You are Fake News. - Donald Trump What is 'Fake News'? Fake news can be interpreted as journalism that consists of calculated misinformation or hoaxes. It is often spread via traditional media platforms, such as print media and news broadcast, however it has also been widely spread through social media (e.g. twitter). Fake news can also be portrayed as sloppy, poorly researched journalism. Fake news rose in prominence during the 2016 Presidential election through Donald Trump, the then Republican Presidential candidate (who would go on to become the President of the United States). Since his inauguration Donald Trump has consistently affirmed his distaste of Fake News. However, Trump has come to confuse Fake News - which is news that is aimed to deceive the public, often with inaccurate sources and material - with partisan, one sided news, which can be seen in mainstream outlets such as CNN (Cable News Network) and Al Jazeera. A recent example of Fake News can be seen through CNN - which as stated before is a partisan network focused largely on liberal beliefs and values - who put out a story concerning Trump's associates links to Russian corporations (which has now been deleted). This story falsely linked Anthony Scaramucci to a Kremlin controlled Russian Direct Investment Fund, which was subsequently proven to be false, from this CNN then took down the article, and issued an editor's note via twitter to Scaramucci for their misrepresentation of him along with the resignation of three CNN journalists after the article was pulled. References: <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cnn-trump-russia-story-deleted-retraction-anthony-scaramucci-money-apology-a7809521.html>. <http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-cnn-resignation-20170626-story.html>. fin~
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Obama and The Crusades When Barack Obama spoke during the National Prayer Breakfast* in 2015, he intentionally manipulated the public sphere** in order to get his point across and stimulate debate over the issue of religious extremism. One of Obama's aides explained that: "The President wanted to be provocative in his remarks", and moreover “He wanted to make the point that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen faith perverted and it won’t be the last.” Through Obama's intentional manipulation of the public sphere he stirred up American conservative politicians and media, as well as Evangelical Christian groups who felt that their religion had been unfairly targeted. However, Obama was not trying to alienate an entire religion (i.e. Christianity). Rather, he attempted to create a historical context for the actions of Islamic Jihad, providing the example of the Crusades to show how history repeats itself. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns led by the European Christians to reclaim the Holy Land, including Jerusalem, after the Muslims had seized it from the Byzantine Empire. Many people*** look upon the Crusades as extremely violent and religiously motivated due to the acts that were committed during these campaigns. The reaction to Obama's 'Crusades speech' from the conservative media such as Fox and other right-wing commentators was one of outrage, with one Fox contributor comparing Obama's address to a "Verbal rape on Christians". The debate on this issue began from this speech from Obama and spread to mainstream media and the online twitter-sphere. This accomplished Obama's original aim of sharing debate and opinion among individuals and groups about how history continually repeats itself in regards to religious extremism. This speech contributed to debate in the public sphere and created controversy as a majority of the American public identify as Christians. It was presented at an event organised by a Christian organisation and the American political establishment is primarily Christian. However, if this speech took place in other western countries, the reaction would not have been so extreme. In countries like Australia and the United Kingdom the media and the political establishment are regarded as non-religious and would not even see Obama's comments as an issue. * An event held by the United States Congress, organised on their behalf by the Fellowship Foundation, a Christian organisation. The event is a series of meetings, luncheons and dinners that is a forum for the social and political elite to build relationships. Often there are foreign dignitaries of differing religions invited to attend this event. ** The public sphere is a place where the citizens debate among common concerns. *** The Crusades are looked down upon as particularly unfavorable by many people in the West, including world leaders and even liberal politicians such as Barack Obama. References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/23/no-religion-outnumber-christians-england-wales-study https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html?utm_term=.4ccbc2445b1e https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/02/06/why-obama-invoked-the-crusades-in-re-islam-and-terrorism/?utm_term=.d3464d87e87b https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/us/obama-trying-to-add-context-to-speech-faces-backlash-over-crusades.html?ref=oembed fin~
When you're a catalyst for change, you make enemies - and I'm proud of the ones I've got.- Rupert Murdoch Why does the ownership of media matter? Media ownership matters because in countries with a large amount of media concentration, such as Australia it can lead to a heavily skewed bias towards one side or another. This can heavily influence the public's perception on certain view-points. One of the largest media conglomerates is News Corp. owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp. owns media corporations across three continents (Australia, Europe and the Americas). One company owning such a large amount of the media leads to a lack of diversity. This matters because owning a majority of the media can often lead to a one-sided view on many issues, misrepresenting these issues and causing the public to have a single-sided perception on many news stories from a lack of transparency. An example of the manipulation of the media can be seen in the reign of the ex-Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. His family owns Italy's three top national television stations and has control over 90% of Italy's national television audience. Berlusconi's control of the majority of the Italian mainstream media has restricted reporting to biased positive views on Berlusconi. fin~
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