Fake News is misleading information presented as news. Some Fake News has no basis in facts while others have just a lack of details. Still a thing they all have in common is that they are presented as being factually accurate. Fake News is either made to make money through advertising revenue or to manipulate people to adopt a certain point of view. This could for example be political opinions. Fake News is also used to provoke a certain emotion such as anger, indignation, or fear. That is why Fake News has a way of making a negative impact on society and a person as an individual.
If we as an example look at an extract from the Danish text “Fake news - når virkeligheden taber'', which means; fake news - when reality loses. You are introduced to the concept of “opmærksomhedsøkonomi” meaning attention economy. The attention economy is about making money off people's attention. This means that people’s attention and their time are a product you are able to sell for money. Additionally, the media researcher Douglas Rushkoff points out in the extract from the Danish text “Fake news - når virkeligheden taber”: “Vi er ikke Facebooks kunder, vi er produktet. Facebook sælger os til annoncører”. This statement explains that we are not customers of Facebook, but we are the product, thereby Facebook sells us to advertisers. People's time and attention can be sold for money like a product because it has a certain value for the companies when people take note of their adverts. When we pay attention to their adverts, they sell more products. If attention is money, then the attention economy must be a business. Social media and news media catch people's attention and sell them to companies. In conclusion, when fake news gets attention it results in a business. The target of the fake news is the individual person because they’re unknowingly being sold as a product. Some of the consequences can be that companies get personal data. They’re also able to manipulate people into buying products, without being aware of it; this leads to a cynical society.
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