Fake News: Credibility, Cultivation Syndrome and the New Age Media

Abstract

Fake news and its repercussions are now a global concern, especially in the wake of the recent incidents that have shook the credibility of media, be it regional, national or global. Media is now a web of propagandas and there are more views then news. Three stories (Myanmar coup, Dimapur Lynching, and Grenfell Tower fire) were taken as case study to understand the morphology of fake news. These news stories have been representative of the news globally, nationally as well as regionally but nevertheless bearing a powerful impact in the news scenario. All the stories have one thing in common primarily designed to suit agenda setting and framing theory, to suit the agendas of political interest as well as cultivate ideas in the minds of the people. Deducing from the analysis, the paper suggests media filtering for restoring credibility, accountability and authenticity of journalism. The paper also framed onion layer trapping that could be a plausible source of fake news.