TAPMI Library TWP 116_1510

Faking News: How a portal helps uphold journalism ethics

by

Kunal Kamal Kumar Assistant Professor T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) Manipal Manipal 576 104, Karnataka Phone: +91-9902494054 Email: [email protected] ; [email protected] and

Sushanta Kumar Mishra Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore Indore 453 331, Madhya Pradesh INDIA Phone: +91-9752038027 Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

TAPMI Working Paper No. TWP 116/2015-16/ 10

T. A. PAI Management Institute Manipal – 576104, Karnataka

Kunal, KK And Mishra, SK: Faking News-How A News Satire Portal Helps Uphold Journalism Ethics TWP116_1510

Faking News:

How a news satire portal helps uphold journalism ethics

by

Kunal Kamal Kumar Assistant Professor T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) Manipal Manipal 576 104, Karnataka INDIA Phone: +91-9902494054 Email: [email protected] ; [email protected] and

Sushanta Kumar Mishra Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore Indore 453 331, Madhya Pradesh INDIA Phone: +91-9752038027 Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract: Based on multiple in-depth interviews with the founder of the top most news satire portal in India, ‘Faking News’ the present paper emphasizes the virtues and practices that help uphold professionalism in the field of journalism specifically in its satirical genre. In addition, drawing from Borden’s virtue ethics framework to journalistic practices, the paper highlights the critical role that Faking News plays in upholding ethics in journalism.

Keywords: Virtue Ethics, Media Ethics, News Satire, Fake News, India, Faking New

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Faking News: How a news satire portal helps uphold journalism ethics

Rahul Roushan started as a journalist; he got disillusioned with journalism and went into the field of management studies. Graduating from the top business school in India, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, only added to his disillusionment. On the flip side, the business management education helped him turn one of his personal blogs ‘Faking News’ into a news portal. It took him a few months before Faking News started getting attention from different quarters – it became an instant hit among the people of India, mainly the youth population that was increasingly getting bored by the cliché news coverage by traditional news channels. In just three years of its inception, the site gained thousands of followers on social media. In the year 2013, it was acquired by Network 18 Group, India’s leading media conglomerate. Though the acquisition led to a change in ownership structure, the content structure of the site remained the same. Today the site has got thousands of followers on twitter and a million fans on Facebook. In terms of web traffic data released by Alexa Internet (a subsidiary of Amazon.com), Faking News lies second to ‘The Onion’ among all the news satire websites in English. What was so unique about the site that it did so well? In serving the market need, was there an element of ethics that was involved? What lessons in ethics can we derive out of the success story of a ‘fake’ news site? The present study charts the growth story of Faking News, India’s top most satire news portal; in doing so, we aim to extract lessons in news media ethics.

Real and Fake News: The Boundaries

A journalist is the lookout on the bridge of the ship of state. He notes the passing sail, the little things of interest that dot the horizon in fine weather. He reports the drifting castaway whom the ship can save. He peers through fog and storm to give warning of dangers ahead. He is not thinking of his wages or of the profits of his owners. He is there to watch over the safety and the welfare of the people who trust him” (Pulitzer, 2007).

The roles identified by Pulitzer are the characteristics of what makes journalism an independent watchdog – the fourth estate. Unfortunately, in the modern competitive world where news is heavily dictated by market concerns, news media often loses its sheen and

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paves way for its own criticism (McManus, 2009). Further, with the advancement of the World Wide Web, the fourth estate has to share its space with new entrants like blogosphere and citizen journalism that increasingly target traditional news media by questioning the value and worth of the reported news stories (Antony & Thomas, 2010; Atton, 2009). Faking News too fits in this role – that of the critic of the fourth estate. But there is one way in which Faking News is strikingly different from other fake news portals. Since its acquisition by Network 18 Group, it shares space on the web with ‘First Post’, a traditional news outlet. This creates a unique case wherein the subject and the agent of criticism share the same platform.

Extant literature suggests that Fake News arises in situations where traditional journalism loses its sense of ‘newsworthiness’. The concept of newsworthiness is however debated as it has cultural and contextual concerns: what is news for a particular culture may not be considered as a news story by other cultures. For instance, journalists’ identification with national identity can affect their conceptualization of news and their commitment to professional news values (Nossek, 2004). In their study, Curran et al. (2013) found that even the newest forms of news media, online news, reproduce the same kind of legacy in terms of national allegiance, as the traditional media. Journalism has immense divergences in approaches, understandings, and philosophies (Deuze, 2005). For instance, journalistic practices differ across the world to such an extent that there are major differences even in the conception of what constitutes ‘news’ (Shoemaker & Cohen, 2006). Furthermore, news needs be ‘domesticated’ to suit local needs (Alasuutari, Qadir, & Creutz, 2013; van Hulst, Siesling, van Lieshout, & Dewulf, 2014). This creates challenges for traditional news media as they have to face the ire of a diverse set of audience which evaluates the validity and importance of news stories through a shifting set of standards. The struggle to maintain a balance between catering to wishes of the public and journalistic integrity characterizes today’s journalistic profession (Brants & de Haan, 2010). Nonetheless, valid concerns are raised when traditional news outlets trivialize important news stories under market pressure, or give in to ‘hypercommercialization’ by letting the market dictate the choice and expression of news items (Plasser, 2005). Paid and fabricated stories, reporting of news stories that lack importance, further lead to loss of trust and raise legitimacy concerns against traditional news media (Patterson, 2000). Tabloid journalism, soft news, and infotainment practices also raise queries on its traditional role as the fourth estate (Prior, 2003). As a result, traditional news TAPMI WORKING PAPERS

