Fake News: History of Fake News

Fake news is nothing new. It has been around for many years. Here are a few examples of fake news through time:

• "The ‘Moon Hoax’ of 1835, orchestrated by Benjamin H. Day’s New York Sun, was one early example of a series of news stories that claimed telescopic observation of life on the moon. The paper later admitted the stories were fake, but useful for ‘diverting the public mind’ from heavy debates around slavery" was mentioned in an article from Australian Journal of Political Science.
• Yellow journalism is a term coined in the late 1800s and refers to sensationalistic, salacious and sometimes slanted stories that newspapers present as objective truth.
• An NPR article explains that long before fake news, there were fake/ staged photos.
• According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, tall-tale postcards emerged in the early 1900s with larger-than-life images of crops and animals, thanks to clever photography and darkroom tricks.
• A trip to your local grocery or convenience store’s checkout lane will reveal a plethora of tabloids containing fictional or less than reputable information, often about celebrities; and these tabloids have been in publication for many years (some of which include the National Enquirer, National Examiner, Star, Globe, and Weekly World News).

The rise of fake news is everywhere and it seems to be getting worse. 

If fake news is nothing new, why is it at the forefront of current issues plaguing society? One big reason is social media.

Social media usage has exploded in the last several years. It has become part of everyday life. In fact, a 2024 survey from the Pew Research Center indicated that 54% of adults get some of their news from social media. This number is up slightly from previous years. Social media, like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc., have become one-stop shops for sharing content, interacting with others, and, you guessed it, getting news.

Sharing content on social media has never been easier. One or two clicks is all it takes. But did you take the time to read more than just the headline before you liked, commented, or shared? Is the source reputable? Unfortunately, fake news outlets use social media to their advantage because the aforementioned questions go unanswered, it is easy for them to share things, able to reach a wide audience, and headlines or images draw people in (also referred to as clickbait).

With so much information present on social media and the sharing of it, it can be easy to skim something and not realize it might be fake. People do not always take the time to fact check something before sharing or commenting.

Other Reasons

Social media cannot be completely blamed, however, for the rise of fake news. Other contributing factors include:

• Lack of media literacy
• Ease of creating a blog or posting your own stories online
• Tendency to trust what is seen on the Internet
• Tendency to trust the information received from friends and family