Manipulative Media: A New Tool for Misinformation

Dylan Reines

dr183518@ohio.edu 

 

 

According to MIT's largest-ever study on fake news, "A false story reaches 1,500 people six times quicker, on average, than a true story does." It's an alarming statistic, but it probably won't shock most social media users. Americans believe 61% of the news they see on social media contains misinformation, and the rise of media manipulation has dug the hole even further.

 

"Are you Living an Insta Lie? Social Media Vs. Reality": Youtube

Digital photo editing began as an innocent tool that allowed people to spice up their Instagram posts. Now its primary use is to contribute to the dangerous issue of misinformation. Photos and videos used to be the first-hand evidence needed to confirm a story, but today even media can't be trusted.

Photo manipulation is a skill in itself, and it can be a useful tool in certain business and personal settings. Photo manipulation also has a dark side, as it is often used on social media to make people appear differently online than in reality. The popular MTV show Catfish deals with this problem regularly as people alter their appearance online to seem more attractive to other users.

Photo manipulation is also used to create comedic pictures online, but many times it's nearly impossible to personally verify a photo. This becomes dangerous when photo manipulation is used to push agendas or share false news. For example, Donald Trump released a series of advertisements against Joe Biden that featured a variety of photoshopped pictures. Trump's campaign purposefully altered the images of President Biden to make him appear frail, weak, and lonely. On top of this stunt, Trump also retweeted a deep fake of Biden showing the new president doing weird things with his tongue.

If consumers can't trust information coming from a former U.S. president, whom are we able to trust? Media manipulation provides 'fake evidence' for fake news stories to use, and most consumers are not double-checking the credibility of a story. Consumers often see a plethora of posts while engaging with social media, and it's no coincidence that altered photos or videos are more likely to be shared. They're designed to be entertaining or absurd, and users are quick to share content that feels outrageous or off the wall.

Misinformation is a known issue within 21st-century news, but how do we prevent it? With over half the world's population on the internet, it's easy for anyone to create or share fake news. Platforms have attempted to mark misinformation as' fake news', and it's a step in the right direction, but social media operators are unable to keep up with the influx of false information. As manipulated media becomes more prominent on social media consumers will have to shoulder some responsibility preventing the spread of misinformation.