The clickbait-y caption, is my tribute to the Glitz, Galatta, Woods and all the masala channels that have managed to spice up my mundane life. One of my dreams is to land an internship in one of those channels so that I get to rummage through my favorite heroine’ handbags and find what secrets they behold(fingers crossed)
Seri topic ku varuvom, all the periya pistachios who were actively following the world news last week will know about the storm of protestors occupying the US Capitol against the election fraud, while closer home VJna fans were more bothered about getting 100 percent occupancy in theatres. But the aftermath of the US Capitol protest was so huge that Trump got de-platformed on all major social media sites.
How it all started?
Since the November elections ended, Trump has been harping about how there was countrywide ballot fraud and that Biden’s votes were illegitimate. Social media and constant exposure to his claim by TV networks managed to catalyze enough people to believe that his claims were true and that’s what ended in the insurrection last week.
The charm of misinformation
Fake news is not new to Tamils too, all the celebrity gossip columns have been peddling such articles for nosey folks since forever. What social media allows though is the ability to run’s own such racket of misinformation with a sizeable following.
Take a familiar example of Meera Mithun(now rebranded as Tamil Selvi), who has by now alleged that every important figure in India have prevented her entry into Kollywood and that she was part of several films but those scenes later got removed.
I know you are thinking that you are above all this petty allegations, but Meera Mithun is an interesting case study because she has her own group of ardent supporters(#MeeraArmy) repropagating all that she says. This has been achieved by the echoing effect of social networks, where once you fall down any rabbit hole, you find a ready support group who help in reinforcing the conspiracy narrative. (read more about the underlying technique here)
I find misinformation charming because it essentially erodes trust in individuals and institutions. Imagine how you would feel once you know that the media outlet you trust and consume from takes a U-turn on the stance it has taken for the past few months. You are suddenly put into this weird crisis of not knowing whether all the other topics covered by the same source were false too. Many Americans will be facing this very crisis soon about the electoral fraud issue coverage and so will your friends if they subscribe to the Meera fandom or god-knows other rabbitholes out there.
I think this article ended up kinda gloomy but I felt it is an important topic to address, since we will be having the vaccine rollout soon and countless conspiracies to go with it. One simple remedy though for fake news is taking time to independently validate any information you consume before accepting them as facts.
With this in mind, I end with my sincere request,
VALIDATE MASTER BOX OFFICE NUMBERS BEFORE YOU RETWEET THEM!!!
Regards,
A concerned Thala fan