For assessment five, we were asked to write a persuasive blog post on a topic with some relation to being a digital learner. For my topic, I have chosen; “For an online digital learner, it is ethically unacceptable to spread fake news.”Agreeing with this, one could argue that there is an immorality in spreading fake news, those who disagree could say that the issue is more complicated than this simple statement.The deeper you go into the issue, the more you come to conclude that this is not a polar issue; therefore, I can only argue that it is both. To support this, my arguments include:
- The idea of an agenda, as it plays a huge role in determining why people spread fake news.
- The question of whether people are aware of when they spread fake news?
Agenda means everything when spreading fake news; are we spreading it for personal gain, or are we sending a friend a meme for a laugh? But does that matter? Is the very act of spreading fake news, even if it’s a joke you send privately, ethically unacceptable?People who are knowingly spreading fake news to fit their agenda are a threat to democracy, that much is clear. With even the Australian government weighing in, “Governments and parliaments around the world have increasingly been focused on the issue of fake news, with some identifying it as a major threat to democratic and social institutions.” (Buckmaster & Wils, n.d.). With the internet becoming an integral part of modern life, it is evident that “When people feel their democratic representatives do not serve them anymore, they turn to the internet.”(Polonski, 2016). As the internet is now a tool for political means, it has become essential, and therefore it is everyone’s obligation to be aware of, and to avoid spreading fake news.With the internet giving people the power to speak on a global platform, it becomes paramount that “They must consider that great responsibility follows inseparably from great power.” (“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility – Quote Investigator”, 1793). With this in mind, people who spread political memes do have a responsibility to consider who is liking these posts and which groups of people are attached to their content and in turn, who may share and thus spread it. As for people that knowingly spread fake news for personal gain, it is abhorrent and as previously stated by the Australian government is a direct threat to social democracy.
However, are people aware that they are spreading fake news? Can you call it unethical if the digital learner is unaware that what they’re sharing is, in fact, fake news? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say; “an online digital learner is required to have the ability to identify fake news”, rather than, “it is ethically unacceptable to spread fake news.” It’s too easy for me to argue that it is unethical to spread fake news as a university student as the issue is much more complicated than this. As a university student, we are taught to be critical thinkers and the power of research. We are taught not only of the dangers of fake news but more importantly, how to spot it through analysis. We should also consider that many people haven’t been as fortunate as myself; may not have had the money to study at university, have not learned these principles, and are at risk of falling into a well-known effect called “Principle of Least Effort” (Kingsley Zipf, 1949). “People searching for information prefer resources that are easily accessed regardless of their intellectual value or relevance.” (Weiss et al., 2020).This effect will directly impact those who haven’t been taught how to research thoroughly, think critically and therefore, how to identify fake news.Principle of least effort further reinstates that the responsibility doesn’t lie wholly with the digital learner, but more so with an educational system that can teach everyone the power of research. Fake news can spread incredibly quickly when the Principle of least effort is combined, or meets, the Kruger-Dunning effect which states “People who scored in the lowest percentiles on tests of grammar, humour, and logic also tended to dramatically overestimate how well they had performed” (Cherry, 2019) which is why we need to educate people in researching correctly then blaming them for not being able to differentiate between trustworthy, reliable news or fake news sources.
So, who is responsible for spreading fake news: ‘the spreader’ or ‘the creator’? To elaborate, the spreader would be someone who is what we talked about in argument one, someone who has seen a post and shares it so more people see it. As already discussed this would be unethical, unless they are unaware that it is fake news it’s more a lack of research or ignorance at best, which I would argue isn’t their fault, rather a failing educational system. The one really to blame here is the creator, someone who creates fake news with a political agenda in mind. As discussed, many other questions must be considered regarding the original topic question. In examining these questions in further detail, we can conclude that there are undoubtedly unethical people out there using the internet. However, this still doesn’t lead me to agree with the topic question, as in some areas, there is a nuance. You cannot blame some for what they aren’t aware that they’re doing. Therefore, we have to be very careful when pointing fingers as it only distances us further. Instead, we should ask what is expected of a digital learner or whether they are acting with digital integrity. In doing so, we can create more understanding. Ask how we, as an online community, can teach one another, help one another and create an educational system that doesn’t leave anyone behind. If we can create that, then it doesn’t matter how many fake news stories are created as they will lose power over those susceptible to believing and spreading them.
References
Buckmaster, L., & Wils, T. Responding to fake news – Parliament of Australia. Aph.gov.au. Retrieved 18 September 2020, from https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook46p/FakeNews.
Cherry, K. (2019). Dunning-Kruger Effect: Why Incompetent People Think They Are Superior. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 18 September 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740.
Gecko&Fly. (2020). Fake Albert Einstein quote [Image]. Retrieved 19 September 2020, from https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn4.geckoandfly.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F02%2Ffake-news-quotes-05.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geckoandfly.com%2F24654%2Fquotes-counter-fake-news-social-media%2F&tbnid=y204EZMr3xy-SM&vet=12ahUKEwiTr9qi5ODrAhVLEbcAHedSD3oQMygEegUIARCTAQ..i&docid=cM7JyCOEc_HocM&w=1920&h=1080&q=to%20spread%20fake%20news.%20quotes&hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwiTr9qi5ODrAhVLEbcAHedSD3oQMygEegUIARCTAQ.
Polonski, V. (2016). The biggest threat to democracy? Your social media feed. World Economic Forum. Retrieved 18 September 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/08/the-biggest-threat-to-democracy-your-social-media-feed/.
Weiss, A., Alwan, A., Garcia, E., & Garcia, J. (2020). Surveying fake news: Assessing university faculty’s fragmented definition of fake news and its impact on teaching critical thinking. International Journal For Educational Integrity, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-019-0049-x
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility – Quote Investigator. Quoteinvestigator.com. (1793). Retrieved 18 September 2020, from https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/07/23/great-power/.
Assessment 5 marked. Results available via EASTS on 14th October