zw022118@ohio.edu
This past week saw news stations, websites, and even our President distributing an edited video of House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi at a news conference was critical of President Trump's recent actions as well as his potential mental unfitness for office. While it did not raise to the level of a deep fake, which tend to be more technically proficient, it still represents a dangerous world of reality manipulation. Not to mention that the video was shared by rightwing television stations, online news outlets, and even by President trump.
What makes the sharing of this video by news outlets and President Trump so unethical is that you don't need to be technically smart to know something doesn't seem right about the video. It is essentially slowed down to make it seem like Pelosi is either drunk or not in her right mind. Even if the majority of those people that watched the video deemed that it was fake, it still dominated the news cycle as well as people's minds for a few days. " Whether repeating the lie or attempting to knock it down, the dominant political narrative of the past two days has focused squarely on Speaker Polosi's health", Charles Warzel points out in his New York Times opinion piece.
The video can still be found online on many sites, including Facebook, which defends the video being on their platform by stating that the video is satire and falls under the humor category, even though the video is clearly a fake piece of media meant to fool people, as stated in this New Yorker article written by Sue Halpern. What makes Facebook's defense all the more shocking, is the websites lack of monitoring fake accounts and fake news that appeared on it's platform during the 2016 election.
The fake Pelosi video may seem trivial and humorous to some, but it is without question a dangerous step towards fake news and falsehoods becoming normalized in America. If we can't believe what's right in front of our eyes, how can we believe anything?
Gregory Petersen
ReplyDeletegp420718@ohio.edu
Yes, it may seem trivial to some, but you are right, it is anything but. It makes for an unfortunate talking point, and can have may discrediting effects. Good points, and well written blog post.
Valeria Santizo
ReplyDeletevs178718@ohio.edu
I agree with both of you. I get that people find humor in situations like this but in reality we are in no place to laugh. This type of, "media," is dangerous and irresponsible. The sad thing is that this is the way people start to loose trust in what they see.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRossen Vassilev Jr.
ReplyDeleterv727716@ohio.edu
The fake video that Trumpty Dumpty shared last month had in fact slowed down pre-recorded footage and altered audio to make Nancy Pelosi appear intoxicated and as if slurring her own words. Well, nothing new under the sun! Somebody wrote that there are now deepfake videos employing facial-recognition technology and audio/visual editing to make people say and do absolutely all kinds of things--even things they have never said or done! The doctored political video featuring House Speaker Pelosi went viral first on Facebook and then spread like wildfire on other news media. That's what Facebook's algorithms do best since they are supposed to keep users watching and watching and watching.... Facebook's ad-driven algorithms are designed to accelerate and spread controversial, even faked content like the Pelosi edited video. No wonder that the Canadian Parliament's ethics committee earlier issued subpoenas for Facebook's two top executives, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, both of whom have now refused to testify and thus face contempt charges (involving hefty fines and prison time).