Tribalism Part 3: Misleading Motivations
Bo Brusco | June 26, 2020
Image by @NeONBRAND from Unsplash.com
Misleading Motivations
George Orwell famously said, “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Perhaps a more difficult task for the modern American is to know whether or not we are telling the truth. The internet is an ocean of half truths, biased narratives, and stretched facts—waters not easily navigated. To stay afloat in this time of deceit, it is essential to understand the motivation behind the creators and publishers of fake news, as well as those who digest and circulate it.
The Business of Telling Lies
When trying to comprehend the motivations behind the production and publication of fake news, money is the most obvious factor. The previous installment of this series featured a case study involving a fake news article created by Paul Horner, who was making $10,000 a month from his phony news. His significant profit may come as a surprise, but when anything gains popularity in a social media platform, or goes “viral,” it can rack in significant financial gains. This is because of website traffic and advertisers.
If the site in which a news article is posted accrues a noteworthy amount of traffic, companies will pay to claim add space on that site. It is easy to think of in terms of prime billboard location. Advertisers will pay to post their ads on an exceptionally busy highway to gain optimal exposure. The difference is that website click traffic is dependent on the amount of appeal their product garners. If your specialty is sensational fake news, like Horner, then your market is thriving right now. American Press stated in a 2019 article that, “ad technology companies spend about $235 million annually by running ads on […] sites [that publish misinformation].” This is why any news publisher, both fake and authentic, make great attempts to be sensational—they desire you and your tribe’s attention because that attention directly affects their revenue.
Control of Information is Power
Another motivation to publish fake, misinforming, or biased news, is to mislead the public. It is not talked about enough, but the principle is simple and the logic is easy to follow: whoever controls your information—or your truth—controls you. To quote Mr. Orwell again: “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” Elaborating further on the power of information, Malcolm X said that, “The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Examples of this principle are available both in our past and present.
A Historical Example
Think of President Johnson and Vietnam. With no confirmed attacks from North Vietnam against two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered immediate retaliation which ended up drastically escalating the conflict into what would be known as the gruesome Vietnam War. To gain the support of the American people, however, Johnson lied by announcing that there had indeed been an attack. Since that was the information given to them, the public believed it to be true and approved of Johnson’s retaliation. This despite the fact that Johnson privately admitted “For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.” (Source: The Most Dangerous, by Steve Sheinkin. 2015)
A Modern Day Example
Perhaps this is important to understand now more than ever. In regards to the Covid-19 pandemic, where we get our truth may have dire and quite personal consequences. If our tribe’s leaders are professing that the whole thing is some political hoax, for example, and we choose to not take the proper social distancing precautions as a result, then we could contract a potentially lethal virus—assuming those leaders are incorrect. Bottom line: how we perceive the world directly affects how we react to it, and our perception of the world is dependent upon from where we get our information or our truth.
Consumption and Circulation
Money and control of public information are motivating factors for the production and publication of fake news. The public’s circulation thereof is a more nuanced topic, though. As previously mentioned, being part of a tribe is in our nature. Sometimes to feel accepted by our presumed tribe, we appeal to its ideals and norms. Sharing articles on social media, and attaching our tribe’s ideals to it, is an efficient way of accomplishing this.
“Hell Yes, We’re Going to Take Your AR-15!”
For instance, if you’re already part, or are seeking to be part, of the pro-gun Conservative tribe, you might be compelled to share the short clip of Beto O'rourke proclaiming, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15!” at one of the 2020 Democratic Primary debates. This would capture the alarm of your tribe, as it directly opposes one of their core ideals. Additionally, to prove your allegiance, you might share it with a comment about how vehemently wrong and intellectually inferior the Democrats are. This would likely result in members of your tribe rallying around your cause with their likes and their comments of affirmation.
Three things happened in this scenario. First, what was shared was known as a soundbite. A short blurb or clip extracted from its entirety, designed to be quickly shared and hook a target audience. In this case the targeted audience would be tribes on the right side of the aisle. Second, what was said was taken out of context, which is typically the nature of a soundbite. One can reasonably assume that not very many people in the aforementioned tribe viewed the entire Democratic debate. The context of which was a single candidate proclaiming what he would potentially do if he were elected president. He was not speaking for the entire Democratic party. Also, a noteworthy piece of context here is that O’rourke had just experienced a terrible mass shooting in his Texas hometown. The man was understandably emotionally charged and speaking out of pure pathos. Lastly, that tribe’s bias was confirmed in a matter of seconds (however long it took to view the soundbite). Which bias is that all the Democrats are either of inferior intellect, or are malignantly motivated, because they want to take your guns.
The Results
The tribe and its members have been appeased, and by extension, so have the creators of that divisive soundbite because with that tribal appeasement comes a flood of likes and shares, which leads to more click traffic and views, which leads to more revenue. Note that in this scenario, the information dispersed via soundbite was not totally false in nature. It did actually happen, so is it “fake news?” Perhaps not, but it is misleading news. And since it is designed to deceive a political tribe into provocation against another, it is at least divisive propaganda.
Consider this
Much to the relief of American citizens trying to make sense of the sensory overload heaped upon them when they login to their social media profiles, site CEO’s are starting to take the threat of misinformation seriously. The business of fake news, however, will likely continue even with new measures in place to slow them down (and with the recent feud rising between Twitter and Donald Trump, this topic will likely have evolved even more after the publication of this article). Despite the current prevalence of fake news, there are many precautions we can take to weave out the falsehoods from the facts, but we’ll save that conversation for next time.
As for our role in the circulation of fake news, please consider Adam Greenwood’s words in regards to echo chambers. He cautions us about losing ourselves to the pursuit of pleasing our tribes: “Every time that we post to social media, a lot of us don’t post for ourselves. We post for them. We post content that we want to see liked or shared or commented on. And we do that because we want validation.” But he warns that, “If we continue to upload content that is not just for us but for them all we’re doing is perpetuating other people’s echo chambers.”
I, like many of you, have been guilty of unknowingly circulating fake news. I have done it out of rage—falling victim to a sensational headline. I have done it for validation—appealing to my tribe’s norms and truths. And I have done it simply because I didn’t know better. But as Greenwood said, when we post propaganda and misinformation, even when we are unaware of the misleading nature of the news stories we share, we only perpetuate our tribe’s bias and fill the pockets of those who profit from misleading us. In doing so, we inevitably increase the already sore polarization in our country.
