While this was something that we had discussed throughout the semester, interacting with students from different languages during the workshop truly solidified the fact that there are certain distinct characteristics of Fake News that are identifiable across languages. For example, while Will’s fake news article was in Spanish, I felt as if I had seen nearly the exact same article during my research in Italian. His article decontextualized a photo and used inflammatory, offensive language–two strategies that are incredibly common in fake news. Additionally, both pieces of fake news villainized migrants in an attempt to paint the migrants as a danger to nationals. However, each article did this in a slightly different way. Will’s article manipulated a photo to show a migrant physically assaulting a national and my video portrayed the migrants as lying about the situation on board the Aquarius–while these strategies are different, they both served to portray the migrants as being untrustworthy.

One thing that I found particularly interesting during the workshop was how much harder it was to understand Alexandra’s article than Will’s. While I partially attribute this to the fact that I am more familiar with Spanish than I am with French, I believe this discrepancy was primarily due to the difference in register. Alexandra’s article was much more academic than Will’s or mine was. This brought up an interesting discussion between our group and another group during the workshop–how much does register influence the effect of fake news? More specifically, is an article written in a “higher” register more “convincing?” Or vice versa?

Personally, I believe that it depends upon the who the target audience is. If the target audience already buys into anti-immigrant sentiments, then the “lower” register with more inflammatory language would likely be more effective. However, if the target audience is more skeptical of anti-immigrant sentiment, then I believe the “higher” register would be more effective. By using more academic language, the author of the fake news is able to distance anti-immigrant sentiments from the idea that people who feel this way are simply bigoted or uneducated. It proves that anti-immigrant sentiment and fake news are dangerous to all of society, not just one subsection.

Fake News Workshop Reflection – Anna Waters

I found the fake news workshop to be very informative about the ways in which fake news manipulates readers and appeals to specific cohorts of people through particular word usage. For example, the French fake news that we worked with during the workshop had many similarities to my fake news. For instance, both were social media memes, and although the two memes were not referring to immigration I noticed that they both used similar strategies in their word usage as both memes utilized the same type of aggressive and cunning language to portray their messages. As we concluded in the discussion in the workshop, this specific type of rhetoric is used in short memes in order to appeal to a group of people that stands on one side of a political issue. For example, the Italian Facebook meme was directed towards an audience that supported anti immigration, whereas the French meme was directed towards an audience that opposed capitalism and financial corruption among political leaders. Likewise, my fake news meme in particular portrayed the interaction between migrants and nationals in a negative light, and although I was only the person who had fake news about immigration, I gathered from the discussion that a similar strategy that is used across all languages in regards to fake news pins immigrants (the other) against nationals (the us). For example, my fake news depicted all migrants as criminals that pose a threat to Italian society in general.
Furthermore, we discussed in class how the same photos were often used across all languages for memes about immigration, which undermined the validity of the photos, and we concluded that using stock photos was a common trend in fake news articles and helpful to be aware of when trying to distinguish between fake news and real news.
Moreover, some of the strategies that I noticed that were used across all three languages were taking photos out of context and captioning them to emphasize either negative or positive qualities of the photo. In my group both the French fake news and Italian fake news used an image and placed the caption on top of the photo, which obviously caused the reader to interpret the photo in the context of the caption. However, if one were to remove the captions the photos could be interpreted in a completely different way. This tactic proved to be very persuasive and effective. For example, my fake news had the caption that read, “non cielo dicono” across a photo-shopped photo of Putin next to a photo of an African migrant who attempted a terrorist attack in Italy. The caption, which roughly translates to, “it is not the heaven that they say” in English was meant to use Putin, a viable figure who stands against immigration, to validate their negative statements about immigrants on a global scale. Additionally, the aesthetic of the split photo of such a worldly leader such as Putin placed next to the African migrant further manipulates the viewer visually because it grabs the audience’s attention.
Moreover, another similar strategy that I noticed between the fake news items in my group was the use of over exaggerated language. For example, the Spanish fake news over exaggerated the effects of global warming in a humorous and sarcastic way in order to appeal to an audience that does not think that global warming is a pressing issue. For example, the fake news stated that we need to remove daylight savings because the extra sunlight omitted is doing irreparable damage to the earth. Also, similar strategies of over exaggeration were used in my fake news meme as well by using phrases that grouped all immigrants together and depicted all of them as bad. Interestingly, I found this type of language to be extremely persuasive and manipulative towards its targeted audience. We even talked about in the workshop how simple things like the style of the text can influence who is more likely to believe the information that the fake news is disseminating, like the use of capital letters versus the use of non capital letters. For example, someone in my group noted that the use of capital letters in fake news would be more likely to appeal to an older audience.
In conclusion, the use of aggressive and over exaggerated language, satire, and stock photos with lengthy captions depicting one political group or view as unrealistically evil or bad are all characteristics of fake news that we can all be more aware of in order to more effectively distinguish between fake news and real news.

