News, Fakes & Co. – Introduction to the Lecture Series
Bonn University Lecture Series – News, Fakes & Co.
Introduction to the Lecture Series
Session title and speaker
- Introduction to News, Fakes & Co. – Prof. Dr. Volker Kronenberg, Dean of Studies of the Philosophical Faculty and Academic Director of the Institute for Political Science and Sociology of Bonn University
- News: The Known Unknown – PD Dr. Hedwig Pompe, Private Lecturer for Modern German Literature and Literature
- Science, Truth & Media – Dr. Manuel Becker, Institute for Political Science and Sociology
1. News, Fakes & Co., an Introduction
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
A Latin phrase that means “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.” – but does she/ do we really want to?
In today’s fast moving and changing world we often long for clear orientation, quick and clear answers, a simplistic dichotomy as basis for our judgement. Looking for a frame of reference for our decision-making in news is nothing new. News are aware of their position, often referred to as the unofficial Fourth Power. Different interest groups using this relationship, now and since the beginning of humanity, to influence the masses in their thinking, doing and being in their own interests is nothing new. From emperors reporting on false victories at the battle front 1000 of years b.c., to Brexit and Trump. In this sense, we need to differentiate between producers and recipients of news and their distinctive position in communications.
What’s the intention of communication; are there any rules to it? What are the consequences for the usage of means of communication and news production; how does this affect user behaviour?
Around the topic of true and fake news fundamental questions on how to establish the truth and the reason for communication emerges. Is it about communicating the truth at all, f.i. in politics? Or is it rather about proportionalities, effectively representing interests of majorities and minorities? In any case, there exist religiously, culturally, humanistically and under international law agreed on right and wrong, as portrayed in the concept of human dignity’s inviolability.
2. News: The Known Unknown
What’s ‘News‘?
News are a cornerstone of good judgement, the informational basis in the process of making a decision to the best of your knowledge and believe. During Absolutism in the 17th century, news were initially defined as “according to which one has to judge”. Distribution of the “right” information became, and are still to this day, systematically relevant. In the ‘Deutsches Wörterbuch’, to German what the Oxford English Dictionary is to English, begun by the Brothers Grimm in 1838 and the initial volumes published in 1854, news are defined as:
…an information to which one has to go by and act upon.
(German original: “[Eine] mittheilung zum darnachrichten und die darnachtung.”)
Good news depend on the possessed level of actuality and objectivity. They contain information to what, who, when, where, how and why something happened. As a tool of historiographical reporting they present ‘what is(/was)’ vs. fictional possibilities of ‘what could be’. Aristotle wrote in ‘Poetics,’ Chapter 9 On the Difference between History and Poetry, and How Historical Matter Should be Used in Poetry (1):
[A] historian and a poet do […] differ in this, that the one speaks of things which have happened, and the other of such as might have happened.
Accessing News
In the past, TV and newspapers were the means to inform and being informed. Producer and recipient were clearly separated and identifiable entities. In current times, foremost since the advent of the internet as a regular part of ordinary lives from the late 1980s, availability of information became pervasive via a multitude of media platforms and outlets, even to the extent, that not only former news-consuming recipients but also information gathering and into news distilling producers become inundated with indistinguishable relevant and irrelevant, true and fake new information. From a protective standpoint, to not loose grip of one’s self-identity, including values and believes, in relation to the external reality, we blur out certain information, mostly unconsciously, due to an inability to evaluate and incorporate all available news into our perception of the outside world. We start to live in an information bubble. But based upon which evaluation criteria do we assess information as relevant or irrelevant, and news as true or fake? Where did those criteria come from? What are their underlying values and believes; their reality?
Information & Media Literacy
The changed news environment calls for imparting media literacy and much needed changed information processing skills. Wrong perception of news can, under certain circumstances, lead to bad decisions with regrettable consequences:
(Click here or on the image to view the flowchart/ decision tree as a PDF.)
Empirical Reality
As we already have noted, news are guiding in the creation of a collective agreed on knowledge and perception of truth based on historic facts and not fictional possible alternatives. Coming to know something changes or affirms our personal decisions and judgement, our reality. In accordance with the empirical reality we eventually align our collective thinking, doing and being, our world.
3. Science, Truth & Media
Science, as a didactic approach of knowledge acquisition, follows a structured, systematic and verifiable process. An approach to, in the best way possible (the map is not the territory), approximate reality in a descriptive form – correspondence theory of truth. News conveyed by science could therefore be seen as the highest form of truth and description of reality available to us.
When applying truth in politics, one ought to ask accordingly questions like “What’s a ‘true’ retirement age?”, or “What’s a ‘true’ minimum wage?”. This very quickly demonstrates that politics, i.e. political decisions/ politics, cannot be evaluated using ‘truth’, bur rather at hand of their appropriate- or fairness. Politics is about the fair exchange of interests and finding the most common ground of the masses. Trumping politics and politicians – no pun intended – are therefore those that feature public interests in the most authentic way. Those are then ‘true’ politics and ‘true’ politicians, according to the particular role of politics. Now you are allowed to compare this statement to Donald Trump’s candidacy and political tendencies in the US before and during his campaign.
Media, communicating news and information to us, influences and forms our perception of reality and truth. This is the frame of reference for what we think, do and be. We, the people, accordingly authorize those politics and politicians that most authentically represent what we came to evaluate as the truest approximation of the world and reality, portrayed be media. How we interact with news, how we consume and interpret them, therefore not only plays a crucial role in the creation of our political consciousness and behaviour, but also by implication how the world will actually be shaped and look like, and then perpetually be portrayed by media to inform us. We are the creators of true and fake news and whether they are about right or wrong in the world.