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media gets into a role-reversal wherein it draws flak and criticism for its activities – the role reversal is in the sense that news reporters, who usually act as critics, get in a situation wherein their own acts are put to criticism. As noted by Borden and Tew (2007), it is this role of ‘media critics’ that fake news portals primarily serve.

Another challenge that raises legitimacy concerns for traditional news media is related to the quality of news reports. Due to shrinking staff-size, the quality of news reporting has suffered as fewer news staff are pressed against time to generate news stories. Moreover the skill gap in the field of journalism, more so in India, is high, mainly because of the fact that many news media organizations rely on inexpensive, unskilled young talent (Ram, 2012). Without a formal skilling process that could equip journalists in narrowing the gap between theory and practice, these journalists are often lost in understanding how journalism participates in the production and circulation of meaning (Skinner, Gasher, & Compton, 2001). As journalists lose their sense of purpose, they are prone to draw flak and criticism. As Fake News portals attracts contributions from a wider audience who possess high level of formal education they find it easier to take on the role of media critics.

Fake News Real Journalists

Media researchers have made a comparison between fake and real news, suggesting that fake news is similar to real news in that it helps in propagating information (Feldman, 2007). Some media scholars have also equated fake news with the genre of soft news suggesting that the prime objective of fake news is to generate humor (Prior, 2003). Although, the scholarly opinion is divided on the notion that fake news is akin to soft news (Reinemann, Stanyer, Scherr, & Legnante, 2012), if we accept them to be similar in nature then it could be argued that fake news, as is the case with soft news, helps propagate information to what could have been an otherwise docile public (Feldman, Leiserowitz, & Maibach, 2011) and helps its audience develop a critical view to current happenings (Brewer & Marquardt, 2007); in fact McBeth and Clemons (2011) found that fake news plays a far serious role in public policy formation than real news. What is more, fake news helps banish all that is bland and cliché in real news through the inclusion of humor and satirical element (Heertum, 2011; Marchi, 2012). This however leads us to an interesting situation: while the professional values of real news, i.e. journalism, is guided by code of ethics and set of virtues, there are no demarcated codes or virtues that guide the people who compose news

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articles for fake news portals. Thus, is it the case that there are no codes of conduct or virtues that guide the behavior of fake news professionals whose work is akin to real news journalists? To answer this question there is a need to look at the way professionalism and ethical behavior is guided in the field of journalism.

Professionalism and Ethical Behavior in Journalism

Journalists have both ethical and professional responsibilities (Painter & Hodges, 2010), and the two at times do not go hand in hand. As Tumber and Prentoulis (2005) emphasize, journalists need a standard code of ethics as a safeguard against abuses and for regulating their own profession. A strong sense of being ethical also ‘legitimizes journalists’ claims to the position as (free and fair) watchdogs of society’ (Deuze, 2005), thus reaffirming the profession’s position as the fourth estate. Nonetheless, journalists’ ethical decisions are shaped by a tension between professional ideals and organizational imperatives (Berkowitz & Limor, 2003).

Richards (2005, p. 3) argued that journalism is not a profession in its strictest sense as the idea of professionalism or professional behavior in the field of journalism is vague and contradictory. It being a quasi-profession, formulation of a strong formal code of ethics is impractical and ‘formal codes of ethics are viewed with skepticism’ (Keeble, 2009, p. 7). Traditionally Journalists have also opposed stronger code of ethics as they are seen as a control mechanism over the freedom of the press. This raises a challenging question: given lack of ethical guidelines, how does one determine if a behavior is ethical or not? Further, how do journalists take a call on ethical behavior in the absence of any ethical guidelines? In this regard, the role of individual conscience comes into play. Researchers argue that when the formal codes of ethics became inadequate to guide ethical behavior, morals and ‘a strong sense of right and wrong’ play a major role in qualifying journalists’ ethical behavior (Coleman & Wilkins, 2004; Glasser & Ettema, 1989). Borden and Tew (2007) proposed that the role of journalist entails certain moral accountability and it involves voluntary acceptance of moral claims by the stakeholders. Thus, when we focus our attention on the competence and moral integrity of the ‘agent’ (i.e. in the present case, journalists) from a virtue ethics standpoint, the use of codes of conduct, rules, maxims or principles fall in the backdrop and agent's moral character takes the center stage (Punzo, 1996).

