The Spread of Fiction Through the Media

Danielle Smith

ds006019@ohio.edu

Source: The Today Show

The spread of misinformation expands every day with the current tools of social media. Some people in this digital age find themselves consuming most of their information from these sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. The issue regarding this is that many users actively see and believe either fake news or even false sources.

A study done in 2021 by the Pew Research Center showed that 72% of Americans use social media to connect and obtain their news. Due to this fact, people must be receiving truthful news that they can trust. Without this, the spread of false news will take over the country, and the mistrust in the media, which is already substantially high, will grow even more.

One of the main leading contributors is something the internet knows as trolls. These trolls are thought of as "losers" as they spend all their time on the internet. However, these trolls affecting the media are highly trained and know exactly how to shift a story to feed into their audiences' biases. The first hide behind a fake name and profile picture to build a following base using just general information and stories before using the platform to share the information they set out to spread. 

The best tool we have out to combat that is media watchdogs. Watchdogs fact-check information before and after it is released to prevent or retract false information from being out on the internet. That is so important because with how easy it has become to share posts and information, more false information has been moving at an alarming rate. As technology continues to expand, it will only get increasingly worse until all trust in the media is lost for good. 

The San Diego State University Library site offers a page under their journalism section with a list of five fact-checking websites and has a little information for each. Many other Universities are adding pages like these as well, and though it is a significant step in the right direction, we still have a long way to cleanse the media. If it wasn't for being a student in the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, I am not sure I would have ever come upon this information. Fact-checking needs to be made easily accessible to everyone for it to work and be practical. Once this becomes more prevalent in the media today, the public can slowly rebuild trust and confidence in our work.

The dangers of artificial intelligence influencing

 Lindsay Wielonski 

lw293117@ohio.edu

Fifteen years ago, few would have suspected that in the future, the computer could clone a voice after being given a sample of them speaking, and Siri would be invented to act similarly to a personal assistant. 

But, because of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, it's no surprise that we're seeing it more and more in our personal lives and the workplace, improving the speed and convenience of mundane tasks. AI is prevalent in almost all fields. It's even making its way to social media influencing. But, this speed and convenience come with many risks.  

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock 

What's at stake if virtual influencing becomes the norm? 

AI presents many dangers as it becomes increasingly integrated into our society. Social media can be toxic, even considering virtual influencing. On social media, it's typical for people only to post the highlights of their lives, which can create an unrealistic view of reality. When compared to others, online is constant; it can be tough to put setbacks in perspective. Additionally, social media glorifies weight loss and promotes perfection in all aspects. One study published in the National Library of Medicine found that both boys and girls making an effort to look like figures in the media were more likely than their peers to develop weight concerns and become constant dieters. 

With the lack of a natural person behind influencer posts, the aspects of authenticity and empathy are lost. These two qualities are essential, mainly because of how much of a breeding ground social media can be for comparison and negativity. In addition, virtual influencers can't determine the ethics of a particular post or consider how a post might affect followers.

Another concern with AI's growth is its ability to replicate. Eventually, anyone skilled enough will be able to create very realistic audio clips or videos of politicians or celebrities saying whatever they want them to say, starting with only a tiny sample of them talking. This fact poses a threat to democracy and news, and truth. It will become harder and harder to decipher what is authentic and fake because of the ease of replicating. If anyone can create a video of an influencer saying whatever they want them to say, the truth is at risk. 

What standards should influencers be held to? 

Influencers must be held to ethical standards, whether computerized or not. The FTC's transparency needs to extend to all influencers on social media and everyday social media users. 

Computer-Generated Virtual Influencers Starts Scary Precedent

 Grayson Wolf 

gw825219@ohio.edu

Photo Credit

The start of these virtual influencers is unprecedented. Millions of people following these fake virtual people is something I have never seen or heard about before today. Learned all about them in this detailed report by The New York Times.

These virtual influencers come off on social media sites as real people, promoting authentic products and living what seems to be real lives. The problem is that they are computer-generated and not even close to being accurate or having feelings.

I feel as though this sets a dirty precedent for promoting and advertising. When you promote, you want your consumers to be able to trust the backing of the person they see in the promotion. That is why so much promotion comes through social media stars and celebrities.

When it comes from these fake, computer-generated influencers, they can say whatever they are programmed to say. This situation is a problem because there is no natural backing of the product from a real human being. There is no thought process of a real human being on whether or not they want to promote the brand and product.

I can see where this is not as much of a moral or ethical dilemma when doing advertisements. When making a commercial, you just hire actors that do not care what the product is anyway. These actors do not have much of a say in the product they are advertising. If a company wants just to use a virtual influencer, so they do not have to do multiple takes and multiple days to create the commercial, I do not see a problem with that other than taking away an acting job from an actor.

