Media Hoaxes: Effective or Not?

Hoaxes and pranks are effective at generating viral validity. They can even enable forms of political engagement which can transgressively act upon the traditional media. Viral validity has become very prominent, from which many radical organizations derive the opportunity to politically engage isolated publics. Hoaxes, pranks, and parodies are predicated upon the viral and dissipative qualities of the network. People themselves become nodes of the agency of the network, and everyone on the network either authenticates or dismisses the hoaxes, pranks, or parodies within the framework of "legitimate discourse". There is a limit to how much one can censor and police, so we should assume zero-trust when engaging the viral on its own terms. Transgressive engagements with media can "do politics" online by providing a legitimizing framework that justifies attempts at subversion. Since not everyone is acting as good faith actors, we have to be careful of becoming politically focused in isolated publics. This kind of validity can inform much of our political and social interaction. Think of the Jussie Smollet case, in which Smollet faked an attack by “white supremacist MAGA supporters” to try and generate viral validity amongst echo chambers on the left. This was a form of political expression that was also deemed a crime, because it attempted to defraud viewers. Even the dominant media was duped into thinking that this was an actual hate crime provoked by racism. As it has since been proven, the whole plan was to gain viral validity in order to make a political stance more appealing to hold. Although we can never assume good-faith actors creating hoaxes or pranks, as is made clear by the Jussie Smollet case, there are opportunities for “culture-jamming” to make a positive impact. Think of Steven Crowder, from Louder with Crowder, a conservative talk show. His producers recently set up a hoax upon a fellowship for professors in fat studies, in which Crowder pretends to be a fat-studies professor, in order to poke fun at the academic agenda these professors in this academia are pushing into their isolated public spheres. These professors are a perfect example of an isolated public that is stuck in a huge echo chamber. Funny enough, the hoax was put on so well that the fat-studies professors believed every bit of Crowder’s monologue, which was submitted as a video for the fellowship’s viewing in their online conference. Later, this hoax was deemed by some to be in bad taste. Some would think that this hoax was only to discredit the attempt to transgress against academia, but in reality it was to bring to light the contradictory nuances of the arguments of this particular isolated public.