Elena, a struggling medical student, joins friends in North Macedonia to write fake news stories for cash. They discuss the impact of fake news in the US election, clickbait tactics, collaboration in the industry, and consequences of misinformation.
Financial success in fake news surpassed Elena's medical aspirations, revealing moral dilemmas.
Exploitation of social media algorithms and human emotions drove the profitable fake news industry.
Deep dives
The Rise of Fake News Industry in Vellis, Macedonia
In Vellis, Macedonia, Elena Demetrieva, a medical student, turned to creating fake news articles to pay for her tuition. Amidst the 2016 US election, Vellis gained notoriety for hosting sites publishing pro-Trump fake news. Elena ventured into this lucrative industry, surpassing her income from working in Germany. Despite her medical aspirations, she faced the reality that fake news brought more financial success than medicine, highlighting the moral dilemmas and financial incentives associated with producing false information.
The Operational Mechanics of Fake News Creation in Vellis
False stories about US politics thrived in Vellis due to their viral potential, generating significant profits from AdSense. Elena's friend Gorin, an advocate of fake news, praised the collaborative and profitable nature of the fake news industry in Vellis. Audience targeting played a pivotal role, manipulating emotions and opinions to maximize virality. The business model of fake news centered on exploiting social media algorithms and human emotions, creating a worrying trend towards sensationalized and misleading content.
Impact and Departure from the Fake News Industry
As the fake news boom in Vellis drew international attention, measures were taken by tech giants like Facebook and Google to curb the spread of false information. Elena's personal awakening led to her exit from the industry. Her reflection on the ethical implications and the realization that this wasn't the path she wanted to pursue prompted her return to Germany to work at a gas station. The aftermath of the crackdown on fake news in Vellis questioned the effectiveness of such actions in addressing the root causes of misinformation proliferation in the digital age.
Fake news pays. Medical student Elena ran out of money, so she joined her friends in Veles, North Macedonia, writing fake stories for cash. Hosted by Academy Award-winning documentary film-maker Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna, Diego Maradona), this is the first episode in a new five-part series from BBC World Service in collaboration with Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. Detours takes us off the main roads of our lives, following people who didn’t end up where they expected.
Producer: David Borenstein
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