What is Fake News? Brainstorm the following question: How do we know when news is fake? 1- Fake news is _____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 2- Is fake news and the presentation of alternative facts a modern/recent concept? ________ 3- Do you think fake news relies on social media? Explain. __________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Fake News Jigsaw Activity In your groups each member is responsible for one article. Read the allocated article and present their findings to the group: 1. What was the title of the article? 2. What was the fake news that was circulated and when? 3. When was it discovered that the news was fake? 4. Were there any results or consequences of the fake news being published? Explain. Reading 1 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake-news/ REPORTS OF PEACE WITH FRANCE SEND STOCKS SOARING IN LONDON In May 1803, as Britain was preparing to end the Treaty of Amiens and declare war on France, a letter was hand delivered to Sir Charles Price, the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion-house. Allegedly written by Lord Hawkesbury, and sealed with his personal seal, the letter claimed that the dispute with France was amicably settled. The Mayor at once took the letter to the Stock Exchange to share the joyous news. STOCKS IMMEDIATELY ROSE 5 PER CENT. Meanwhile, suspicions about the validity of the letter were raised, and enquiries ensued. When it was determined that the letter was indeed a forgery, the Treasury sent the following press release to the editors of the London evening papers: I have to acquaint you, that the message which was supposed to have been sent this morning from Lord Hawkesbury to the Lord Mayor stating that the Negotiations with France had terminated amicably, was a fabrication, and totally destitute of truth. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble Servant, John Sargent. ~1 By then, of course, it was too late. Many stocks had changed hands at inflated rates and the Committee of the Stock Exchange called for reports from the Brokers, to determine who might have gained from the fraudulent letter. All attempts to identify the perpetrator of the hoax failed. Reading 2 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake-news/ LIFE ON THE MOON On 21 August 1835, The New York Sun published a series of articles about the discovery of life on the moon. These were falsely attributed to a well known astronomer of the time named Sir John Herschel. The article reported that Herschel had made these discoveries using new “hydro-oxygen magnifiers” and went on to describe in believable scientific detail, how the discovery was made. Bizarre life forms, inhabitants of the moon, were described, painting a fantastical picture. On Thursday, August 27, 1835, The Sun stated this: Of animals, he classified nine species of mammals, and five of ovipara (egg laying species). Among the former is a small kind of reindeer, the elk, the moose, the horned bear, and the biped beaver. The last resembles the beaver of the earth in every other respect than in its destitution of a tail, and its invariable habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries its young in its arms like a human being, and moves with an easy gliding motion. After accomplishing their goal of adding many new subscribers to their newspaper that August, the paper quietly announced in September that the story had been nothing more than a hoax. Reading 3 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake- news/ WAR OF THE WORLDS The fake news of an alien attack on America is a classic one. On Sunday, 30 October 1938, the Columbia Broadcasting Network aired an adaptation of the 1898 novel War of the Worlds by HG Wells (which was about an alien invasion). During the broadcast, the first two thirds of the story were aired over the radio as a series of breaking news alerts and the effect was so realistic that many listeners panicked, believing that there truly was an alien invasion taking place. The show began as an interruption to regular programming announcing that a professor had observed a series of gas explosions on Mars. Later, a bulletin stated that a meteor had fallen in New Jersey, killing 15,000 people. Another news flash contradicted the first, saying that the meteor was actually a cylindrical object containing strange creatures from Mars armed with death ray guns. Even before the end of the broadcast, doctors, nurses, soldiers and sailors reported for duty, ready to fight the Martians. Police stations across the country responded to thousands of calls. Newspaper reporters, hearing of the invasion, rushed to prepare special editions. Producers of the show were quite unprepared for this response, never thinking that anyone would actually believe that the broadcast was real. Reading 4 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake-news/ WORLD WAR ONE FAKE NEWS In the spring of 1917, as World War One raged across Europe, both the Times and the Daily Mail in London published accounts from ‘anonymous sources’ that claimed they had visited a ‘Kadaver’ factory called Kadaververwertungsanstalt in Germany. They stated that due to a fat shortage, caused by the British naval blockade, the German forces were boiling down the corpses of their own soldiers to be used for fats, bone meal, and pig food, and also to make soap and margarine. Now, long after the war, the story has been attributed to MI7 (British Secret intelligence). In the employment of MI7 during the war were 13 officers and 25 paid writers, including Major Hugh Pollard, who spread this false story through the newspapers. This horrific fake news story was only one of thousands reported by both sides during the war. In an example from the German propaganda machine, the French Minister of War reported in 1914 that the Germans in Alsace-Lorraine were publishing news that the French Parliament had voted