In this video done by the Today Show, we learn more about how virtual influencers are created. We also get to hear from a follower of these virtual influencers and hear their thoughts on them.

Social media affects the younger generation, showing them how to live. Children these days are listening more to what people on social media have to say about lifestyles than their parents.

These computer-generated people with perfect bodies and hair are just giving the younger generation of girls a standard that is impossible to reach because these influencers are, in fact, not real. It damages a person's mental health when they try to reach these incredibly high beauty standards and end up not reaching them.

I hope these new "influencers" do not become the new normal.

Honesty in Social Media

 

Photo Courtesy of Business Insider and Getty Images

Molly Wilson 

mw542219@ohio.edu 

Social media platforms have grown in popularity over the past few years. However, with such popularity, its criticism has also grown. Younger generations are mainly consumed with their online images and lives. As society moves online, it is difficult to determine the validity of specific posts and people. 

Social media influencers 

In recent years, the title "social media influencer" has been adopted by many who use their platform to influence their followers. According to an article from Viewpoint, the influencers' goal is to influence their audience's shopping habits, thinking, and beliefs. Many influencers post with genuinely beneficial intentions, hoping to bring social or political issues awareness. However, many use their platform and follow in a more negative context, making a monetary gain on their following through brand deals. 

Who is behind the post?

Brand deals are not always a bad thing. Brands commonly reach out to social media users with larger platforms in hopes they are willing to share a post promoting a specific product. Many influencers have good intentions and honestly believe in the product they are promoting for the brand, but some influencers fail to label posts as brand deals. Many users expect influencers to tag their posts as an advertisement or be transparent in their motives for posting such remarks. Instead, influencers are master manipulators, according to the Viewpoint article, who can convince their supportive followers to purchase something simply because they endorsed it. 

As noted in a Psychology Today article, users are naturally willing to trust that people are honest with them as "we are programmed to trust others." Those tendencies apply to social media and the desire to trust influencers' opinions of products. Companies use social media users' willingness to trust people with a large following. There is no way to tell whether an influencer lies about a product, even when they label their posts as advertisements. It's challenging to determine whether influencers are writing a positive review for monetary gain or because they genuinely like the brand. Many users are not willing to critically analyze social media posts because they are so willing to trust the face of a person with millions of supporters. 

Brands have even moved into creating their influencers who are essentially avatars made to look like humans. Those influencers are created with the sole purpose of promoting a brand or spreading brand awareness. The problem with these influencers arises when companies are secretive and dishonest in their efforts. For example, Lil Miquela — an avatar influencer created by a company named Brud — was on social media as an influencer for two years before it was revealed she was an avatar. Many rumors had circulated that Lil Miquela was not a natural person, yet her presence on social media was still quite significant, and people believed her message. 

As a society, we are entering a point when we must question whether a real person or avatar is behind a post. We must question whether posts are made by an influencer based on their genuine beliefs or a brand. Social media is no longer just a place where people share updates on their lives, but it is becoming where corporate interests determine what we see on our timelines. When brands use social media to their advantage, the company contributes to the more significant issue of truth on social media. 

Importance of honesty in brand endorsements and motivations

It is challenging for people to discern whether posts are made in the interests of companies and brands. Truthfulness and transparency are two of the most critical ethical codes journalists are taught to uphold. In writing a story, it is essential to let readers know of any conflict of interests or validity concerns at the top of an article or newscast. However, social media users and companies are not tied to such codes. If they were, every post made as an endorsement for a company would be labeled as such. Influencers would be honest and confess that they receive money for making the post. 

Journalism and social media are not that different. Like journalists, social media influencers can shape public perception of an event or product. So, why aren't they held to the same standards? Influencers must remain honest in their motivations as not to create an online sphere full of deceitful companies trying to boost their ratings through dishonest endorsements. 

The impact of influencers' transparency

Malaya Tindongan 

mt839718@ohio.edu 

It seems like advertisements are everywhere we look, even if we aren't looking for them. Hidden in plain sight, sometimes people are being advertised to despite knowing about it. Influencers' job is to be sponsored by companies and encourage their fans to buy the products. Transparency is essential to followers or audiences, and they want to know if someone is genuinely suggesting a product because it is good and they like it or if they are getting paid to push it. However, today there is an abundance of ways to trick people into seeing ads. An article from Ad Agency delves into the distrust of influencers not labeling their sponsored gifts as such. Kim Kardashian and her sisters are used as an example of celebrities endorsing products and failing to disclose that they were being paid or gifted the items. However, smaller influencers are also sometimes guilty of not adding the "#ad" or "#sponsered" to their posts of products. The less well-known influencers are micro-influencers, not having millions of followers but still gaining attention. Part of them being less well-known is less accountability for not addressing sponsorships. Although there are guidelines that the Federal Trade Commission must follow, disclosures must be clear, and the customer should understand them easily. A "thank you" to the brand does not count as a clear disclosure of the gift or sponsorship.