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A Virtue Ethics Approach to Understanding Business Practices

As noted by Borden (2007, p. 15), Klaidman and Beauchamp (1987) were the first ones to apply a virtue-ethics framework for analyzing journalistic morality. Virtue ethics places importance on the ‘character’ side of normative ethics as opposed to ‘duties’ and/or ‘actions’. It emphasizes that character that is virtuous is common across contexts and helps lead a moral life. Identification of such virtues would help determine if a moral agent (whether an individual journalist or a media organization) shows steadfast character, in the sense that their actions confirm to the set of identified virtues. Moreover, as every virtue has a function, that of navigating a virtuous action, their function would have to be established as well. Borden (2007) has identified five such practice-sustaining functions that help maintain ‘journalism as practice’ (Table 1). Using MacIntyre’s (2007) framework on virtue ethics, Borden has done an excellent work identifying the virtues and their practice-sustaining functions in the field of journalism. Borden has used MacIntyre’s work because it focuses on the notion of practice. Practice, as MacIntyre argues, are essential to maintaining the professionalism of any field.

Table 1: Practice-sustaining Functions of Virtues (Borden, 2007, p. 80) Virtues required Function for practice Courage, ingenuity Defending against corruption by external goods Stewardship Sustaining institutional bearers of the practice Justice, courage, honesty Maintaining relationships needed to achieve practice’s goals through a discipline of verification Integrity, sense of legacy Preserving practice’s link to tradition Accountability, modesty Supporting practice’s regenerative capabilities through a discipline of confirmation

Defining ‘Practice’

MacIntyre defines practice as “any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized in the course of trying to achieve those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity, with the result that human powers to achieve excellence, and human conceptions of the ends and goods involved, are systematically TAPMI WORKING PAPERS

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extended”(MacIntyre, 2007, p. 187). The following key terms used in the definition need some elaboration: ‘notion of internal goods’ and ‘standards of excellence’.

MacIntyre noted that two different types of goods are associated with any practice: goods that are external to the practice, and goods that are internal. MacIntyre noted that ‘external goods are objects of competition in which there must be losers as well as winners’(MacIntyre, 2007, p. 190). He elaborated the differences between external and internal good by giving an example from the practice of chess: a child who is longing for a candy is promised of it, provided he plays chess game with an adult; the adult assures that the game would be played in such a manner that the child will have a fair chance to win. Further, the child is offered extra candies for every win. The child, so motivated by candies, plays, and plays to win. The child may further get motivated to win by all means, even if that involves cheating, for the prime desire is to win candies and not to play chess. If the child cheats successfully, he does get rewarded with the (external) good in form of candies, but the child has lost an opportunity to master the game. Nonetheless, if the child decides not to cheat and works on to better his game so that his focus is not just to win the particular games (and hence win the candies) but to excel in a way that the game of chess demands, then the child would be doing a great service to self and to the practice of chess. In doing so, the child would be targeting goods internal to the game.

MacIntyre further mentions that to enter into a practice one must subject one’s ‘attitudes, choices, preferences and tastes to the standards which currently and partially define the practice’ (MacIntyre, 2007, p. 190). Let us take the example of authors’ trial to publish their papers in respected journals like Media, Culture & Society. Let us, for the moment term this ‘the practice of academic publishing’. Thus the authors who wish to enter into the practice of academic publishing must first accept the authority of editor and the reviewers. The authors must also accept the inadequacy of judging their own papers. No doubt, the authors would be given a chance to criticize, and hence reply to reviewers’ comments but it is in the best interests of the author and the practice that they first submit to authority, and confirm to the standards of excellence set in the field. As MacIntyre notes, ‘the standards are not themselves immune from criticism, but nonetheless we cannot be initiated into a practice without accepting the authority of the best standards realized so far’. (MacIntyre, 2007, p. 190). The authors may come up with something that moves the standards by a notch or two or

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even cause marked shifts, but first they must learn to appreciate the present standards of excellence – in doing so, they help sustain the practice of academic publishing.

Virtues and their Functions: Sustaining Practices

Going back to virtues and their functions: MacIntyre observes that ‘a virtue is an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of which tends to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving any such goods’ (MacIntyre, 2007, p. 191). In the case of journalism, there are some fundamental virtues like courage, honesty, integrity, accountability, etc. that help maintain professionalism by focusing on internal goods of the practice of journalism (Borden, 2007). Each of these virtues has a ‘practice sustaining’ function, i.e. they held shield the profession from the influence of external goods. In the preceding discussion we noted that virtue ethics helps solve dilemmas in cases where codes of ethical conduct leave gray areas for journalists. An organization whose primary purpose is to make news and earn profit (i.e. a news media organization) is caught in the web of dilemmas. In the preset paper we try to explore the role of virtue in the context of Faking News.

