Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: News and Rumour

There is no doubt that the possibility of using or exploiting any news item or piece of information to spread and promote rumours about it, in order to stir up public opinion and arouse the anxiety, resentment and anger of the general public against the state and its various national institutions. It is something available to every party hostile to the state that does not wish its people well.

It has been known throughout history that rumours are one of the means of psychological warfare that target armies in battle as they target the state and society, and the extent to which rumours spread is linked to the level of awareness and to the speed with which the competent or targeted bodies respond by dealing with, answering and refuting the rumours promptly. While presenting correct and direct information and news, for the later the treatment, the greater the impact of rumours.

We have previously dealt with rumours in two articles, the first entitled Immunization and Defence Against the Danger of Rumours in February 2018, and the second entitled Confronting Hostile Media Is a National Duty, dated 8 April 2019, and today we return to complete this important subject from a new angle, which is the wording of news headlines that carry more than one meaning.

Nobody fails to see that the media machine of the terrorist group targets Egypt, its leadership, government and people, whether on social media or among the illiterate, with rumours and lies and attempts to belittle the unprecedented achievements being realized on the land of Egypt in all fields, and works to magnify the negatives,

While sending signals to their supporters and intellectual sympathizers to comment on and circulate the lies they broadcast, out of the spirit of failure and frustration that has struck the organization and the world’s exposure of their ideas and their history in manufacturing terrorism and violent extremism.

Their misleading media mouthpieces also rely on exploiting the news published daily by the various media to seize on loopholes in order to twist them and manufacture rumours around them.

Many news headlines published or circulated by some media, especially the online press, are influenced by the race to be first in circulating news so that it reaches every corner of the world in moments, giving this priority over checking it.

This makes the headlines of these news items a fertile environment for weaving and manufacturing rumours around them because of their ambiguity or because they carry more than one meaning, especially news relating to rising prices or increases in the cost of services and everything that affects the citizen’s livelihood, so that rumours take them up easily.

Rumour-mongers seized on the headline of a news item published on a website to the effect of (Find out the expected fees for withdrawals and balance enquiries via ATM from the first of July), and managed to make bank customers believe that withdrawal fees were expected to increase, which many greeted with disapproval and dissatisfaction.

This is due to the lack of clarity in the wording of the news item and its carrying more than one meaning, despite good intentions; there is a difference between the fees expected on withdrawals with A TM cards from the first of July, and the approaching end of the Central Bank’s grace period for collecting the fees that had previously been approved. We do not hide the indications that the Egyptian banking sector has been targeted with rumours after the statements of Mohamed Ramadan. Another picture was published, showing (a large gathering and a crush of people under the heading “obtaining a document for a new job according to the announcement of the Nuclear Power Authority”) – without any comment written – this is another method. In truth, the picture has no comment, but it points to many negatives, whether the crowding and the failure to comply with the precautionary measures for COVID-19, the large number of those in need of work, or the distribution of paper booklets and introduction documents to those wishing to apply for the jobs despite the talk of automation and digital transformation, and other analyses. It is clear from the above that the art of wording news headlines and selecting pictures and leaving them without comment so that the citizen journalist determines how he understands and perceives them is accompanied by another art, that of selecting these headlines and pictures to weave and manufacture rumours around them in order to stir up people against the state and its institutions. So more care and caution, O people of the wording. As for the circulation of the content of the news item about the A TM fees, the Central Bank is expected to come out and announce its next steps and the amount of the fees set for withdrawing cash from the same bank or through another bank’s machine? And whether the grace period will be extended or not? And if the decision is applied on the first of July, we hope it will be submitted again to the National Payments Council, chaired by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, to exempt pensioners’ withdrawal cards from any withdrawal fees on their monthly entitlements, whatever they may be, in consideration of their circumstances.