Fake news? It’s all doubleplusgood newspeak to me

Since we can no longer believe everything we read, we have to become far more discerning, writes Shelina Janmohamed

George Osborne, the former UK chancellor of the exchequer, has just been appointed editor of the Evening Standard, one of London’s foremost daily newspapers Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Since we can no longer believe everything we read, we have to become far more discerning

On June 24 last year, I woke up to the news that the United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union in a national referendum. I went into shock, then mourning and then denial. But here we are, with the British prime minister, Theresa May, about to pull the trigger for Brexit.

In the past week, the UK's former chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, announced that he had accepted a job as editor of London's The Evening Standard, owned by a Russian magnate, Evgeny Lebedev.

This time, as I scrolled through the headlines on my social media feed, my response was quite different. I thought: what a well-written parody news story. It has an air of truth to it, if the world was just that little bit crazier than it already is. After all, he’s a man who has no journalistic or editorial experience. Plus he is a member of parliament — a full-time job in an institution that has come under scrutiny for people who abuse their position and privileges.

And yet it was actually true.

The conclusion is clear: the time has come to be more proactive and critical in the way we consume news. Parsing the news to distinguish between genuine fact-based reporting, satire and out-and-out falsehood is now a skill we must all rapidly acquire.

The very integrity of news outlets that have spent decades building their trusted positioning is being challenged. American president Donald Trump announces that stories on CNN are fake news. He says that The New York Times is "dying". His special adviser, Kellyanne Conway, explains away false news as "alternative facts".

In the UK this week, 70 MPs wrote to the BBC to warn them that their reporting of Brexit was skewed and that its reportage should accept “new facts”.

Social media and the ease and low cost of setting up news websites have both helped and hindered. Bypassing entrenched points of view and giving voice to whole new experiences along with on-the-ground citizen reporting have given us a fresh perspective. But they have also created the echo chambers that we hear so much about, which are built on less well-intentioned news outlets that shamelessly promulgate extreme views. Just ask Steve Bannon, former editor of alt-right website Breitbart, who finds himself by Mr Trump’s side. This phenomenon has turned cyberspace into dangerous and unpatrolled terrain, a Wild West of “news” and ideas.

No wonder George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 hit the bestseller list after the election of president Trump. People were turning to his exposition of "newspeak" to try to make sense of a new era we've entered into, where we can never be sure if the truth is the same today as it was yesterday.

Of course, the notion of reading between the lines is something that citizens of many countries will already be well-versed in. But this time it’s different; the very idea of neutral reporting at a global level is under attack. Before, to be caught in a blatant lie, even though the lie was well known, was shameful. But now, the social penalties have evaporated. In fact, those creating the lies just shrug their shoulders when challenged and simply move on. The notion that it’s OK to lie and then change your mind has become part of discourse.

It is we the readers who must become savvy at discerning the truth. News and political literacy are now a must. We must constantly ask ourselves: how can we ever know what has happened? We must arm ourselves with tools to read news critically.

As readers we must verify from multiple sources. It’s also important to expand our reading beyond our social media feeds where so many of us go to get our daily news. News consumption can no longer be a passive hobby. We must be actively engaged in assessing information and its analysis.

In fact, what you need to ask yourself now, after having read this article, is how do you even know that any of this is true? Or, as Orwell might have said, is it all just doubleplusgood newspeak?

Shelina Janmohamed is the author of the books Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World and Love in a Headscarf

On Twitter: @loveinheadscarf