Sustainable food consumption plays an increasingly important role in our everyday lives and gets more and more attention. But how can we consume more sustainable food and to which aspects do we need to pay attention?
By looking on the internet we can find numerous ideas, opinions, and news of how we can adjust our consumption patterns to be more friendly to the environment in the long term. Especially on social media people share their thoughts and recommendations on sustainable products and ways of living. In addition to that, companies also try to inform people about more sustainable consumption and the environmental friendliness of their products and production processes.
On the one hand, this is beneficial in terms of giving other people new ideas to improve their own lives, however, on the other hand, social media users, as well as companies, also share
FAKE NEWS!
But what exactly are Fake News?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term fake news describes: “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke“.
Fake news can appear in various forms such as misleading information, false connections or a wrong context, satire or parody, content that is 100% wrong, or propaganda.
Due to the huge prevalence of fake news, there are already around 204 synonyms describing this form of wrong information.
Since there is an increasing number of fake news spread throughout the internet and trusted by a huge number of people, the phenomenon gets a problematic issue that might even have severe consequences. That is also why we must be more cautious and do not always believe what we see and read on the internet.
For this reason, this blog post will inform you about how you can identify fake news to protect yourself from believing incorrect information and going in the wrong direction.
FAKE NEWS
The Case of Coca-Cola
One remarkable example concerning sustainable food consumption is the recycling campaign by Coca Cola as shown in the video below:
In their 30 seconds advertisement, Coca-Cola shows a ladybug flying to an empty plastic bottle laying on the ground of a forest. On the bottle, it says “I can become another bottle when you recycle me. Thanks!“
Subsequently, the ladybug together with some ants carries the empty bottle on a tree from which they throw the can into a recycling bin. It follows the slogan “With a little help, we can make a big change. Now made from 100% recycled plastic“.
Initially, the ad should promote the sustainability of Coca Cola plastic bottles and encourage people to recycle their empty containers. However, the campaign has been accused of greenwashing the company and providing fake news.
Greenwashing is defined as “[…] the dissemination of false or deceptive information regarding an organization’s environmental strategies, goals, motivations, and actions“ and can thus be seen as sustainable or environmental propaganda.
How can we find out that we are dealing with propaganda?
Typically propaganda is used to manipulate people and is often compiled by the elements of activating strong emotions, responding to audience needs and values, simplifying information and ideas, and attacking opponents.
In the case of Coca-Cola, we can directly retrieve the first three mentioned components of propaganda and indirectly observe the fourth element.
(1.) Activate strong emotions:
Watching the advertisement evokes various emotions within the observer which lets him or her sympathize with the brand and its depicted way to be more sustainable.
First seeing the almost untouched forest and the ladybug lets the viewer feel calm, relaxed, and happy. The green colors of the trees evoke the feeling of hope and the ladybug stands for fortune and luck.
However, subsequently seeing the empty plastic bottle on the soil evokes a kind of anger and frustration within the viewer’s mind. Nevertheless, Coca-Cola comes up with the solution of recycling to recover the peacefulness and idyll of the forest which again provokes sympathy with the company and satisfaction.
(2.) Respond to audience needs and values:
The key message of the campaign is that with a little help, in terms of throwing empty bottles into a recycling bin, we can ensure more sustainable production and consumption as Coca-Cola bottles are made from 100% recycled plastic.
That is exactly what the consumer wants to hear as he or she can simply carry on their consumption habits and still be environmentally friendly by solely throwing the empty flask into the right bin.
In this way, the ad appeals to the common value of sustainability and the need for protecting our environment by maintaining our usual lifestyle and without lowering our sights.
(3.) Simplify information and ideas:
The video illustrates the possibility to throw an empty flask into a recycling bin instead of throwing it on the ground. Moreover, the company gives the information that their bottles are 100% made from recycled plastic.
In this way, the company informs the consumer about recycling and simplifies the idea of lower waste production. Nevertheless, the idea stops at this point and no further information about the recycling process or its impact on the environment is provided.
(4.) Attack opponents:
The Coca Cola advertisement does not directly attack any group or person, however, if we look at the two slogans and requests “I can become another bottle WHEN YOU recycle me“ and “WITH a LITTLE HELP, we can make a big change“, it seems like an appeal of the company. Anyone who is not willing to help the firm in their recycling process is then depicted as bringing discredit to our world.
What is fake about the presented information by Coca-Cola?
The main issue about the environmental propaganda by Coca-Cola is the element of simplification of the information.
After watching the video it seems like we as consumers will not do any harm to our environment and lower waste production as long as we recycle our empty plastic bottles.
This information is however incorrect as it was proven that recycling is not sustainable and as fast as the new single-use plastic bottles production. In fact, approximately only 9% of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic that have been produced have also been recycled. Thus, the only way to be more environmentally friendly would be to buy fewer plastic bottles and more alternative packaging options.
In addition to that Coca Cola is still the biggest plastic polluter worldwide as the company produces 100 billion plastic bottles every year.
What do we learn from this case?
As already mentioned above, we live in a world in which there is an increasing number of fake news especially spread throughout the internet. Even big companies such as Coca-Cola spread fake news to throw a better light on their organization, therefore we must always deal critically with the information we receive and not believe everything that we see or read.
In order to help you to find better and particularly correct information, here are some tips on finding reliable sources that give you accurate information.
Despite looking for the four typical elements of propaganda, there are some steps that you might take to prevent trusting fake news.
First, it is always recommended to check the reliability of the source and the author. Especially on the internet and social media, there is a huge number of fake news since everyone can share their opinion and information even if they do not have any expert knowledge in this field. Concerning this, you might also check the author’s sources and their validity as well as expert opinions on the topic at hand.
Furthermore, if you see an article it is always important to read the whole article or post and not only the headline as those often exaggerate the situation to capture interest and klicks. Moreover, you must consider whether the information has a straightforward meaning or if it is meant as a joke, satire, parody, or even propaganda.
Another important step when finding correct sources is checking the currency of the reported event and the confirmability of the pictures.
Despite all those aspects, always consider your own opinion on the reported aspect, since you might trust fake news more easily if you are already biased towards this line of thought.
If you want to look up things and research more on the subject at hand just look up my sources:
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