Fake news is about much more than just made-up news, as a new study by the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management shows. Numerous manipulative argumentation techniques can also distort real news in such a way that it influences public opinion. What's particularly tricky is that they are harder to detect and their spread is less noticed.
Fake news is much more than made-up news
Fake news can have many faces, and only one of them - albeit the most well-known - is the fictitious content of a message. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy now knows more than 200 manipulative argumentation techniques that are used to influence the opinions of readers or to strengthen one's own position in public discourse.
The study “Shades of Fake News: How Fallacies Influence Consumers' Perception” shows that fake news is not only caused content way in which it is presented message is presented. These manipulative argumentation techniques are harder for consumers to uncover than made-up content, are a gray area of fake news and therefore often spread unhindered.
Fake news thrives in uncertain times
The authors of the study come to the conclusion that fake news finds fertile ground, especially in uncertain times. For example, the study, which is now being published in the renowned academic journal European Journal of Information Systems, sheds light on election manipulation in America through social media and the so-called “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. The argumentation techniques examined later also came into play during the corona pandemic. For example, virologists did not always agree on how the pandemic would progress. The public and media criticism of their arguments was not always objective, but instead often focused on personally attacking and discrediting the person in question. Scientists refer to this manipulative argumentation technique as “argumentum ad hominem”.
The “False Dilemma”
Another example of a manipulative argumentation technique is the so-called “false dilemma”: It condenses the decision options to two extremes - in the hope that one's own position will be perceived as the supposedly better one and will be capable of winning a majority. During the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians from different camps contrasted health protection and economic development in Germany as incompatible positions - and thereby assumed that only one of the two goals could be pursued. Possible middle ground was ignored in the discussion.
Manipulative argumentation techniques are difficult for many people to detect. The head of the study, Christian Schlereth, has a clear recommendation.
“Readers should become skeptical if they feel that a statement or message appeals to them primarily on an emotional rather than a factual level.”
Prof. Dr. Christian Schlereth
Source:
WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management via press portal
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