Sustaining Journalism as Practice

We now discuss the practice-sustaining functions of virtues in the field of journalism: as noted by Borden (2007) these functions help sustain journalism as practice. For the benefit of the readers we introduce each function with a brief outline. Further, we analyze how the business practices of Faking News help maintain journalistic professionalism by upholding the virtues of the field. In doing so we try to emphasize that the virtues of journalism are common for both the genre of news: whether real or fake.

Protecting the Practice from Corruption by External Goods

The clash between business imperatives (external goods) and journalistic ideals (internal goods) is a recurring theme for any news media organization. The dilemma to choose between one and the other leads to uncertainties that must be countered. One of the greatest uncertainties that news media organizations face is in terms of sustained revenue growth; the primary source of which are advertisements. For any news media organization, advertising is a central source of revenue (Doyle, 2002, p. 39). However, there always is a dilemma involved as advertisements and news compete with one another for space. Such

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dilemma gets magnified as Faking News has been in content business with an uneasy business model that seems unsustainable in the first look. Rahul, the founder of Faking News notes: “It indeed is always a dilemma to be in content business where the revenues are mostly ad- based. In essence, the ad-spots or the ad-inventory become the “product” or “goods” you are selling, while the real “output” is content. This almost makes you be in a business where a byproduct brings you revenue while your main product is consumed free! Not an easy business model at all. With digital publishing, things are even more complex. Internet is a disruptive technology in more ways than one. It’s almost a revolution. The “netizen” believes in free flow of information and it’s very difficult to ask him to pay up for something, while he’s getting whole lot more for free. Information, which is in shape of content, is born to be free on internet. In fact, ideas like “copyright” and “patent”, and their commercial exploitation, are increasingly being challenged in this new virtual world, where information must be freely accessible to all.”

For Rahul, there were two options: to go through a subscription model or to raise money through voluntary contributions – unfortunately both seemed impractical. “I was left with the options to either go the Wikipedia way – where you raise money through voluntary contributions – or the traditional way where you keep the content free but monetize it through ads. The subscription model, which still works in offline publishing, is very tricky and not easy to implement in the digital publishing. There were occasions when I thought about the Wikipedia model, or the “crowd-sourced” model which is slightly different from the Wikipedia model. But for either of these to work, you need to be as big as Wikipedia or at least as impactful for a selected group.” In the formative years of Faking News, Rahul states that he had no big concern about money as he was more interested in extending the reach of the website: “In the initial stages when Faking News was not big (though I won’t say it was not impactful!) I was not concerned about revenues at all. The main aim was to target the right audience and increase the reach of the website.” However, such a self-funding model was not only unsustainable but could also harm the growth prospects of the website: “The initial funding was though my own money, and fortunately it was not too substantial and I was in a position to afford it. I could easily meet the operational costs, and my own subsistence cost, though means like Google AdSense, where you don’t need to do any legwork or devote any exclusive manpower to hunt for ads. But as the website grew in reach, it attracted a few volunteer writers too. And although they never asked for money for their contributions, I increasingly started thinking and planning about increasing the revenues to go beyond this “subsistence” level to “sustainable” model.”

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Rahul could manage to get some ads through Google Adsense, but that could only provide limited sustainability; continued growth still seemed a distant dream: “I was able to get a couple of first party ads i.e. where I don’t have to depend on an “agency” like Google in the initial years, and I realized that hitting the sustainable model was not impossible. However, as it always happens in any business. After subsistence, and sustaining, you invariably crave for growth. And that means more ads, and higher paying ads”. For growth, the easy way seemed to be selling web-space to ad-agencies, but even that would fail to push growth to a fast moving trajectory. An easier way, and one that could help make easy money, was to mix content with advertisements. But here lay the challenge – mixing advertisements and content would mean treading on an unethical path: “While ads, which utilize your ad-space inventory, are hardly any “corruption by external goods”, at some point of time you face the dilemma of mixing content with ads (something known as “advertorial”). An advertiser is willing to pay premium for such marriage of content and ad, but as a publisher you have to be honest to your readers.”

Rahul did give the advertisement mixed editorial content mix (i.e. advertorials) a thought – the way was easy. It would easily translate into huge money, which he could pump back into the website to help it grow. But that would be akin to pushing advertorials for monetary gains, something which would hurt the business on its ethical side. Furthermore, as Eckman and Lindlof (2003) argue, such an act may have led to an internal conflict as financial concerns would outweigh the symbolic goods of journalistic practices: “I was once asked how will it hurt my readers if I mentioned a brand name in some article. They would argue that my readers anyway come to the website for “entertainment” and it shouldn’t matter to them who paid for the content till they are getting “entertained”. I had two fundamental disagreement to the above assertion – first, I never thought I was running an “entertainment” website and I believed that satire was more than casual entertainment, and second, it’s unethical if I don’t disclose that a content is paid for in anyway.”

