When it comes to commercial fake news, Michael Schumacher is often used as a topic.

In these cases it should be clear that German readers in particular are intended to be addressed with this fake news. Since May 29, 2018, an article has been circulating with the headline “MICHAEL SCHUMACHER: 5 SECRET FACTS ABOUT HIS ACCIDENT”. However, this is pseudo-editorially created fake news!

This in turn is called “fabricated content” and is therefore pseudo-editorially designed, commercial fake news. The fake news on this site is completely fictitious and serves only one purpose: advertising around the false content. Scandalous or dramatic content like this attracts Internet users to the website.

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By the way, this page has already been noticed in the last few days! The operator of this Croatian site has already declared Michael Schumacher dead in another article ( compare ). So here we are dealing with a website that deliberately invents content, but wants to present itself as reputable and convey advertising in the process.

The term “pseudo-editorial content” means that the text itself is structured like a normal newspaper/news report and is intended to suggest that a journalist was at work. However, the content offers no truth, only drama. Nevertheless, the text should appear authentic. To underline this, commercial fake news websites like to present themselves in the form of a classic media website; they even like to imitate existing media websites and adopt their logos.

This is how you recognize commercial fake news!

Until it sits everywhere, let's repeat these quick rules of thumb. One thing you can always remember about this type of commercial fake news: It is...

  • a pseudo-editorially created content that has no truth whatsoever.
  • a representation in the form of a news/news website, which ultimately is not.
  • a content that appeals to a desire/fear/sensationalism (in this case just fear/sensationalism).
  • an author who doesn't care about the content. It's about displaying advertising or effectively incorporating advertising links.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )