identity mirroring compels viral-ity among filter bubbles

---

This is § d of “Section 3: Fake views exploit the appeal of valid drama.”

---

A message (posting, Tweet, Instagram, etc.) “goes viral” by media users who are seeing their earlier choices of source preferred via “Likes,” “Follows,” and clicks that have unwittingly caused a data profile of preferences. News/views feeds imply (or trope) a sphere of source value that altogether (across sources) mirrors one’s online identity or medial personality that has been built through “Likes,” etc. Thereby, duplicitous sources employ their access to data archives to play into “potential pathways of influence, from increasing cynicism and apathy to encouraging extremism“ (source A) inasmuch as identity comfort prevails over interest in validity. Frivolous and casual attention is easier than astute and deliberative attention:

fake views as narrative mode of fakery throughout markets

---

This is § c of “Section 3: Fake views exploit the appeal of valid drama.”

---

The “genre” of fake news tropes a more general issue of fakery in media—”junk media,” it’s called, which is hardly new: Unreliable sourcing (“the more general problem of misinformation” [source A]) is as old as “tabloid” press, now commonly as “low-quality information online” [A]. Media “vehicles” have been serving dramatically hyped content/products for as long as there has been marketing.

“fake news”

---

This is § a of “Section 3: Fake views exploit the appeal of valid drama.”

---

news: “a report of a recent event, new information, fresh tidings” (Merriam-Webster Unabridged online).

But that standard definition doesn’t indicate the most defining aspect of news: the report or the information is allegedly important. Reporting as news implies a claim of urgency. The report is not only confidently evidential, but the act of reporting can be credibly postured as a sharing of importance or urgency about something confidently evidential (not just dramatically appealing). The medium may posture itself as a reliable source of importance, thus being a news medium.