Seth's Blog : The Weekly World News version of the future

The Weekly World News version of the future

What if someone is just making stuff up?

Years ago, I worked with the supermarket tabloid to make an ironic, shouty, somewhat funny book that has turned out to match much of the discourse we find surrounding us.

When we flew down to Florida to meet their team, I was amazed to discover that this nationwide newspaper, read by millions, was created by three people in a storage closet. They had a single filing cabinet with stock photos, and every day they went to work and invented stories about Bat Boys, UFOs and weird illnesses.

You weren’t supposed to believe this stuff, but of course, some people did.

They believed it because the medium (a newspaper) was associated with something reputable (a real newspaper).

Of course, the media has changed.

And yes, people are still making stuff up.

The number of people reading a post or following an account is not a useful indicator of whether or not the ideas within are made up or not.

Act accordingly.