It would not have been easy to remain insulated from the ill-effects of the external goods in such a case – that of exchanging money for editorial favor. Although it could be argued that such external effects could be minimized, it cannot be denied that such exchanges have the power to corrupt the foundation of journalistic practices (Hadland, Cowling, & Tabe, 2007; Rao & Johal, 2006). But money too was needed, and a better approach to handling advertisements was to be found. Rahul gave it a thought and came up with the idea of explicitly identifying the sponsored reports: “Yes, maybe my views and an advertiser’s view

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match on some product (though I’m still waiting for that product!) but even there, if there is a brand placement that has been paid for, the content can’t be in the same category as the rest of the content i.e. even though I would have written the same article even if advertiser had not approached me, I must treat the output differently if the advertiser has paid me. This was the first threat of “corruption by external goods” I faced, but I explicitly told all my advertisers and agencies with whom I was dealing, that if a content was paid for, no matter what I felt about the content, it will always be treated as a “sponsored” content i.e. like an advertisement – and this categorization will be made public. Thus was born the “sponsored” category.”

It could have been easier for Rahul to push the advertorials as genuine news articles, but that would have been akin to cheating the gullible readers. Blurring the lines between news and advertisement would have gone against traditionally accepted journalistic practices (Lacher, 1994). Moreover, it would turn out to be a bad strategy in the long term as the audience would have thought that the website was splattered with advertorials and they were being taken for a ride: “Perhaps I could have earned higher premium if no such category was introduced, but that was a clear no-go for me. Had I agreed upon hiding the “sponsored” disclosure (buying the logic that why should readers care till they are getting “entertained”), I think I’d have failed miserably in protecting myself from the corruption of external goods. That’d have given an advertiser editorial control, and the reader would have thought that perhaps each and every content has been paid for.”

Sustaining the Institutional Bearers of the Practice

The social bearers of practice like freedom of expression, an informed public, and increased public participation in social activities are important for maintaining the virtues of the field of journalism. While traditional news media is constrained by government control and is often seen as reporting news stories in a cliché manner suitable for an older and increasingly shrinking audience (Delli Carpini, 2000), the spread of internet has helped attract the youth to news and engage them in political participation (Bakker & de Vreese, 2011; Jarvis, Stroud, & Gilliland, 2009). In the modern world, wherein traditional media faces huge challenges both in terms of defending its autonomy and competing with new forms of journalism, Fake news helps in attracting audiences that otherwise might not attend to current events as packaged by traditional news outlets (Meddaugh, 2010). Apart from engendering interest in news, Faking News helps maintain the stewardship of the field of journalism by criticizing social actors and initiating a direct attach that could not be possible by real news

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professionals: “All the three i.e. freedom of expression, and informed public, and an increased public participation in social activities, were the objectives and mission of the way journalism started (in an era when there was no modern democracy and easy flow of information). However, I believe that mainstream journalism is struggling with these in the modern set up, where democracy is guaranteed by constitution and flow of information is easy thanks to internet. In fact, in India, mainstream journalists have of late cheered censorship (in name of “reasonable restrictions” on freedom of speech) and have often found themselves at odd with an “informed public” that will point out failings in their reporting or analysis.”

Furthermore, while traditional news media suffers from various inter and intra organizational constrains (Skovsgaard, 2014; Soloski, 1989), fake news portals like Faking News could easily take names and point fingers at agents who were otherwise treated as sacrosanct by real news reporters. This was possible as Faking News could pass on the criticism under the guise of satirical humor: “Faking News tried to highlight these issues too and thus often it took positions that were not taken in mainstream journalists due to various reasons. Satire thrives on freedom of expression and journalism also gets its license to probe and question thanks to that freedom. While in India, we don’t enjoy the kind of freedom of expression guaranteed by the US constitution (ironically, the first amendment to US constitution granted them free speech while the first amendment to the Indian constitution put “reasonable restrictions” on free speech), it still leaves enough scope and freedom that can further the cause of journalism.”

Maintaining Relationships essential to the Practice’s Goals

Public trust of a socially responsible press is not only vital to a free society, but it is also vital to the community building that is the lifeblood of the press (Christians, Ferré, & Fackler, 1993; as cited in Painter & Hodges, 2010), because it is expected that the news provided and the views expressed are legitimate, accurate, and are designed to serve public cause. In news media organizations, it would translate into establishing a close connection with the audience through development of trustworthy relationships. Trustworthy relationship in turn demands investment of time from each party. For a news media organization, this would mean successful engagement of the public that it wishes to serve. When we asked Rahul what he thought about engaging the audience, this is what he had to say: “Absolutely, this relationship is vital and can’t be ignored. If the communication is a one-way street, the relationship can’t be fostered. Initially I used to have a chat widget on Faking News where I would chat with my readers and understand their feedback. I would also interact with readers though

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emails, sometimes even exchanging angry emails, but will try to get their feedback. As always, some of them would be positive, some negative, some constructive, and some destructive!”

