MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE FRANCIS
FOR
FOR
WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
24 January 2018
“The truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32).
Fake news and journalism for peace
Fake news and journalism for peace
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Communication is part of God’s plan for us and an essential way to
experience fellowship. Made in the image and likeness of our Creator, we
are able to express and share all that is true, good, and beautiful. We
are able to describe our own experiences and the world around us, and
thus to create historical memory and the understanding of events. But
when we yield to our own pride and selfishness, we can also distort the
way we use our ability to communicate. This can be seen from the
earliest times, in the biblical stories of Cain and Abel and the Tower
of Babel (cf. Gen 4:4-16; 11:1-9). The capacity to twist the
truth is symptomatic of our condition, both as individuals and
communities. On the other hand, when we are faithful to God’s plan,
communication becomes an effective expression of our responsible search
for truth and our pursuit of goodness.
In today’s fast-changing world of communications and digital systems,
we are witnessing the spread of what has come to be known as “fake
news”. This calls for reflection, which is why I have decided to return
in this World Communications Day Message to the issue of truth, which
was raised time and time again by my predecessors, beginning with Pope Paul VI, whose 1972 Message took as its theme: “Social Communications at the Service of Truth”.
In this way, I would like to contribute to our shared commitment to
stemming the spread of fake news and to rediscovering the dignity of
journalism and the personal responsibility of journalists to communicate
the truth.
1. What is “fake” about fake news?
The term “fake news” has been the object of great discussion and
debate. In general, it refers to the spreading of disinformation on
line or in the traditional media. It has to do with false information
based on non-existent or distorted data meant to deceive and manipulate
the reader. Spreading fake news can serve to advance specific goals,
influence political decisions, and serve economic interests.
The effectiveness of fake news is primarily due to its ability to mimic real
news, to seem plausible. Secondly, this false but believable news is
“captious”, inasmuch as it grasps people’s attention by appealing to
stereotypes and common social prejudices, and exploiting instantaneous
emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration. The ability to
spread such fake news often relies on a manipulative use of the social
networks and the way they function. Untrue stories can spread so quickly
that even authoritative denials fail to contain the damage.
The difficulty of unmasking and eliminating fake news is due also to
the fact that many people interact in homogeneous digital environments
impervious to differing perspectives and opinions. Disinformation
thus thrives on the absence of healthy confrontation with other sources
of information that could effectively challenge prejudices and generate
constructive dialogue; instead, it risks turning people into unwilling
accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas. The tragedy of
disinformation is that it discredits others, presenting them as enemies,
to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict. Fake news is a
sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes, and leads only to the
spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.
2. How can we recognize fake news?
None of us can feel exempted from the duty of countering these
falsehoods. This is no easy task, since disinformation is often based on
deliberately evasive and subtly misleading rhetoric and at times the
use of sophisticated psychological mechanisms. Praiseworthy efforts are
being made to create educational programmes aimed at helping people to
interpret and assess information provided by the media, and teaching
them to take an active part in unmasking falsehoods, rather than
unwittingly contributing to the spread of disinformation. Praiseworthy
too are those institutional and legal initiatives aimed at developing
regulations for curbing the phenomenon, to say nothing of the work being
done by tech and media companies in coming up with new criteria for
verifying the personal identities concealed behind millions of digital
profiles.
Yet preventing and identifying the way disinformation works also
calls for a profound and careful process of discernment. We need to
unmask what could be called the "snake-tactics" used by those who
disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place. This was
the strategy employed by the "crafty serpent" in the Book of Genesis,
who, at the dawn of humanity, created the first fake news (cf. Gen 3:1-15), which began the tragic history of human sin, beginning with the first fratricide (cf. Gen
4) and issuing in the countless other evils committed against God,
neighbour, society and creation. The strategy of this skilled "Father of
Lies" (Jn 8:44) is precisely mimicry, that sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments.....
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