The Olsen twins are coming to Syracuse University.
I thought they were a little young to attend college, but the link to a CNN article I was sent explained the girls had been tutored so they could graduate high school early. The twins were apparently attracted to SU because of its strong business school. What exciting news. Now I had one more reason to brag about this fine university to my friends back home.
When I got the message, I had just finished listening to the State of the Union Address and was on my way out the door, so my mind wasn’t at its sharpest.
I missed a lot of details that should have clued me in to the article’s questionable origin. I didn’t notice that the story was listed as a CNN Global article. I also failed to check CNN’s Web site to see if it appeared on the main page.
Much to the annoyance of the 50 or so people I proudly shared the news with, the Olsen twins are not coming to Syracuse. In fact, people at other colleges received the same article hours earlier — with their school’s name inserted instead of Syracuse.
I felt really, really stupid. Here I was, a person who in general prides himself on being a skeptic, running around a bar and trying to convince peers that those wonderful little Full-Housers might be bobbing their fake little heads along with us to The Martha Dumptruck Massacre in one year’s time. I checked the original link last night and the spoof article had been taken down, replaced with a link to the Spo0fed.com homepage regarding a “CNN Fake News Generator.” The page read, “Please note that the operators of Spo0fed.com did not personally post any of the articles. It was the general public who did so.”
I still feel stupid for being duped, but now I feel enlightened as well.
It is always a struggle to gain access to media channels without institutional support or connections, because there are so many gatekeepers. Self-censorship and an ever-increasing wave of corporate influence in the news media have made it much harder for an individual to voice an original opinion or idea.
But a group, armed only with a simple program, was able to create an online happening that forced participants to review their understanding of how news is generated and understood. Although I felt really stupid when I discovered the truth about the Olsen twins, it paled in comparison to the other lies I am told every day by the national media.
I am not entirely sure if this was the company’s motivation, but even if they did not intend for the public to act as its own counter-cultural public relations firm, I was impressed. It helped me get excited about generating, as well manipulating, media. And just like in the real world, I can blame my spin on someone else.
Zack Denfeld is a junior policy studies major. E-mail him at zcdenfel@syr.edu.
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