Since Faking News was working tirelessly to serve the wider audience, especially the youth population, whose taste and concerns were different from the ones that were offered by national newspapers, the requirement to develop a unique identity to which the youth could relate was felt quite early. The youth population wants active engagement (Bennett, Wells, & Freelon, 2011): while user comment is one form of audience engagement, there is no better way than making the user a part of the process – Faking News has a section wherein the readers can post their own ‘fake’ news stories. While on the one hand it helps in engaging the audience, it also helps in the development and expansion of ‘citizen journalism’: “Apart from feedback and general interactions, one way in which readers want to develop a relationship with a media house is by hoping to get a space (apart from comments) where they can also share their views. For this, I started “My Faking News” i.e. a user generated content website where they can write their own articles and get published. This gives them a sense of belonging to the website and they feel a part of it, which is how a relationship is nurtured.” However, there is a limit to engagement, and Rahul chose to limit his interactions to one-to-one mode than to engage in public communications such as responding to user comments on news articles. This helped him save some time as there could be hundreds of comments pouring-in, and it would have been virtually impossible to respond to all of them. Nonetheless, public engagement was continued on social network sites like Twitter wherein news bytes are short, and there is lesser possibility of willful presentation of a fabricated image: “I don’t know if I have been right or wrong, but I’ve almost never interacted in the “comments” section of the website. I prefer communicating in one-to-one mode because the possibility of public posturing is less there i.e. I can assume that a person is trying to initiate a genuine conversation and not taking a public stand just to show off. However, I do interact occasionally on Twitter, which is not exactly a one-to-one mode as anyone can read and jump in.”

Preserving the Practice’s Link to Tradition

Traditions are important in that they help provide a common basis for motivation and belief to the adherents (May, 1996): traditions help define actions within a historical context and provide an identity to which one relates. Traditions exist as long as they are being adhered to, consequently Faking News needed to expand its adherents’ base: while ‘My Faking News’ was one such avenue which helped it gain and retain adherents, it tried to hire

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regular contributors so that they could be trained in-house and be imbibed with journalistic values for which Faking News stood: “When it came to building a full time team and making Faking News go beyond me, I depended on the work done by contributors (at My Faking News) and volunteers (who contributed without any solicitation and when there was no My Faking News). I asked almost all of the regular contributors if they could join. Many of them were already nicely placed in some jobs and hence not all of them could join. Neither could I hire all of them as I didn’t need a huge team!” Having got the team ready, Rahul, himself a trained journalist, set the rules of ‘fake’ journalism. This also helped develop a sense of identity among the new members who could now strongly associate themselves with the value system of Faking News: “Once a small team was built, I did set some ground rules for them that we must follow at Faking News. These rules were designed to keep intact the identity and the spirit of Faking News, because a link to tradition is indeed important.”

At Faking News, the roots to traditions are maintained by adherence to a set of ideologies to which everyone is supposed to maintain an unflinching commitment. Moreover, since new members of the organization are the torch bearers of traditions, they are expected to commit themselves to basic rules. However, the rules are not stringent, as that would push Faking News almost towards traditional news media organizations. Keeping in mind its unique identity and audience, Faking News tries to follow a value system, that is neither too rigid nor lax: “However, since Faking News targets youth, there can’t be a fixed set of rules to follow or a fixed identity. I guess it could change over time as a generation changes. Many media houses have struggled holding on to old thoughts while the readers change, I don’t want that to happen to Faking News.” However, such laxity does not translate into a system wherein rules are easily broken; rather a core set of beliefs bind them to journalistic values: “Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean that Faking News won’t have a core set of beliefs and ideas to adhere to. The tone and subjects could change, but the ideas would broadly remain the same. These ideas include commitment to free speech and going beyond the narrative the traditional media takes.”

Supporting the Practice’s Regenerative Capacities

To counter the dangers of self-indulgence and self-praise, a profession like journalism must develop capacities of self-criticism and be ready to accept sustained criticism. It must put effective systems of accountability, transparency, and feedback in place in order to gain regenerative capacities. A profession like journalism runs the risk of losing public faith and trust if its walls are closed to the outer world (Bunton, 2000). Therefore, it is important for a

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news media organization to accept criticism and be accountable to the public (Feighery, 2011). Criticisms may however fall into three categories: the ones that are rejected; ones that are accepted and acted upon; and those that are accepted but not acted upon. At times, Faking News does get comments that seem impractical and nugatory; however an outright rejection of criticism would send a message that the site which thrives on criticism does not itself believe in criticism: “I do like to engage in conversations and keep an eye over what people are talking about with reference to Faking News. I may not agree with all of them and even reject some of them, but rejecting every criticism is not something I can afford to do, as that’s what I have often found the mainstream media guilty of.” The third form of criticism needs a practical approach to handling as non-acting upon a criticism which you accept could be a double-edged sword. Nonetheless, Faking News handles it by taking a balanced approach: “There are some criticisms you accept but you may not act upon! For example some readers find that Faking News doesn’t take the usual “left-liberal” stance that the mainstream media takes. This is not true in entirety but not entirely false criticism as well. However, a “corrective” measure can’t be taken because of the way Faking News was conceptualized and started. It is an “alternate media” – it started in reaction to the mainstream media’s practices and it often takes a stance and a tone that is not resonated well in mainstream media. That’s how it built its brand image and found its target audience.”

