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‘Fake news’ is one of my specialist subjects - I’ve researched and written about it, including a chapter in my recent book. The story of @DKShrewsbury and the @ShropshireStar fits in with the pattern pretty much exactly (short thread)
The key to fake news isn’t the news itself, it’s the *narrative*. Here, the narrative presented by @DKShrewsbury is one of ‘plucky Britain’, hard-done-by by the evil and exploitative Germans. Brings back memories of WW2, the Blitz, etc etc
This is a familiar narrative to exactly the people that @DKShrewsbury wants to keep on his side, or bring onto his side. Whether the *facts* fit the story do not matter at this stage. It fits the pattern, feeds the narrative.
So he puts it out there, and doesn’t take it away when it is called out. It gets lots of clicks, is shared widely, and will be believed by the key audience - because it fits their preconceptions and prejudices. Moreover, he’s a respectable MP, a man of honour and integrity.
All this adds to the credibility - and that he’s attacked by a lot of remainers, metropolitan media elites, feeds this narrative of plucky Brits, beset by evil villains around them. It all works together.
And this is where the @ShropshireStar comes in. The ‘traditional’ media, rather than challenging fake news, often ends up magnifying it, amplifying it, spreading it more - because it *doesn’t* call it out and challenge it, but tries to present ‘balance’ in some distorted way.
This then adds to the credibility, and feeds the fake narrative even further. Fake news, created and spread, using both traditional and social media, getting a wide audience, and feeding a manipulative narrative. This is the way it works.... and shows how hard it is to fight.
That fight requires two key things. (1) Calling politicians to account - and *other* politicians avoiding doing the same things, even if it is tempting (and it really is, because it ‘works’!) and (2) The media being brave enough to play its part.
This is not just in the stories, but in the headlines, in the interviews, in the tweets. Take care to be accurate and bold - and call out the lies and the fakery. It’s difficult, but it’s what journalism *should* be about.
It’s still a struggle against concerted and dedicated liars and distorters - and I’m afraid @DKShrewsbury fits into this pattern very directly here - but if we are to have any chance against this, we need to try. And the @ShropshireStar needs to try particularly hard.
It’s difficult, because local papers need the cooperation of their local MPs - just as the BBC political journalists need to ‘keep in’ with the likes of Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, but *unless* the challenges are made, there’s no chance that the current outbreak...
...of fake news, and political manipulation can be resisted.... /ends
