that fake news is not an issue that

is going away. As long as information is shared on social media, and the majority of people get

there news from online, the question of fact checking, and vetting the stories will always be an

issue. The best way to combat this is for people to take the time to read the articles, rather

than skim through headlines and pictures to get the majority of the information they share.

Leaders, private and public, also need to do a better job of holding publishers and media

groups responsible for content they post or spread. Even when the fake news stories are

corrected, it isn’t till later on after the issue has died down, and the means by which they are

corrected are not mainstream. Again this goes to the under reported stories of which many

people who aren’t digging through news articles will never find. My hope is some sort of

education and accountability is implemented with the next upcoming presidential primary and

general elections. The elections have become notorious for mudslinging tactics and furthered

by fake news. These issues will further create distrust and a divided nation more then what is

being experienced now.

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Works Cited

Domonoske, Camila. National Public Radio. 23 November 2016. 10 April 2019.

<https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503129818/study-finds-

students-have-dismaying-inability-to-tell-fake-news-from-real>.

Kalsnes, Bente. "Journalsim Studies, Media, and Communication Policy." Fake News Summary.

September 2018. Oxford Research Encyclopedias . 10 April 2019.

<http://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.000

1/acrefore-9780190228613-e-809>.

Rosenberg, Paul. Syracuse Newtimes. 9 January 2019. 30 March 2019.

<https://www.syracusenewtimes.com/project-censored-still-fighting-the-ongoing-

invasion-of-fake-news/>.