Courtesy of US Chamber of Commerce Although influencers may not always be honest with products, more dishonest acts take place. The New York Times brings up an influencer that has sparked some controversy. The influencer in question is Miquela Sousa, an average enough famous young woman on social media that produced music, worked with Prada, and even got a tattoo. However, she isn't real, and it took the company that created her(Brud) 2 years to reveal she was their publicity stunt. AI-type creations are not new; however, her acting as an influencer and as if she was a real person is new. The main issue that arises with the situation of Miquela Sousa is that it took so long for her purpose and creators to be introduced. Although it was clear to some that she was virtual, it was not clear to everyone, and it was not outright stated that she was a publicity stunt. The issue was not that she was virtual; it was the lack of transparency of her role as a character for advertisements. "My identity was a choice Brud made to sell me to brands..." she said in an Instagram post. Virtual characters as influencers could be the future. However, they should be presented as so.

Marketing and Trolls in Social Media

 Dylan Westmeyer 

dw330019@ohio.edu

Social media's primary purpose was to connect people through the internet, but now many people use it for many different reasons. As a result, social media has become the land of make-believe and the land of opportunity.

The expansion of social media platforms worldwide has led to increased revenue into those services, and many businesses are putting money into social media accounts and paying influencers large and small to support their products. However, the opportunity for people to make a living off these social media sponsorships can be a blessing or a curse. 

The prominent celebrities who are given these sponsorship deals are well accustomed to the ins and outs of disclosing what incentives they were given for a trial of a product. Still, things can be difficult when an average person with not nearly as large of a following get a sponsorship. Ad Age did a deeper dive into this recognition game and states Instagram users with fewer than 1,000 followers have posted pictures of themselves with beauty products and only give a "thank you" to Influenster for sending the products.

The blame should go on the person who was given the sponsorship and the company giving the sponsorship out since it needs to be clear what they would like to receive out of the partnership. 

Social media has also become the land of make-believe for many. The use of editing on photos, fake accounts, and biased reporting posted on many social media platforms makes it a minefield for many users. This uncertainty can leave users guessing about the truth and what isn't.

Many people have probably felt with make-believe tweets or accounts that try to impersonate someone they are not, but what harm do these trolls have. 

According to That Uplifting Tweet, You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It, the primary way these trolls operate is they try to gain a following by posting something uplifting that can blow up and lead to massive follower gain. But unfortunately, once the account has large followers, it peels the audience with messages that promote distrust, division, and doubt. 

Regardless of social media companies' attempts to monitor their platforms, there will always be trolls. Therefore, users need to know how to deal with those trolls is more crucial than ever.   

The Importance of Social Media Transparency

                                                           Photo Credit

Tre Spencer

ts582119@ohio.edu

In the rising age of social media, with platforms like Twitter and Instagram taking the world by storm, hidden dangers within different elements of transparency have made it more difficult for users to receive factual information. 

Social media was created in the early 2000s and was used to connect with people from across the world. Facebook is the largest platform globally and has over a whopping 2.2 billion users, as of data from 2018. That is followed by YouTube, a video creation service, and WhatsApp, a text messaging service, with over 3 billion users combined in 2017. 

With such a large number of world users, anything can be spread online and from any account, including purely anonymous ones. This fact can create dangers for uninformed users who use the app to gather all of their factual information and news.

Transparency with social media platforms is essential because large social media companies could be exposing users to dangerous data, harm, and fake news. Recently, Facebook has been in hot water with the 2020 election cycle by allowing robots and fake accounts to share false information about campaigns and candidates. 

Having the ability to regulate and fact-check sources from social media accounts should focus on social media platforms that have consumers who have access to numerous forms of content. 

Fake marketing campaigns have also been rising across numerous platforms, with many smaller companies using images of celebrities to sell their products with fake endorsements. For example, in 2018, Australian journalist, Jessica Rowe, was involved in a fraudulent marketing scheme to sell weight-loss medication spread through social media. A product she did not endorse or recommend to her followers to use.  

                                                             Photo credit

Fake advertising campaigns have also been a problem, particularly on Facebook and Google software, with users purchasing products that don't exist from fake websites. These platforms continue to be harmful because they allow such spaces where false information can be easily viewed and believed by large audiences. 

