Not a term the majority of us were used to four years ago, but “Fake News” is now seen as one of the greatest threats to democracy, free debate and Western order. A favorite term of US President Donald Trump, it was also named 2017’s Word of the Year, raising tensions between nations, and leading to new regulation of social media. It would also appear that the rest of the world has followed suit, with its use rising by 365% in 2017.
Fake News – False, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting
Collins Dictionary
Though fake news may seem new, the platform used is the only new thing about it. Propaganda has been around for centuries and the internet is only the latest means of communication to be abused to spread lies and misinformation to the masses. Since ancient times people have been exposed to lies, deceit and deception. Believing in these lies can come at grave personal and social costs, while in some extreme cases, communities, religions, and cultures were destroyed due to misplaced belief in falsehoods.
Perhaps no man in history has had more horrific success through the use and power of propaganda than Joseph Goebbels. Nearly a century prior to Trump’s rise to power, the leader of far right Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, brought the world to its knees with the help of his right hand man and revolutionary propagandist. Together they described Jews and other groups that the Nazi government targeted for detention and murder as “Enemies of the People”. Goebbels the then Minister of Propaganda successfully twisted the views of an entire nation, turning the citizens into aggressive and militaristic anti-Semites and anti-Communists, making the Holocaust and general brutality of the Second World War possible.
Donncha Butler
Joseph Goebbels - Controlling Fear 