Wednesday night’s presentation tackled fake news and how to fight it with fact.
By Benjamin Strawbridge
Contributing Writer
October 5, 2017
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"Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s fake,” assistant professor Katherine Aydelott, at the Dimond Library, said.
Wednesday night’s presentation, "Tomorrow’s Challenges: The Challenging Nature of the Fake News,” tackled the rise of fake news, its forms and how anyone can diligently combat the epidemic that has taken the news world by storm.
Aydelott, following in the footsteps of last week’s Lecture Series "The Real Truth of Fake News,” hosted by The Onion’s co-founder Scott Dikkers, by granting her Memorial Union Building (MUB) Theater I audience an in-depth look into the beginnings and growth of fake news, being sure to remind her guests that "fake news isn’t new. It’s been around for as long as there has been information, [and] we’ve had information for millennia.”
According to Aydelott, this dates back from the times of the Egyptians and Roman Empire to the propaganda machines on both sides of World Wars I and II and the explosion of the 20th century supermarket tabloids.
In her hour-long presentation, Aydelott aimed to pierce the fog of confusion and doubt cast over the modern news industry in recent months by defining the various types of fake news. She discussed long-lasting and humorous satire of Saturday Night Live to outright content manipulation crafted by outsiders to entice users into clicking on links to fabricated sensationalism, all the while stressing that one size does not fit all.
"The problem,”Aydelott said, "is that an [news] item could be considered in multiple places, multiple categories at the same time, so that gets really even further tricky.”
She went as far as to parody the absurdity of present day click-bait littering social media feeds, saying, "If only you could see how Taylor Swift looks today, it’s shocking, you know, you’re supposed to click on that and read that story and that’s because someone’s getting paid every time you click that button.”
Above all, however, Aydelott strove to drive home the message that fake news is not just a nuisance, but also a credible threat to the reputations of both nations and individuals alike. She expressed frustration that "fake news is putting doubt into all media stories and making it difficult to believe pretty much anything,” ranging from official White House reports to personalized web-based newsfeeds.
Referencing the current state of the Trump administration, the UNH librarian wanted to "keep politics out of this [presentation]…but we do have a commander-in-chief who will call something fake news if it doesn’t agree with his perspective. And that’s further complicating this very difficult issue,” summarizing her comments by affirming that "just because you don’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s fake.”
Aydelott also spoke about blindly sharing sensational yet dubious articles, "Fake news can destroy credibility, can destroy the credibility of those who are creating it, and maybe that’s not important to them. But if you’re sharing that fake news, it could destroy your credibility, too.”
Despite a small audience of only six students and others in total attendance, Aydelott’s presentation was met with a generally warm reception. Undeclared freshman William Bruneau-Bouchard reacted positively to the lecture, stating that "these days, it’s like, you don’t know what’s true or not,” and that he will "definitely do more research about everything…if something comes up, or if I have to research for class, I definitely will be looking in more depth to get the good news.”
Originally published in The New Hampshire in Vol. 107, No. 6, on Oct. 5, 2017.