In the modern world, falsehood is mixed with the truth and fake news intermingle with real information. How to display the truth about falsehoods in a form accessible to the lay public? Journalist Mario Tascón came up with the idea of the exhibition „Fake News. The factory of lies / Fake news. La fàbrica de mentiras” in mid-2023 at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Madrid. Among various goals of the Foundation, it pursues an educational mission, presenting various communication phenomena and inspiring the development of communication skills necessary in the modern world. The exhibition consisted of texts, visualizations of scientific concepts, analyses of case studies, historical artifacts and works by contemporary artists (including Joan Fontcuberta, Jonas Bendiksen, Hao Li, as well as works by collectives such as Tactical Tech or The Yes Men). The exhibition was divided into four thematic blocks. The first part („The brain deceives us”) adopted a psychological perspective: various cognitive illusions that promote confidence in fake news were ingeniously presented. The second part („Fake news throughout the history”) provided a fascinating overview of the creation and dissemination of fake news, from antiquity to modern times. This part of the exhibition showed the motivations of the authors of fake news and false images, as well as the consequences of influencing the course of events by deliberately creating untruths in different cultural and linguistic contexts. The third part („Fabricating lies”) was mainly devoted to ways of manipulating images and their effectiveness in inducing false beliefs. In particular, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in producing suggestive but false visual „evidence” was considered. The last part of the exhibition („Fighting lies”) provided an overview of how to identify disinformation, presented in the form of a decalogue for users of contemporary media. The exhibition prompted reflection on how falsehood works and how it impacts democratic society. It also highlighted the need for education in the realm of rhetoric and media consumption in order to raise awareness and build immunity to manipulation.
-
„Fake News. Factory of lies” (Exhibition in Madrid)