Fake news is false news that is presented as the truth. It is destructive, negative, vicious, catastrophic and derails from the path of righteousness. It can land people in trouble, destroy lives, make people fight one another, go to war etc. It is purely destructive.

People put out fake news to damage reputation, make money through advertising revenue and just to keep themselves and their media outlets afloat. With the internet so close to everyone in the form of mobile phones, fake news has become very rife.

In a discussion aired on the South West Network of Radio Nigeria, Professor Bernard Nnamdi Emenyeonu, a Professor of Communication Studies said that fake news was a distortion of reality, a culture where facts and objective truth are seriously eroded everyday, while falsehood gradually gained ground as a new norm. He noted that sometimes the debates among even the elite regarding what is real or fake, left the public confused and bereft of confidence in information.

Professor Emenyeonu said that a lot of fake news was created and carried by websites and social media, resulting in lower levels of trust in main stream media and less accurate identification of real news among the public. He attributed this to the possibility of main stream media becoming more reliant on contents garnered from social media and other unverified sources in order to keep up with trending issues to stay affloat.

A lecturer at the University of Technology and Applied Science, Nizwa, in the Sultanate of Oman,
Professor Emenyeonu noted that the prevalence of fake news in the public domain had become a dominant topic of academic research and public discourse.

Taking the current pandemic as an example, he said that there was a profusion of mainly video clips covering issues such as the conspiracy theories behind the pandemic, claims of orthodox and traditional remedies and the possible implications of taking a covid vaccine whenever it became available. He added that there were also the stories of whether the 5G technology was, for example, a conduit or catalyst of the coronavirus or whether a covid vaccine would have a chip associated with the end times prophecy of the one world government.

Professor Emenyeonu stated that based on two main criteria – facticity and deception, fake news had been classified into categories that included news satire, advertising, parodies, outright fabrications, manipulation of data and even propaganda.

He mentioned that social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are being used to propagate false, malicious and often damaging information or opinions about individuals, organisations, products and services and this led to condemnation, distrust and unjustified public reprisals.

Professor Emenyeonu indicated that fake news has also been associated with mass hysteria, fear and alarm, disorder, disaffection and even instability in certain societies. He said that some of the acts of xenophobia, ethnic conflicts and religious strife which have taken a massive toll on precious lives, property and resources, have been initiated or aggravated by those who stoked the embers of fake news.

The Professor in Communication Studies said that the most worrisome of the effect of fake news was on the public perception of the mass media, media products and media professionals. He said that the intensification of fake news created an enabling environment for more authoritarian control of communication and the media.

Other contributors to the programme were drawn from the network of the Panafrican Women Journalists, “Les Panafricaines” which is composed of women journalists from the 54 African countries. One of them, Mrs Victoria Lugey from Ghana, speaking on how to identify fake news pointed out that fake news was, sometimes, not rendered in correct English and also that the story might not be logically developed. The other ladies; Agatha Ngodho from Kenya, Neo Brown from Ethiopia, Wezi Idah Yvette from Malawi and Yvonne Moka from Botswana noted that it had become very difficult distinguishing fake news from legitimate news and called for thorough checks and research to ascertain the veracity of the news item.

The programme was presented by Peace Odeh and produced by Oghogho Jacinta Odubanjo.