By Hailey Frosolone
When you read news online, do you ever stop to think if it is true? If a celebrity posts a story, do you question their sources? If you answered no, you should start.
Reporting news by a medium first began with newspapers. Since then, journalism has continued to evolve, from newspapers to radio, television, and most recently, online platforms. With each new form of media came new laws and codes of ethics. These were put in place to protect journalists and the public. One of the biggest rules for reporters is to tell the truth.
Currently, we have reached a point in history where it might be time for new regulations. Fake news is not a fresh concept but has reached new heights. Bakir and McStay defined fake news as “…news that is entirely false and deliberately misleading…” (as cited in Tsang, 2021, p. 1060). An example of fake news is during the pandemic, with false COVID-19 remedies. Fake news goes entirely against the journalist’s code of ethics. The use of social media is the reason for reaching new heights. Information is spread quickly with social media.
“The new technologies are means of communication have facilitated an information environment that makes it easier for misinformation to circulate, with social media becoming a breeding ground for fast-spreading fake news” -Messaoud (p. 26).
Online platforms give the public information instantly with twenty-four-seven access. This can cause an overwhelming amount of content. As stated by Stephanie Tsang, “…it is unreasonable to expect them to check the validity of every single piece of information they encounter. In fact, they might only fact-check information that they find suspicious.” Assuming a large sum of content material daily, it would be impossible to always fact-check. Online platforms allow the public to distribute their own news. “Social media ensures fast publication, free circulation, and lax censorship, which is all a rumor needs to spread widely” as stated by Messaoud (p. 28). Typically, these misleading stories are to sway someone’s opinions.
With advances in artificial intelligence (AI), fake news has become harder to discriminate from trustworthy news. The U.S. Department of State has defined AI as “…a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.” Using AI, people can create and manipulate an image or video to portray a story as believable. As fake news has become harder to spot, audiences are not considering them to be suspicious.
NBC News and USA Today have both reported on cases of fake news that show just how believable AI images can be. In both cases, an image was manipulated to cause panic in others. The intention worked, as many thought it was true and re-share the stories. In the NBC News example, the image caused changes in the stock market.
“Unlike humans, machines do not have a code of ethics; they are technological systems that follow the guidelines set by their programmers” – Rubio and Torrijos (2024)
Fake news is an ethical concern because it can lead to many harmful things. Misinformation can damage one’s reputation, form biases, enforce racism, and cause a crisis. This is because, with AI, there is no reporting on both sides. Instead, it only generates one-sided stories. These stories tend to catch the attention of those with the same beliefs. They then feel their views have been confirmed.
Unfortunately, fake news tends to catch the attention of the public. Shin and Kee have said, “misinformation spreads more rapidly and broadly than reliable information does…” (p. 241). This is because, typically, fake news is viewed as bad or sad news. Researchers believe that people tend to read negative articles over positive ones as there are more “…potential costs of negative information far outweigh the potential benefits of positive information” (Soroka, 2015). For example, the public would click on a potentially fake story about stocks going down over a real story about a food back feeding millions. As there is a chance to lose money, the reader will click on the story of stocks going down.
With fake news growing, regulations need to be put in place. Guidelines need to be established for those reporting fake news to take responsibility. As this type of news can cause crisis, the creator needs to understand the consequences of their actions. A potential consequence for the reporter could be, being sued for the spread of false information.
References:
AIContentfy Team. (2023, March 5). The ethics of AI-generated fake news. AIContentfy. https://aicontentfy.com/en/blog/ethics-of-ai-generated-fake-news
Ben Messaoud, M. (2021). Social media and the COVID-19 pandemic: The dilemma of fake news clutter vs. social responsibility. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 14(1), 25–45. https://doi-org.proxy3.noblenet.org/10.1386/jammr_00023_1
Calvo Rubio, L. M., & Rojas Torrijos, J. L. (2024). Criteria for journalistic quality in the use of artificial intelligence. Communication & Society, 37(2), 247–259. https://doi-org.proxy3.noblenet.org/10.15581/003.37.2.247-259
CDC Team (2024, April 9). About COVID-19. U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/about-covid-19.html
Gomez, J. (2024, March 1). Viral article used AI to create photo of Disney World’s Cinderella Castle on fire. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/01/ai-photo-cinderella-castle-on-fire/72786912007/
Indeed Editorial Team (2023, July 31). What Are the Different Types of Media? https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-media
[NBC News]. (2023, May 23). Fake image of explosion near Pentagon stirs concerns over artificial intelligence [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UPnagmS-YY
Nyilasy, G. (n.d.). Fake News in the Age of COVID-19. Faculty of Business and Economics. https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/fake-news-in-the-age-of-covid-19
Shin, D., & Kee, K. F. (2023). Editorial Note for Special Issue on Al and Fake News, Mis(dis)information, and Algorithmic Bias. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 67(3), 241–245. https://doi-org.proxy3.noblenet.org/10.1080/08838151.2023.2225665
Society of Professional Journalists (2014, September 6). SPJ Code of Ethics. https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Soroka, S. (2015, May 25). Why do we pay more attention to negative news than to positive news? The London School of Exonomica and Political Science. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/why-is-there-no-good-news/
Tsang, S. J. (2021). Motivated Fake News Perception: The Impact of News Sources and Policy Support on Audiences’ Assessment of News Fakeness. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 98(4), 1059–1077. https://doi-org.proxy3.noblenet.org/10.1177/1077699020952129
U.S. Department of State (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence (AI). https://www.state.gov/artificial-intelligence/