The ease of online media manipulation

Do you want to influence media and society? Read this log carefully.

First Step:
Choose a subject that's really hot at the moment. Especially online websites are searching the entire day for news on Twitter and Blogs. In fact they are too lazy to set up their own story, so they simple copy-paste our findings. Newsmedia have called this 'crowdsourcing', I am calling this saving money and reducing sweat.

//My case: Feyenoord football player Luigi Bruins formed the subject of my topic. Traditionally January is a transfer month and that's why online reporters are dedicated for transfer rumors. They do not like to disappoint their visitors, so all the rumors are welcome.
 




Second Step:
When you have chosen your subject and when you have made up your own story, you have to look for a fake source. Look for an existing related foreign source to mislead the online editor of a newswebsite. Edit the source by just customize one letter. For instance Der Kurrier instead of Der Kurier. Optional but recommended: Put a quote in your text, they will love it. When you have finished your story you need to look for a contact option on a newswebsite to come in touch with the editors. Try to send your "news" to as much websites as you can imagine.

//My case: I've chosen for Elfvoetbal.nl to spread out my news. I send Elfvoetbal the following complete nonsense (Dutch):

Red Bull Salzburg geeft belangstelling voor Bruins toe

Woensdag, 13 januari 2011 Het gaat momenteel niet voor de wind met Red Bull Salzburg. De regerend landskampioen en club van trainer Huub Stevens bivakkeert momenteel op een teleurstellende 3e plaats in de Oostenrijkse Bundesliga en is op zoek naar een aantal gerichte winterversterkingen. Luigi Bruins is een van de namen die voortdurend aan de landskampioen van 2010 wordt gelinkt.

De belangstelling voor de middenvelder van Feyenoord werd woensdag door de club uit Salzburg niet ontkend. "Luigi Bruins is een van de spelers die wij op ons lijstje hebben staan. Ik heb 2 seizoenen heel succesvol met hem samengewerkt en ik denk dat hij wat kan toevoegen aan ons spel", citeerde Der Kurrier Salzburg-assistent trainer Ton Lokhoff, een trainer die een aantal seizoenen geleden succesvol samenwerkte met Bruins bij Lokhoff's vorige club Excelsior Rotterdam.

De kans dat de middenvelder in januari zijn koffers pakt, lijkt groot te zijn. Bruins heeft er geen geheim van gemaakt dat hij graag een buitenlands avontuur wil aangaan en Feyenoord zou zeker gezien het aflopende contract van Bruins bereid zijn om mee te werken aan een vertrek. De 23-jarige Nederlander werd onlangs ook al in verband gebracht met het Engelse Everton, maar voor deze transfer zal trainer David Moyes zich pas gaan inzetten als Steven Pienaar zijn transfer naar the Spurs heeft afgerond.

Third Step:
Most of the current online reporters are actually waiting for your news, that's why you have to update your mailbox every minute in order to serve the 'critical' reporter. When they have published your news, simply send the link to all the other sites in case they did not publish your item already.

//My case: The editors of Elfvoetbal did not check the news or just asked me some simple questions about my news. Actually they discussed the news on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Johnhvt/statuses/25563053177176064. Within 5 minutes they said thank you and presented my fake news as a complete true story on their website: http://www.elfvoetbal.nl/nieuws/119591_bruins-voor-dilemma-verlengen-of-naar-salzburg.

As a reaction I send the link to all the Feyenoord fansites to create a buzz. They just copy-paste the story because the source was a 'trusted' brand and magazine: Elfvoetbal.


Fourth Step:
Just enjoy, lay back and be amazed about the easy way you can influence media and society.


//My case: The day-after was amazing. All the dutch sports websites had published the news, even newspapers and discussion sites from Austria had noticed the news. Local tv-sport magazine FC Rijnmond reported the news (see video) and even Voetbal International referred to the news in the evening.

Luigi Bruins was asked for a reaction about is upcoming transfer, and he even confessed he was interested to make a transfer to Salzburg.

The impact:

Just do a quick google search to see the impact of my nonsense news:


http://www.google.nl/search?q=bruins+salzburg&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Or check out a few of my victims:
http://www.vi.nl/Nieuws-item/193449/Bruins-staat-open-voor-transfer-naar-Red-Bull-Salzburg.htm
http://www.voetbalzone.nl/doc.asp?uid=134618
http://www.elfvoetbal.nl/nieuws/119591_bruins-voor-dilemma-verlengen-of-naar-salzburg
http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/luigi-bruins-zu-rb-salzburg/topic/ansicht_500_981327_seite2.html
http://91.118.52.112/salzburg/images/community/presse11/01/110115_oesterreich1.jpg
http://www.quedit.com/detail/salzburg-kommt-bruins-von-feyenoord-4990732.html
http://www.fr12.nl/nieuws/13407-bruins-op-lijstje-red-bull-salzburg.html


They discuss the subject on 6:00. Many thanks to: Jan-Dirk Stouten






Debate

Although this is just football news I am amazed by the fact that I can influence media this easy. Internet is the most popular source to read news, keeping this in mind it is ridiculous to see how we all can influence society with nonsense. All the websites just copy-paste my original story and no-one asked the simple traditional reporter question: Is this really true or just fake? Well this is not completely true, there was one reporter who simple verified the news and simply falsified my story: Edward van Cuilenborg (his tweet). My question: Are there even reporters filtering incoming news? And how do they manage and do this?

On the other hand I can imagine the situation that no editor gives a damn about the truth due the fact that it's all about serving visitors > making money on banners. My story was nonsense, however all the websites have made money out of it. As a result they have to thank me actually.