Module VII·Article II·~1 min read
Disinformation and the Rhetoric of False Narratives
Digital Rhetoric: Social Media, Disinformation, and Image
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Fake News as a Rhetorical System
"Fake news" is not simply "falsehood." It is a rhetorical system that uses the form of news (authority, objectivity) to disseminate false or distorted content. This system is especially effective because the audience applies trust in "news" to content that does not deserve it.
Anatomy of Disinformation (Wardle, Derakhshan, "Information Disorder Ecology"): disinformation (disinformation — intentional falsehood), malinformation (malinformation — truth used to cause harm), misinformation (misinformation — unintentional inaccuracy). Different types require different responses.
"Fake News Playbook" (typical techniques): headline does not correspond to the text; photo without context; quotation taken out of context; "anonymous source"; imaginary sources; real story attributed to another context ("repackaging").
Why We Believe Fakes
MIT Research (2018, Vosoughi, Roy, Aral): false news spreads 6 times faster than truthful ones. Why? Lies are more "novel" — truth is usually more boring. Lies more often evoke high arousal (fear, outrage, astonishment).
"Illusion of truth": a repeated assertion is perceived as more truthful — even if it was labeled as false. This is "processing fluency": familiarity makes processing easier, which is interpreted as credibility.
Refutation often loses: "backfire effect" — refutation sometimes strengthens the false belief. (This phenomenon is disputed in later studies, but the difficulty of refutation itself is real.)
Question for reflection: Recall a case when you believed information that turned out to be false. What convinced you? What specific habits can help you evaluate new information more critically in the future?
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