against the war and that the President of the Republic had been assassinated. Unfortunately, this story and others like it had implications during World War II, when early reports of Holocaust atrocities emerged. The disinformation contained within these news stories are said to have caused the accurate reports of Nazi atrocities to be doubted when they first started to appear. Reading 1 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake-news/ REPORTS OF PEACE WITH FRANCE SEND STOCKS SOARING IN LONDON In May 1803, as Britain was preparing to end the Treaty of Amiens and declare war on France, a letter was hand delivered to Sir Charles Price, the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion-house. Allegedly written by Lord Hawkesbury, and sealed with his personal seal, the letter claimed that the dispute with France was amicably settled. The Mayor at once took the letter to the Stock Exchange to share the joyous news. STOCKS IMMEDIATELY ROSE 5 PER CENT. Meanwhile, suspicions about the validity of the letter were raised, and enquiries ensued. When it was determined that the letter was indeed a forgery, the Treasury sent the following press release to the editors of the London evening papers: I have to acquaint you, that the message which was supposed to have been sent this morning from Lord Hawkesbury to the Lord Mayor stating that the Negotiations with France had terminated amicably, was a fabrication, and totally destitute of truth. I am, Sir, your most obedient humble Servant, John Sargent. ~1 By then, of course, it was too late. Many stocks had changed hands at inflated rates and the Committee of the Stock Exchange called for reports from the Brokers, to determine who might have gained from the fraudulent letter. All attempts to identify the perpetrator of the hoax failed. Reading 2 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake-news/ LIFE ON THE MOON On 21 August 1835, The New York Sun published a series of articles about the discovery of life on the moon. These were falsely attributed to a well known astronomer of the time named Sir John Herschel. The article reported that Herschel had made these discoveries using new “hydro-oxygen magnifiers” and went on to describe in believable scientific detail, how the discovery was made. Bizarre life forms, inhabitants of the moon, were described, painting a fantastical picture. On Thursday, August 27, 1835, The Sun stated this: Of animals, he classified nine species of mammals, and five of ovipara (egg laying species). Among the former is a small kind of reindeer, the elk, the moose, the horned bear, and the biped beaver. The last resembles the beaver of the earth in every other respect than in its destitution of a tail, and its invariable habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries its young in its arms like a human being, and moves with an easy gliding motion. After accomplishing their goal of adding many new subscribers to their newspaper that August, the paper quietly announced in September that the story had been nothing more than a hoax. Reading 3 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake- news/ WAR OF THE WORLDS The fake news of an alien attack on America is a classic one. On Sunday, 30 October 1938, the Columbia Broadcasting Network aired an adaptation of the 1898 novel War of the Worlds by HG Wells (which was about an alien invasion). During the broadcast, the first two thirds of the story were aired over the radio as a series of breaking news alerts and the effect was so realistic that many listeners panicked, believing that there truly was an alien invasion taking place. The show began as an interruption to regular programming announcing that a professor had observed a series of gas explosions on Mars. Later, a bulletin stated that a meteor had fallen in New Jersey, killing 15,000 people. Another news flash contradicted the first, saying that the meteor was actually a cylindrical object containing strange creatures from Mars armed with death ray guns. Even before the end of the broadcast, doctors, nurses, soldiers and sailors reported for duty, ready to fight the Martians. Police stations across the country responded to thousands of calls. Newspaper reporters, hearing of the invasion, rushed to prepare special editions. Producers of the show were quite unprepared for this response, never thinking that anyone would actually believe that the broadcast was real. Reading 4 Source: https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/fake-news/ WORLD WAR ONE FAKE NEWS In the spring of 1917, as World War One raged across Europe, both the Times and the Daily Mail in London published accounts from ‘anonymous sources’ that claimed they had visited a ‘Kadaver’ factory called Kadaververwertungsanstalt in Germany. They stated that due to a fat shortage, caused by the British naval blockade, the German forces were boiling down the corpses of their own soldiers to be used for fats, bone meal, and pig food, and also to make soap and margarine. Now, long after the war, the story has been attributed to MI7 (British Secret intelligence). In the employment of MI7 during the war were 13 officers and 25 paid writers, including Major Hugh Pollard, who spread this false story through the newspapers. This horrific fake news story was only one of thousands reported by both sides during the war. In an example from the German propaganda machine, the French Minister of War reported in 1914 that the Germans in Alsace-Lorraine were publishing news that the French Parliament had voted against the war and that the President of the Republic had been assassinated. Unfortunately, this story and others like it had implications during World War II, when early reports of Holocaust atrocities emerged. The disinformation contained within these news stories are said to have caused the accurate reports of Nazi atrocities to be doubted when they first started to appear.
