In 2017 the phrase Fake News became a household term. Donald Trump famously used it when he directed it towards a journalist during a press conference. But the term was not new, nor was the type of news or information that it described.
Fake news, more accurately called misinformation or disinformation, has probably been around as long as the written word. Maybe longer. The following are some of the more well-documented instances of fake news from history:
Rome (About 27 BCE)
When the Roman Republic was facing a civil war between Octavian and Marc Antony, Octavian wanted to get the public on his side. To do this, he spread “fake news” about Marc Antony - who was having an affair with the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra. He attacked Marc Antony’s character by saying that he was unfaithful, lacked respect, and was constantly drunk. He distributed the disinformation by printing slogans and messages on coins. Octavian eventually won the war and became the first emperor of Rome, becoming Caesar Augustus.
Trento, Italy, 1475 (Easter)
A small child named Simonino went missing and a Franciscan preacher gave a series of sermons claiming that the Jewish community had murdered the child, drained his blood and drunk it to celebrate Passover. The rumors spread fast and soon the preacher claimed the boy’s body had been found in the basement of a Jewish house. In response, the city’s entire Jewish community was arrested and tortured. Fifteen of them were found guilty and burned at the stake. The story inspired surrounding communities to commit similar atrocities. Some historians believe that these stories were foundational for the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe.
New York City, 1890’s
Ever heard of the term Yellow Journalism? In US cities in the late 1800’s people got their news from newspapers. They were often published, purchased, and read every day, sometimes multiple times a day. In 1883 Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World newspaper and instructed the editors to use “sensationalism, crusades against corruption, and lavish use of illustrations” to boost circulation. Two years later Wiliam Randolph Hearst bought the rival New York Journal and an intense circulation war began. The term "yellow journalism" was coined to describe a type of reporting characterized by sensational headlines, unverified claims, partisan agendas, and a focus on topics like crime, scandal, sports, and violence. (Campbell, 2001)
The illustration on the right shows William Randolph Hearst as a jester tossing out newspapers with salacious headlines to a crowd of eager readers. On the left businessmen pour money into Hearst's printing press. (Image in the public domain).
To help you put this all in perspective, think about the term fake news as a synonym for propaganda, lies, conspiracies, rumors, hoaxes, hyper-partisan content, falsehoods or manipulated media.
When Donald Trump called CNN fake news in January 2017, it wasn’t a completely new term. But it caught fire. It was soon being used everywhere. As the BBC describes it, “within months the sheer ubiquity of the phrase ‘fake news’ had perhaps rendered the term meaningless. All sorts of things - misinformation, spin, conspiracy theories, mistakes, and reporting that people just don't like [were] rolled into it. (Wendling, 2018 https://bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320)
Today the more accurate terms for fake news are either misinformation, when the false information has no mal intent, or disinformation, when it is intended to cause harm in some way.
Campbell, W. J. (2001). Yellow journalism: Puncturing the myths, defining the legacies. Praeger.