As journalists, we are the media's watchdogs; this encompasses social media. Our job is to call out false marketing, news, and other forms of information quickly spread on all channels to the general public. So we must make these distinctions and report as accurately as possible, whether it's public relations and market or news and information.  

Social Media is Becoming More Fake by the Day

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Madeline Thomas

mt688819@ohio.edu

First came the Tweets from trolls, then influencers started misleading followers with ads, and now AI-created characters are infiltrating social media platforms. The internet is dangerous, especially when people know how to bend it to their will. Twitter trolls, Instagram influencers, and other cunning computer geniuses use social media platforms to promote their agendas and mislead the public.

Twitter trolls have been around since the beginning of Twitter (aka March 21st, 2006), but they seem to come out of the woodwork during presidential campaigns. As a Rolling Stone article noted in 2019, "Our research has shown Russia strategically employed social media to build support on the right for Trump and lower voter turnout on the left for Clinton." It is not always easy to spot a fake Twitter account. Still, as social media continues to grow, it is essential to investigate news sources, especially when they come from social media platforms. 

Every other person I meet is trying to become an Instagram or TikTok influencer, but there is a lot of responsibility that comes with such a public profession. Without transparency, followers cannot trust the influencers that they follow, which is why celebrities like Kim Kardashian and her family members have had to clarify time and time again that their posts on social media are paid advertisements. Micro-influencers face backlash for not appropriately captioning their pictures and videos before posting them. The distrust between followers and influencers will continue to grow if celebrities and micro-influencers do not become consistently transparent in their posts.

Misleading people with falsely labeled advertisements are bad, but computer-generated celebrities are a whole other can of misleading worms. For two years, Miquela Sousa was portrayed as a human girl to her followers. After gaining a solid following for herself, the company that created her revealed that she is a computer-generated brand ambassador. Her parent company, Brud, curated her music, social media posts, and even her tattoos were.

Social media is not inherently wrong; it becomes untrustworthy when people intentionally use it to mislead their followers. Nothing is worse than realizing you have been lied to be a source that you deemed trustworthy. Or worse yet, when a person you idolize is not even a natural person. If people continue down this path of misinformation and false advertising, then I see nothing but more Twitter trolls, unlabeled ads, and AI influencers in our future.

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The Trouble with Influencer Marketing in Social Media

Sam Spinale

ss730219@ohio.edu

If you have ever scrolled through social media and saw an influencer promoting a new product, but you weren't sure if it was an advertisement, you're not alone. It has been so hard to tell whether or not a product promotion is something an influencer likes or if it's a paid advertisement. This confusion is starting to irritate many users on social media. These users want influencers with paid promotions to be transparent about which posts are advertisements and which are not.

Source: DesignRush

What is Influencer Marketing?

To know what influencer marketing is, we should understand the discontent behind the lack of transparency within influencer marketing. According to Sprout Social, influencer marketing is "a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers- individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche."

Social media influencers can get paid thousands of dollars for one post about a company's product. The current user frustration comes from a lack of disclosing that the paid endorsement is an advertisement.

Are Influencers Breaking FTC Guidelines?

While most influencers in the business for a while know the consequences of lack of transparency in advertisements, some newer "micro-influencers" do not and don't disclose their incentives behind the post, according to Ad Age. "When it comes to influencer marketing, the FTC's rules state that influencers must reveal their relationships with brands within their posts. In addition, followers need to understand whether what they're seeing is an ad or organic post by an influencer", says Forbes.

Forbes also says that breaking these rules can lead to penalties, fines, and legal fees. For example, in 2016, Machinima, a video network, "settled with the FTC over undisclosed payments to online influencers." In addition, in 2014, an advertising agency working for Sony got in trouble when they told their employees to promote a gaming console on Twitter "without disclosing their relationship to the agency or Sony," says Forbes.

Source: tubefilter

Who is the Watchdog for Social Media Advertisements?

Many users of different social media platforms are starting to question the product placements they see online regularly. As a result, everyday users are starting to be watchdogs; the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is cracking down on advertisements that lack transparency. According to Marketing Week, "the Advertising Standards Authority is taking out Instagram ads exposing rule-breaking influencers who have consistently failed to disclose ads on their accounts, despite explicit warnings." The rules state that any advertisement on social media must be labeled. For example, include the word "ad" in pictures or post captions. According to Marketing Week, six influencers who continuously failed to abide by the rules are Francesca Allen, Jess Gale, Eva Gale, Belle Hassan, Jodie Marsh, and Anna Vakili. Those influencers have even been named by an AAA's website that lists influencers who failed to follow the rules.