“Fake News” has been a frequent topic in the last couple of years. The phenomenon has particularly been cited with regards to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. The creation of “post truth” reports that are disseminated via the Web and social media has been treated as something new, a product of the digital age, and a reason to be concerned about the effects of online technology. However, this paper argues that fake news should be considered as part of a continuum with forms of media that went before in the 20th Century, and the general trend of postmodernity detailed by Baudrillard. The simulation of communications media and mass reproduction was already evident and has merely progressed in the digital age rather than the latter providing a wholly new context. The paper concludes by asking whether the political havoc caused by fake news has an antidote, when it appears to be a by-product of media simulacra’s inherent lack of connection to the real. In a communications landscape where the misrepresentations of the so-called “Mainstream Media” are decried using even more questionable “memes” on social media, is there any possibility for truth?

中文翻译：

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社交媒体时代的拟像：鲍德里亚是假新闻的先知

“假新闻”在过去几年中一直是一个常见的话题。该现象尤为涉及到唐纳德特朗普对美国总统的选举。通过网络和社交媒体传播的“后真相”报告的创建被视为新事物、数字时代的产物以及关注在线技术影响的理由。然而，本文认为，假新闻应被视为与 20 世纪之前的媒体形式以及鲍德里亚详述的后现代性总趋势的连续统一体的一部分。传播媒体和大规模复制的模拟已经很明显，并且只是在数字时代取得了进展，而不是后者提供了一个全新的背景。论文最后询问假新闻造成的政治破坏是否有解药，因为它似乎是媒体模拟与真实缺乏联系的副产品。在社交媒体上使用更可疑的“模因”谴责所谓“主流媒体”的虚假陈述的传播环境中，是否有可能真相？