Conclusion

In the paper, we emphasized that fake news acts as a media critic and tries to bring newsworthiness back to real news, which due to market or other concerns, may deviate from its traditional path. Borden and Tew (2007) argued that Fake news allows journalists and others to re-examine the conventions that have been handed down to journalists, discover historically grounded alternative performances, and conceivably enhance the current pursuit of journalistic integrity. Highlighting the case of Faking News, we emphasized that not only do fake news portals help keep a check on the fourth estate, they also help uphold the virtues of the field by their practices. Our study corroborates the arguments of Borden and Tew (2007), who highlighted the importance of media criticism to hold the press accountable in a way that might help resolve the tension between journalistic accountability and journalistic autonomy. Our study suggests that fake and real news may be seen as competitive collaborates. In informing the common public about real concerns, Faking News serves a similar purpose as real news. More importantly, as fake news is not bound by journalistic

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ideals, it can take on political actors in a much direct way than what could be possible for real news. In doing so, fake news portals serve the same purpose that real news serves, that of an independent watchdog ─ even though the focus of both the genres is different, they supplement each other.

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van Hulst, M., Siesling, M., van Lieshout, M., & Dewulf, A. (2014). The riot, the people and the neighbourhood: narrative framing of social disorder in four cases. Media, Culture & Society, 36(4), 456-472. doi: 10.1177/0163443714523810

Prof. Kumar Kunal Kamal Assistant Professor Area: Human Resource Management Education: BA, MA, Fellow/Ph.D (OB & HRM), IIM Indore Email: [email protected] Telephone: +91-820-2701082

Teaching;

Business Ethics, Organizational Behavior, HRM Professional Activities:

Prof Kunal completed his graduate studies in English Literature (BA English Hons.) from Shivaji College, University of . Subsequently he completed Master of Arts from Department of Linguistics, University of Delhi. He holds a doctoral degree (FPM/PhD) in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management from IIM Indore.

He is a member of many professional bodies like Academy of Management, Linguistic Society of India, & National HRD Network. He is widely travelled and has presented papers in academic conferences across the world. He has also acted as a reviewer to academic journals like Journal of Business Communication, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, etc. Research

Virtue Ethics, Organizational Communication; Language issues in organizations; Cross-cultural Studies; Interpersonal Attraction Publications

Research Papers (Refereed)

Kumar, K. K. & Jain, K. K. (2013). Language conflicts in social arenas: Reflections for the business world, Journal of Asian and African Studies,48(1), 64-80.

Kumar, K. K. & Jain, K. K. (2013). Leadership activities and their impact on creating knowledge in organizations, International Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(1), 15-27.

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Kumar, K. K. & Kumar, A. (2011). SHRM content in the annual report of companies: An analysis through text mining, Indore Management Journal, 2(4), 19-30.

Kumar, K. K. (2011). Maintaining and promoting linguistic diversity in multinational corporations: Notion of social justice and arguments of business sense, Language, Society and Culture, (33), 122- 133.

Kumar, K. K. (2011). Development and application of an instrument to find out the linguistic background of employees in MNCs, International Journal of Language Studies, 5 (3), 45-74.

Kumar, K. K., & Kumar, A. (2011). The irony and the paradox of organizational commitment. Growth, 38(4), 23-33.

Kumar, K. K., & Jain, K. K. (2010). Reassessing the curriculum-competency alignment in MBA programs. Journal of Management and Strategy, 1(1), 68-75.

Book Chapters

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2014). Capitalism in the Indian social environment: An ethnic perspective. In Kazeroony, H. H. and Stachowicz-Stanusch, A. (Eds.) Capitalism and the Social Relationship: An Organizational Perspective (pp. 228-239) New York: Palgrave-McMillan.

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2013). Prabhat Khabar: Sustaining Journalism (Business Case). In Bajaj, G., Ghosh, S. & Bhatnagar, J. (Eds.) Innovations in People Management: Cases in Organizational Behaviour, HR, and Communication (pp. 118-134), New Delhi: McMillan.

Arun, B. K., Jangalwa, R., & Kumar, K. K. (2009). Impact of cultural differences on organizational values in a globalized context - An empirical study (Conference Proceedings). In A. Bansal, Y. Phatak, I. C. Gupta & R. Jain (Eds.), Transcending horizons through innovative global practices(pp. 205-211). New Delhi: Excel Books.

