The chaos of self-media where marketing is supreme
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2023, a video titled "Qin Lang's Winter Vacation Homework Lost in Paris" went viral on the Internet, causing widespread attention and heated discussions. In the video, Qin Lang, a seemingly ordinary high school student, is anxiously looking for his winter vacation homework at the airport, but in the end he finds nothing. This video quickly aroused the sympathy and attention of netizens, and many self-media and news organizations followed up and reported it, hyping it up as a hot topic on the Internet.
However, it's not that simple. On the evening of April 12, the Hangzhou police reported the results of the investigation - the incident was originally a false information deliberately created and disseminated by two self-media people. They write their own video scripts, buy winter vacation homework online, take selfies on their mobile phones and make relevant videos, and then distribute them to multiple online platforms to gain attention and traffic. This act of planning and falsification seriously violates the social responsibility of the media and damages the ecological environment of the Internet.
In recent years, similar incidents of self-media fraud have occurred from time to time. From "a female rider who was delivering food late at night and cried when her stolen electric car collapsed" to "a husband abandoned by his wife took his baby to set up a stall on the street to pay off his debts", most of these seemingly touching stories were verified to be deliberate and later proved to be false information. This kind of behavior of targeting traffic and attention and creating hot topics by unscrupulous means not only violates professional ethics, but also seriously damages the interests of the public.
In order to pursue higher traffic and monetization, many self-media organizations and "Internet celebrity" bloggers do not hesitate to create confrontation, spread anxiety, and even commit fraud. Their goal is clear - as long as it catches the eye, they can ignore it and reckless the consequences. This irresponsible practice not only disrupts the order of the network, but also has a negative impact on society, pollutes the ecological environment of the network, and corrupts the social atmosphere.
The dangers of disinformation
The "Qin Lang lost his homework" incident reflects that self-media fraud has become a common social disorder. This kind of behavior not only violates the social responsibility of the media, but also causes great harm to the public.
First of all, the spread of false information can seriously disrupt the normal order of society. In this incident, two self-media people fabricated a striking story, which aroused widespread attention and discussion through a large number of retweets and hype. This kind of deliberately created information not only affects the public's judgment of the real facts, but also disrupts the normal trend of online public opinion.
Second, the spread of false information will harm the interests of the public. By creating hot topics, some self-media organizations and "Internet celebrity" bloggers have gained a lot of traffic and exposure, thus achieving corresponding commercial value. However, this kind of irresponsible behavior not only damages the public's right to know, but also misleads everyone's judgment and has a negative impact on society.
Thirdly, the spread of disinformation undermines the values of society. In order to gain traffic, some self-media organizations do not hesitate to create confrontation, spread anxiety, and even wantonly fake. This kind of behavior not only violates the social responsibility of the media, but also undermines the trust of the public and distorts the values of society.
Finally, the spread of disinformation pollutes the online environment. A large number of self-media fraud with traffic as the goal not only disrupts the order of the Internet, but also brings trouble and burden to people's online life. This kind of behavior not only destroys the network ecology, but also corrupts the network environment, causing a serious negative impact on the majority of netizens.
To sum up, the false and fraudulent behavior of self-media organizations and "Internet celebrity" bloggers has become a social problem that needs to be solved urgently. This kind of behavior not only violates the professional ethics of the media, but also seriously harms the interests of the public, disrupts the normal social order, undermines healthy social values, and pollutes the online ecological environment. Therefore, it is necessary to take effective measures to curb this behavior and maintain the healthy development of the network ecology.
Standardize the path of self-media development
In order to curb the chaos of self-media fraud, it is necessary to take measures at multiple levels, establish a sound regulatory system, and promote the healthy development of the self-media industry.
First of all, strengthen the enforcement efforts of the regulatory authorities. In response to self-media fraud, the relevant departments shall further improve laws and regulations, clarify management measures, and severely crack down on violations of laws and regulations. For self-media organizations and individuals who chase traffic without a bottom line and wantonly falsify, they must be punished strictly in accordance with the law, and they cannot be tolerated. At the same time, we will increase the investment of law enforcement resources, equip the regulatory departments with more professional forces, and improve the efficiency of law enforcement.
Second, strengthen the main responsibility of platform enterprises. As an important carrier of information dissemination, online platforms shall earnestly perform their responsibility to review and gatekeeper content, and should actively investigate and verify hot content that is suspected of being fake, and employ decisive measures to stop its further spread. At the same time, platform enterprises should also establish a sound content management mechanism, strengthen the construction of a real-name system and credit system for self-media accounts, and promptly punish violations.
Third, improve the public's ability to identify. In the face of complex online information, the majority of netizens should remain rational and vigilant, cultivate independent judgment ability, and not be easily confused by false information. At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen network literacy education, improve the public's ability to identify network information, guide everyone to develop good network behavior habits, and jointly maintain a good network ecology.
Finally, strengthen the self-discipline and ethics of the industry. The self-media industry shall adhere to the professional ethics of honesty and trustworthiness, actively accept societal oversight, and establish and complete mechanisms for self-discipline. Industry associations should play a role in formulating and implementing stricter industry standards, supervising and guiding practitioners to abide by professional ethics, and effectively maintaining the image of the industry. At the same time, it is also necessary to guide self-media practitioners to establish correct values and bottom-line awareness, consciously resist violations of laws and regulations, and strive to dedicate high-quality content to the public.
In short, curbing the chaos of self-media fraud requires the joint participation and efforts of government departments, online platforms, industry organizations and the public. Only through multi-pronged measures such as improving the regulatory system, strengthening the main responsibility, improving the public's ability to identify, and strengthening industry self-discipline can we effectively solve this stubborn problem, maintain the healthy development of the network ecology, and create a clear network environment for the public.
It is often said that good things cannot be kept, but rare truths are more precious. In the era of information explosion, all kinds of confusing information are overflowing, we should return to rationality, look at online information with a correct attitude, and defend truth and justice. Only in this way can we jointly build a healthier and more orderly cyberspace, so that this pure land will always shine with its due light.