International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume VI, Issue X, October 2022|ISSN 2454-6186
Filter Bubble and Fake News: Facebook and Journalist Ethics
Fatima Saeed
Riphah International University, Department of Media Sciences, Pakistan
Abstract: In 2016, the result of the American presidential election and Referendum in the United Kingdom shocked journalists all around the world. Social networking sites are now blamed for the construction of the filter bubble. The filter bubble is considered an intellectual state of isolation in which algorithms are making a circumstance where consumers progressively are getting data that reinforce their prior beliefs and less exposure to contradictory viewpoints. Filter bubbles play a key role in the handling, distribution, and dissemination of fake news stories. The study’s objective is to find out how a filter bubble increases susceptibility to believing and sharing fake news and whether applying the filter bubble violates journalistic ethics. Peircean pragmatic perspective is used as a methodological approach to concentrate on concepts such as representation, reality, and fixation of belief (priori method) because this method is relatively close to what happens with the filter bubble on social networking sites. The study results reflect the thing that the platforms of Social media i.e. Facebook, and Google search engines are blamed for the false news controversy, but still, the users’ belief activity and their online presence perform a critical role in driving facebook’s algorithms in this problem.
Keywords: Filter bubble, fake news, journalistic ethics, Peircean Pragmatic perspective, Priori method
I. INTRODUCTION
News digitalization has challenged conventional news concepts. Online channels offer resources for non-journalists to reach out to a large number of users. The emergence of citizen participation in journalism has questioned the connection between reporting and media when non-journalists have begun to participate in investigative practices to generate news.
1.1 NEWS
The term news is derived from the word “new”. The word news is reflected as an abbreviation of four directions of the world i.e. north, east, west, and south.
According to one of the renowned sociologists Walter Lippmann, the news is a product of the media practices and standardized procedures of journalism. Lippmann, however, did not make a typical interpretation of the news but he concentrated on the news features, the interpretation of what it is, and the relation of news with the truth. He argues that the reports and truth are not the same and can be differentiated distinctly. The purpose of news is to indicate an incident or happening and the role of truth is to shed light on the unknown facts and to create an image of reality to which individuals may respond (Lippmann, 1922).