Thursday, July 5, 2018

Yellow Journalism and Fake News

I was amused today reading through an ARD (Channel One, public TV in Germany) news piece.

The emphasis?  Well, they wanted you to know that 'word scientists' are discussing the 'phenomenon' of framing.

Framing?  This is where you craft or build words to describe an event going on, that people can key on quickly and reference.

ARD notes.....this style of language could change your perception of reality.

The word that they picked on?  Asylum tourism.

Asylum tourism means (my definition) that you landed on the beaches of Italy or Greece, and then started walking.  Instead of complying with the EU agreement which says where you land....is where you declare asylum.....they walk to their 'menu-choice'.....typically Germany, or the UK.  In the case of the UK, they are heading toward the point where the rail service would take you from France into the UK.

Is asylum tourism a correct term?  Yes.  Although you could invent another dozen references....this word fits just as well.

In this amusing piece, what ARD misses is that they themselves, over the past twenty years....have gone to framing words as well, and they are part of the cycle.

In this case, they end the report by stating that framing is a favorite behavior of President Trump, and 'fake news' is the example.  The sad thing is that 'yellow journalism' is really fake news, and it's been around for a minimum of 150 years in the US, and I suspect that it's been in Germany for an equal amount of time.

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