1
Synopsis
Information fabrication is not new. As Guardian columnist Natalie Nougayrède has
observed: “The use of propaganda is ancient, but never before has there been the
technology to so eectively disseminate it”.
1
So, it is important to understand the
historical context when examining and reporting on contemporary manifestations of
what has been termed a 21
st
-century ‘information disorder’
2
.
Misinformation, disinformation and propaganda have been features of human
communication since at least the Roman times when Antony met Cleopatra. Octavian
waged a propaganda campaign against Antony that was designed to smear his reputation.
This took the form of “short, sharp slogans written upon coins in the style of archaic
Tweets.”
3
These slogans painted Antony as a womaniser and a drunk, implying he had
become Cleopatra’s puppet, having been corrupted by his aair with her. Octavian became
Augustus, the first Roman Emperor and “fake news had allowed Octavian to hack the
republican system once and for all.”
4
The invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1493 dramatically amplified the
dissemination of disinformation and misinformation, and it ultimately delivered the
first-large scale news hoax – ‘The Great Moon Hoax’ of 1835
5
. The New York Sun published six
articles about the discovery of life on the moon, complete with illustrations of humanoid
bat-creatures and bearded blue unicorns. Conflicts, regime change, and catastrophes then
became markers for the dissemination of disinformation.
As one-to-many communications developed in the 20
th
century, especially with the
advent of radio and television, satirical news evolved, sometimes being mistaken as the
real thing in news consumers’ minds. Finally, as this guide illustrates, the arrival of the
internet in the late 20
th
century, followed by social media in the 21
st
century, dramatically
multiplied the risks of misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and hoaxes. Both
errors and fraudulent content now go viral through peer-to-peer distribution (many-
to-many communication)
6
, while news satire is regularly misunderstood and re-
shared as straight news by unwitting social media users
7
. We now inhabit a world with
computational propaganda, state-sponsored ‘sock-puppet networks’, troll armies
8
,
and technology that can mimic legitimate news websites and seamlessly manipulate
audio and video to create synthetic representations of any number of sources. In this
environment, where trust becomes polarised around what “news” aligns with their views,
many news consumers feel entitled to choose or create their own ‘facts’. Combined, these
developments present an unprecedented threat level that can drown out journalism, as
1 Nougayrede, N (2018) In this age of propaganda, we must defend ourselves. Here’s how, The Guardian (31/01/18) Accessed 28/03/18:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/propaganda-defend-russia-technology
2 Wardle, C. & H. Derakhshan (2017) Information Disorder: Towards an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy-Making. Council of
Europe. Available at https://firstdraftnews.com/resource/coe-report/
3 Kaminska, I. (2017). A module in fake news from the info-wars of ancient Rome. Financial Times. Accessed 28/03/18:
https://www.ft.com/content/aaf2bb08-dca2-11e6-86ac-f253db7791c6
4 ibid
5 Thornton, B. (2000). The Moon Hoax: Debates About Ethics in 1835 New York Newspapers, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 15(2), pp. 89-100.
Accessed 28/03/18 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327728JMME1502_3
6 See Posetti, J (2018) News industry transformation: digital technology, social platforms and the spread of misinformation in Ireton, C & Posetti, J
(Eds) Journalism, ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation (UNESCO) Forthcoming
7 Woolf, N. (2016) As fake news takes over Facebook feeds, many are taking satire as fact, The Guardian. Accessed 01/04/18:
https: //www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/17/facebook-fake-news-satire
8 See Posetti, J. (2018). Combating Online abuse: When journalists and their sources are targeted In Ireton, C & Posetti, J (Eds) Journalism, ‘Fake
News’ and Disinformation (UNESCO). Forthcoming.