What are things that annoy me?
– Trump
– More and more apps instead of people talking to each other
– Global Warming
– Intentional ignorance
–
Fake news, alternate facts
Ideas of deception - intentional lies told as if they were the truth.
Media that thrives on clickbait, politicians such as Trump who change their statements and accounts of facts regularly, despite knowing that they are lying.
People who know that they are hearing lies but disregard them, or those who do not fact check (or know how to fact check) what they read and hear and see.
Could I play on tis in my research? Do some ethnographic research of people at Massey by spreading rumours/lies and watching them spread? (Or alternatively, could I use deceptions for good? Is that possible/ethical?). Use of dot diagrams/games from play theory to test/initiate this?
The flip side of deception is authenticity - but what is authenticity?
People say that typefaces created on the computer aren't authentic, because the printing press was more hands-on, more skilled and crafted with care. But the printing press isn't as authentic as hand-written calligraphic script, because that takes human fine-motor skills and years of practise. But hand-script isn't as authentic as spoken word, because that is the most human way of portraying what one is thinking of them all, and has nuance and intonation that cannot be conveyed in a written form.
I am in an interesting historical position with this topic - fake news and the post-truth world of 'alternative facts' seems to be a rising phenomenon, for although it was around in the form of propaganda in the Second World War, it is becoming more accepted and mainstream through the rise of the internet and shareable, clickbait styles of media.
In a few years, perhaps by the end of this very year, there may be international laws put in place to prevent the spread and deception of false articles, but at this point in time it is a rising global issue. In all of history there is probably only a timeframe of 1–2 years that this topic is relevant and there are design outcomes that can be made to prevent, educate, or exploit it.
I spoke with my advisor, Patricia, about this topic: would it be feasible? Is it too broad? Is it too simple because it all stems from the one simple fact that people are telling lies? I hope that I can find enough in it to create a big and important enough project for my final year.
- She suggested a similar project about ambiguity leading to deception in the media from a few years back. A student was looking into newspapers and television stories from the news, and how they could create fear-mongering and false ideas by combining two seperate elements in a way that caused people to link them in their minds.
One example was through news stories that showed footage of one event while the running footer of headlines at the bottom of the screen spoke of another. The video might be of a war-torn Syrian town, and the footer would say "Mass hysteria after high-school shootout". People watching the article could link those two ideas in their minds, and although the news wouldn't be outright lying, they could be contributing to ideas that events were bigger than they seemed. People like Trump play on these worries and hype them up further to create strong followings around intense national security and travel bans. Widespread deceptive information can alter the opinions of nations.
- The student also created weekly digest zine based on The TV Guide that had articles with two different meanings - reading across the fold in a page, the story would have one meaning, and reading the rest of the story under the fold would have an entirely different meaning. Through clever copywriting the student had created a zine that didn't exactly lie, but it obscured the truth unless you were actively looking for it. The zine aimed to actively critique The TV Guide by keeping in form with it's style but creating a platform that allowed people to create their own truths.
- Other forms looked at clever advertising placement to reinforce an idea,
- how stories that the media/news business backers find important become feature articles, while other topics deemed less important may not be published,
- how hierarchies of text, pull-quotes, images, blurbs and headlines can affect people's opinions as they glance over the paper,
- and how information goes through so many filters that it can become distorted, and the original meaning/context can be warped or lost.
"An unaware and uneducated public allows a powerful few to remain on top and in control. To change the existing media structure the common man has to question the information he is presented with. Blind acceptance will only allow the powerful few to push their agenda and continue to profit from our obedience." - Student
This project covers some really good points. At this stage it's the only real design outcome that I've seen that touches on my chosen issue, and I don't want it to sway me too much into making mine a replica. I need to find some other examples.
I don't think I want to base my project so much in print media, but perhaps more in spoken statements and clickbait digital media. And how can I make my idea fun and interactive?