Lucas Tishler – Workshop Reflection

I greatly enjoyed the workshop we conducted on Monday. Although the fake news articles were of all types, not just related to immigration, I was able to gain an insight into the different methods and ways that fake news is disseminated, and in particular the way that fake news attempts to manipulate the reader’s opinion on a specific subject matter. For instance, in my group, there was a student from the French department who presented a fake news article against immigration. This article was highly similar to the type of articles that I had seen in Italian – in fact, the only real difference was to do with the locations referred to in the article. In Italy, a large degree of immigration stems from Libya, whereas this article discussed countries such as Cameroon and the Ivory Coast.

My news article portrayed the relationship betweens nationals and migrants as much more cohesive than I believe it is in reality. It portrayed soldiers helping immigrant children – when in reality it was the work of photoshop. It is known that there a lot of tension regarding immigration from Libya and this article is definitely attempting to manipulate that information in an inaccurate way.

Ultimately, it seemed that many of the strategies used across these languages were somewhat similar. In particular, it seemed that a popular tactic was taking an image out of context – probably because this is very easy to do and can be convincing to the uninformed reader. The photos that are used are typically very dramatic and eye-catching – such as a deceased baby or a murder. In addition, proper citation of sources is typically omitted, due to the fact that there are not actually valid sources to support the claims.

In terms of narrative structure, most of the articles that I saw lacked a proper structure. I think that this is because many people don’t even take the time to verify for themselves whether they think an article is legitimate or not – they will carelessly share the article, unknowingly. In fact, Dr. Price described this as one of the three forms of the dissemination of fake news: a situation in which you do not know whether the news is real or not, so you are not deliberately spreading misleading information, but you also do not know that it is correct. It was mentioned that this area in particular was one in which there had not been much research, and I think it would be interesting to learn more about it.

I thought that this workshop provided us with a fantastic opportunity to collude our knowledge with other students from other departments and I am glad that I had a chance to see that students are able to learn about similar topics to us in other languages. I would say that the main drawback was potentially the fact that our fake news was not all consistent to the topic of immigration. However, all in all I really liked the format of the presentation from Dr. Price and the ability to engage in a discussion with other students from the French and Spanish department on a topical and pertinent issue.

Elizabeth Sack – Workshop Reflection

This workshop made me realize the similarities and nuances in specifically immigrant fake news but more generally any kind of fake news are across all languages. Migrants in all situations of fake news were villainized and criminalized; migrants were almost depicted as people who commit acts of atrocity whenever and wherever they travel. Migrants and nationals often are seen to have a highly contentious relationship, oftentimes with migrants inflicting some sort of violence on the nationals. This was evidenced in my piece of fake news where immigrants evidently bash an Italian police car to bits. By publishing this information with catchy headlines and without many citations, they allow those who are anti-immigrant to push their agenda forward, even if their claims are not substantiated.

Similar tactics were utilized in Italian, Spanish, and French to convey the information in the most eye-grabbing way possible. All of the fake news articles had some sort of photo at the top to attempt to contextualize the situation, but it is impossible to properly situate these photos when they are not properly cited from their original source. Secondly, the writers of this fake news often use derogatory terms to immediately capture the reader’s attention upon first glance. For the immigration fake news, more specifically, these headlines are supposed to instill fear about what catastrophes the “Others” could bring to Italy.

I found the workshop to be extremely interesting. I missed much of Dr. Price’s discussion, so I wish I could apply more of his technical language to my assessment of fake news. During the breakout in small groups, it is evident that all three cultures possess similar sentiments towards immigrants. With continued discussion of this important issue, we, as the future leaders and advocates of our world, can push immigration policy in the right direction and discourage the dissemination of disinformation and misinformation on the topic.

Chiara Settineri – Workshop Reflection

Through this workshop on fake news, I realized how similarly crafted the narratives surrounding immigration are, despite the fact that we reviewed articles that were published in different languages and in different countries. In every piece of fake news that features migrants as the social actors, the migrants are depicted as villains which will bring terror to any country that would have them. Of course, this is not the case, but these sources make it seem as though allowing a migrant into a land would be comparable to inviting a known criminal into your home. It is clear through these pieces of fake news that there is significant tension between nationals and migrants, as nationals are reluctant to share their space, fearful that their wellbeing and culture might be put at risk.

Although the articles shared are in different three languages, there are significant similarities in the way the fake news was carried out. Firstly, each article is accompanied by a photo, which—on its own—lacks much context. Enough details are hidden so that different stories may accompany the photo. In every case, the attached writing entirely shapes the way the photo is perceived; to use Price’s lesson, the signified is fully constructed by the words rather than by the viewer or the sign itself. Secondly, in terms of attracting readers and heightening drama, most fake news surrounding migrants defines the social actors by one characteristic that will garner the most attention, such as “Muslim” or “African.” Overall, the articles each evoke emotions from the reader, especially that of fear.

I thought that the workshop itself was a valuable experience, especially due to the portion which consisted of Garth Price’s talk as well as the group discussion. The experience of speaking with other students about immigration in the countries where their language of focus is used was highly interesting; it is clear that Spain, Italy, and France each have the same attitude and fears towards migrants. In the future, I think workshops like this should be continued and further group discussion should be encouraged, as people’s comments brought important issues surrounding fake news and media coverage in general to light.

