FAKE NEWS

What is fake news?

  The term "false news" is being widely used in modern times in various social spheres. However, many people don’t know what that word means. Thus, we have come to clarify in fact its meaning.

According to the dictionary Oxford¹, the word fake means “Not genuine; imitation or counterfeit” and the word news “Newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events”. In this way, the junction of the two words has the meaning of false information that is disseminated as true.

fake news is news that does mischief with the truth. That is because, as we argue, fake news is characterized by two shortcomings: it lacks truth and truthfulness. More specifically, fake news is either false or misleading (lack of truth) and it is propagated with either the intention to deceive or an utter disregard for the truth (lack of truthfulness). (Williams apud Romy Jaster & David Lanius, 2018, p. 2)²

  Evidences prove that the false news is spread through the media, being more specifically in social media. Some research shows that most people who receive false news believe in them. 

The respondents made 1,516 judgments about fake news headlines they’d recalled seeing or hearing about; 75% of the time, they thought those headlines were “somewhat” or “very” accurate (Silverman and Singer-Vine,  2016, p. 2).³

  The false news is originated through several sites that have the intention to fabricate content similar to the real ones, usually these sites have very short duration.

  For example, in July 2016, the now-defunct website wtoe5news.com reported that 214 Journal of Economic Perspectives Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. The WTOE 5 News “About” page disclosed that it is “a fantasy news website. Most articles on wtoe5news.com are satire or pure fantasy,” but this disclaimer was not included in the article. The story was shared more than one million times on Facebook, and some people in our survey described below reported believing the headline. (Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow, 2017, p. 213).⁴

 

FAKE NEWS - ALEXANDRE MAGNO ABRÃO

The video that we chose is called "CHORÃO HAS BEEN MURDERED, I CAN SHOW!" And shows a young man who during the 11 minutes and 44 seconds trying to prove through certain "evidences" of how the Chorão was assassinated. 

Right at the beginning, the guy who is doing the video introduces saying that this is a picture of his channel called "Conspiracy Theories," which aims to show truths that “they” (illuminati) want you not to know. 

So, as a way to show that he really knows who Chorão was and his career, he shows a little about the trajectory of the band Charlie Brown Jr (band that Chorão was part), showing all its trajectory, from when it was created and prizes that received until the day of the death of Alexandre Magno Abrão. 

He died on March 6, 2013 and as said during the video, he reportedly died of overdose in his apartment, however, the video will prove that the cause of his death was another. To prove that the singer died in a different way, the presenter of the video reports that Chorão's family had mentioned that he was very sensitive, so he had the power to feel the presence of evil spirits and reports that he was constantly being chased and his death had hidden facts. 

The first evidence presented is the apartment scene itself when it was found, in which there was blood and much destruction, claiming that place had been frequented by someone other than Alexandre. The evidence that was spread by the media said that the singer had been killed by overdose, but to counter that opinion, the presenter says that the victim's own sister reported that he only smoked a joint from time to time, but had no history of using cocaine. In this way, Chorão was murdered and the traces of his homicide were hidden. 

Soon after, it’s mentioned that several singers to achieve fame make pact with the devil and reports that the band Charlie Brown Jr was creating his new cd called "La familia 013", but the singer died before being finalized. The band members say that number is the ddd of the city of Santos inland of São Paulo. However, the author of the video reports that number 13 accompanied by the word family has as reference the 13 families illuminati that is who controls everything of the world (economy, political, religion), including the letter 13 that is the letter of death. Another curiosity presented to reinforce its supposition, is that the last album of the band had 13 musics in total, clearly making a reference to the families illuminati. 

The presenter also states with certainty that the singer made a pact with devil and soon afterwards he repented, however he created the songs: "Meu novo mundo" e " um dia a gente se encontra" as an attempt to say goodbye. 

In order to finish the video, the author affirms that Chorão was assassinated by the illuminati, being that they gave him succes but they took it from him, because he didn’t want to be part of this organization anymore. Also shown is the singer speaking "sai zoiao" which is represented as a whoring the 13 families, showing their dissatisfaction. In this way, Chorão was assassinated by the Illuminati. 

Refuting Fake News

According to a reliable source the newspaper “O Globo” confirms the real cause of death. "The drug test done on Chorão's body indicated that he had 4.7 micrograms of cocaine per milliliter of blood - the cause of death was" exogenous intoxication due to cocainemia. " On the occasion of the death of the singer, the delegate Luiz Romani of the 14th Police District (Pinheiros), who attended the event, pointed out as the main suspected drug overdose.

Chorão's ex-wife said in an interview that it was related to drug abuse. The apartment was overturned and experts dismissed the murder hypothesis. 


References

        4  ALLCOTT, Hunt. GENTZKOW, Matthew, 2017, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 31, n.2, 2017 p. 211–236 available in : https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.31.2.211

            GUARATTO, Natalia. Morte de Chorão foi causada por overdose de cocaína, diz laudo. UOL  2015.  available in: https://musica.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2013/04/04/morte-de-chorao-foi-causada-por-overdose-de-cocaina-diz-laudo.htm

  2 JASTER, Romy. LANIUS, David. What is fake news?, 2018, p. 2 available in: https://philpapers.org/archive/JASWIF.pdf

   5  Laudo do IML aponta que cantor Chorão morreu de overdose de cocaína, 2013, O Globo, Available in: https://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/laudo-do-iml-aponta-que-cantor-chorao-morreu-de-overdose-de-cocaina-8030694

       1   OXFORD, English Dictionary, 1884, United Kingdom.

           PIZA, Paulo Toledo. TOMAZ, Kleber. 2013, G1 Globo. Available in http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/musica/noticia/2013/04/overdose-de-cocaina-matou-cantor-chorao-conclui-laudo-do-iml.html

  3 SILVERMAN, Craig. VINE-SINGER, Jeremy. 2016. BuzzFeed News. Available in: https://online225.psych.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/225-Master/225-UnitPages/Unit-02/Silverman_Singer-Vine_BuzzFeed_2016.pdf