Let’s begin with fake news that nobody could be a stranger to, or should not be?
When the going gets tough, the tough get going has been attributed to the father of US President, John F Kennedy as well as American football player and coach Knute Rockne, and is nowadays popular in many self-help books.
Billy Ocean sang it in the Jewel of the Nile, so what about when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro?
Hunter S Thompson, author, journalist and activist, sometimes called the father of gonzo journalism made this statement in 1988, should the internet be believed.
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism written without claims of objectivity and the word ‘gonzo’ first used to describe one of his articles.
The use of sarcasm, exaggeration and profanity can be found and Thompson described truth as a rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.
Gonzo, according to some, is South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon.
Others speculate James Baker’s song in 1960 began the use of the term, while a character in a movie called The Pusher may in turn have been inspired by a book by Evan Hunter in 1956 of the same title.
Thompson based his style on William Faulkner’s notion that fiction is often the best fact and talking about literature, the character, Balthazar, in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet says ‘truth is what most contradicts itself in time’.
He even went as far to say that objective journalism was one of the main reasons American politics had been allowed to be so corrupt for so long, referring to American President, Richard Nixon.
American actor and producer, Paul J Alessi, is reported as saying there are two sides to a story and the truth usually lies in the middle.
After this long-winded preamble, Facebook can not be put out to pasture.
Former executive, Mr Chamath Palihapitiya, who left the company in 2011, expressed regret for his part in building tools that ‘destroy the social fabric of how society works’.
His children, according to newspaper reports, are not allowed to use Facebook and he said behaviour, albeit unintentionally, with regard to intellectual independence, is threatened.
The 2016 American presidential election, as well as discourse in many countries, are alleged to have been influenced as well.
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, and now in the hot seat as CEO, promised after criticism to make the Facebook feed more meaningful.
Mr Zuckerberg said algorithm changes, that control the news feed, were done and projects are already underway in their quest of not being truth arbiters themselves, but relying on the community for accurate information.
Technical systems to improve the ability to classify misinformation, third party verification, warning when stories were flagged as false and disrupting fake news economics are some of the projects.
A growing sense for users that you aren’t so alone and to feel connected, could maybe lead at work to checking Facebook first, before your e-mails.
Is the truth out there or am I going to get a ‘like’ on Facebook?