Rafaela De Oliveira: Workshop Reflection

Before attending this workshop, I tended to view Italy as an anomaly. The fake news we had analyzed in class and on our own seemed absurd to me, despite knowing the very strong views of both the U.S. and Brazil. We had seen fake news in various forms, making claims that were biased, manipulated to appeal to appeal to certain audiences (mainly those who had conservative political views), or even simply presenting misleading content. Throughout the workshop, however, I began to see the fabrication of such content was not unique to Italy.

From the beginning, the speaker introduced the common types of fake-news, and presented the argument that this type of information being spread is not new but has been made more accessible and common throughout the world through the creation of social media platforms. Spain, France, Italy– and many other countries, have multiple, innumerable, narratives of fake news, from targeting refugees to joking about Justin Bieber’s “dog-baby,” using very similar tactics throughout. During the workshop, we were able to draw these similarities, in seeing how similar polarizing language was used, or similar types of pictures or videos were captured for spreading fake-news. One example that was surprising was the use of the same picture of immigrants arriving in a country being used in Italy, the U.S., and Spain, showing the tactics were not only similar, but even sometimes the same.

In the end, however, I was not only able to learn the Italian fake-news is not unique in the sense of its form and subject of matter (often being more recently on immigration), but that language played an important role in molding it as well. By reading and looking at other countries’ fake news, I was able to understand the importance language has in capturing the context and in presenting the information in a way that can often be lost in translation. An example of such, is my own fake-news meme, which includes grammatical mistakes as well as words relating to a specific Italian government policy, that could not be understood through simple translation, but that requires further context and explanation.

Overall, this workshop was a great learning experience. I really enjoyed the talk, as well as sharing and learning with those learning other languages and cultures.

Carmela Guaglianone Post-Workshop Reflection

The most overarching theme my group (group 10) was able to discern in our analysis of fake news through different cultures was the distinction that each narrative created between an “us” group and a “them” group. The strategy of the news, in each case, was to take an event or image of some kind and misconstrue the context to further develop some argument that the perpetrators of the fake news supported. In one case, this meant the direct tampering with the language on a sign that a woman was holding up in an image. The woman was supporting immigration in her sign, which read “our ports are open” (or something to that effect) and the words had been photoshopped to read “my legs are open”. This change not only erased the actual rhetoric and opinion of the woman protesting, but othered her by humiliating her on social media platforms. This embarrassment acts as an example of a common sentiment within fake news– not only is the other side wrong, but they are not worthy of our respect. In another example, the words of a minister of immigration were changed and placed in quotes; a similarly blatant disregard for the rules of mass communication and journalism especially. Again in this case, the reporters disregarded the words and humanity of the speaker and used her speech as a platform to further their own central arguments against immigration and migrants (and consequently, anyone seen in support of said migrants).

What I found most interesting throughout our analysis was the manner in which the migrant was othered and the impact that it had on the perception of migrants throughout the nation. Often migrants are depicted (through many different mechanisms) as victims or criminals or both. The news uses cultural differences and pre-existing stereotypes as cultural borders of sorts, and then as mechanisms of distinction between and in group and an out group. In using them in this migrants and “the migrant experience” becomes an object of sorts. It becomes a facet of the world they perceive, rather than a web of complex histories and experiences. And furthermore, it becomes a tool to criticize and exclude actual people from the stories they have crafted and the arguments they are attending. Similarly, this creates a pre-existing stratification between migrants and nationals which feeds back into the state power dynamic and polarizes the groups when migrants do arrive.

Throughout my experience in the workshop, it became evident that fake news pertaining to immigrants or migrants was largely used. It was interesting to see the varying ways fake news depicted migrants, and to me it seemed as though they were being used as tools for some other intended purpose. For my own fake news, it was clear that the use of immigrants was to evoke a negative reaction towards immigrants. Further, there was an attempt to bring out racism seeing as the selected population was of Africans migrating. There were similarities between among my own group members as well where immigrants were used as social tools to convince various populations on certain topics. Other similarities included how, across the languages, these fake news seek to trigger emotions that will gain some sort of response from the readers. They hope that through this, their news will spread and hence there will be action on it. Each of the fake news in my group had some some of agenda that wanted pushed throughout the false information it was spreading.

The fake news across the three languages we examined expressed overall similar structure and goals. They often involved some sort of picture and the text that originally followed the photo was manipulated in some manner to aid in the message the fake news wanted spread. This could be done a number of ways, such as withholding parts of an interview, using only excerpts of studies, or even purposefully misinterpreting various messages simply to achieve the goals of their agenda. Thankfully we had Dr. Price discuss details on this type of manipulation with us. By gaining factual knowledge on the history of fake news all the way up to understanding more about it today, we learned more about our individual fake news that we initially brought. Today propaganda is spread much easier and across many more platforms than previously, making fake news that much more prevalent and that much more dangerous. All in all, being able to recognize and interpret the motives of fake news has become an important part of news today.

Katelyn Luck – Post-Workshop Reflection