Book Reviews

Kumar, K. K., Carlström, T., & Karlsson, C. (2012). International negotiation in China and India: A Comparison of the Emerging Business Giants. International Business Review, 21(6), 1190-1191.

Kumar, K. K. (2009). Organizational design (by Jay R. Galbraith). Indore Management Journal, 1(1), 80-85.

Conferences (Peer-Reviewed)

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2015). Subordinate-superior upward communication: The effect of power, politics, and political skill. Paper accepted for presentation to The 75th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Vancouver, Canada, August 7-11, 2015.

Kumar, K.K. & Mishra, S. K. (2015). Subordinate-superior upward communication: The effect of leader-member exchange and interactional justice. Paper accepted for presentation to the 31st EGOS Colloquium, Athens, Greece, July 2-4, 2015.

Kumar, K.K. & Fang, T. (2015). Understanding the paradox of cultures: A Yin Yang perspective. Paper accepted for presentation to the Academy of International Business 2015 Annual Meeting,

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Bangalore, India, June 27 - 30, 2015.

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2014). Faking News: How a news satire portal helps uphold journalism ethics. Paper presented at the 5th World Business Ethics Forum, University of Macau, Macau, December 9-11, 2014.

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2014). Employee voice: The moderating role of power, politics, and political skill. Paper presented at the 2014 SMA Annual Meeting, Savannah, Georgia, USA, November 12-15, 2014.

Mishra, S. K. & Kumar, K. K. (2014). Affective well-being in organizational context: A study among medical sales representatives in India. Paper presented at the 2nd Pan IIM World Management Conference, IIM Kozhikode, India, November 5-8, 2014.

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2014). Assuming corporate responsibilities in lawless situations: Case study of a news media organization. Paper presented at the Academy of International Business 2014 Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, June 23-26, 2014.

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2013). Capitalism in the Indian social environment: An ethnic perspective. Paper presented at the Indian Academy of Management Conference, IIM Ahmedabad, India, December 12-14, 2013.

Kumar, K. K., & Mishra, S. K. (2013). Caught in a quandary: Can business organizations be both virtuous and competitive. Paper presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Society for Business Ethics, Orlando, Florida, USA. August 8-11, 2013.

Kumar, K. K., & Mishra, S. K. (2012). Prabhat Khabar: Innovative HR practices that helped sustain journalism as practice. Paper presented at the 12th IHRM Conference, MDI Gurgaon, India. December 10-13, 2012.

Kumar, K. K. (2012). A Yin Yang perspective to understanding paradoxes: Insights from Indian culture, Paper presented at the Inaugural International Conference on Yin Yang Paradigm, Stockholm University School of Business, Sweden, June 7-11, 2012.

Kumar, K. K. & Mishra, S. K. (2011). Strength of friendship ties: Role of linguistic distance and physical propinquity. Paper presented at the Indian Academy of Management Conference, IIM Bangalore, India, December 18-20, 2011.

Kumar, K. K. (2010), Maintaining and promoting linguistic diversity in multinational corporations: Notion of social justice and arguments of business sense. Paper presented at the 12th New Zealand Language & Society Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, November 22-23, 2010.

Kumar, K. K. (2010). Too hot to handle: Linguistic conflicts in social and business arenas. Paper presented at the ACSCOS 2010 - The 4th Australasian Caucus of the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism, Melbourne, Australia, November 29-December 01, 2010.

Kumar, K.K. (2010). Development and application of an instrument to find out the linguistic background of employees in MNCs. Paper presented at the 26th EGOS Colloquium, Lisbon, Portugal, July 01-03, 2010.

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Ray, B. & Kumar, K.K. (2010). Women earning members in family and female role models: Examining the effect on male leadership stereotype in female students. Paper presented at the Excellence in Research and Education Conference, IIM Indore, India, May 14-17, 2010.

Kumar, K. K., & Ray, B. (2010). Examining the relation between gender stereotype and leadership characteristics: A semantic connotation study in the Indian context. Paper presented at the International Conference on Women, Work & Health, Udaipur, India, March 30-31, 2010.

Kumar, K.K. (2009). Reassessing the curriculum-competency alignment in MBA programs: A cross- national study of India and USA. Paper presented at the Research Advances & Trends: Postgraduate Conference & Colloquium, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 07-10, 2009.

Arun, B.K. & Kumar, K.K. (2008). Mapping the trends in managerial practices after globalization - Is west gradually converging towards east? Paper presented at the International Conference on Globalisation and Emerging Economies, IIM Indore, India, August 11-13, 2008.

Kumar, K.K. & Arun, B.K. (2008). Impact of cultural differences on organizational value patterns in a globalized context. Paper presented at the International Conference on Globalisation and Emerging Economies, IIM Indore, India, August 11-13, 2008.

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