https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/History-Slam-207.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Over the past two years, the onslaught of misinformation has increasingly attracted public and government attention. From the Covid pandemic, to election results, to protest movements, we are bombarded by a daily avalanche of information and it can be, at times, challenging to distinguish reputable sources from those peddling nonsense. Many… Read more »
Patrick Lacroix “I’ve got to catch up with the remembrance of the past!” – Montag, Fahrenheit 451 (1966) In the last two years, the rise of “fake news” and “alternative facts” as categories of public discourse has prompted fears of a drift towards authoritarianism in the United States and beyond. A casual disregard for truth and campaigns to discredit rigorous… Read more »
By Veronica Strong-Boag Canada’s official and popular histories supply their share of well-told lies. Think of the representation of the Northwest Rebellions as proof positive of Métis and Indian barbarism or the story of the Canadian sergeant crucified by blood-thirsty Huns during World War One. Nellie L. McClung was not immune to those deceptions but she understood the assault on… Read more »
Christo Aivalis During the 2016 American presidential election, but especially after the victory of Donald J. Trump, the term fake news became part of the public lexicon. The confluence of social media, digital campaigns, and the monetization of internet ‘clicks’ led to numerous instances of groups outright fabricating news stories, either to serve ideological objectives, or even just to generate… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/History-Slam-Episode-96-Fake-History.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Back in the fall of 2014, we had an idea for a podcast episode. The premise was that you were at a party, somebody finds out that you study history and asks a question to which you don’t know the answer. Normally, you might say that you weren’t sure, but in… Read more »
By Thomas Peace In the last week we’ve seen a strong desire to put an end to “Fake News”. With the rise of social media and increasingly savvy revenue generating fake news sites, this is an important intervention (the dangers of which Alan MacEachern addressed here last week). It is, however, misleading to assign blame for Donald Trump’s rise to… Read more »
