The news media love April Fool's Day. It is traditionally the one day of the year that journalists let their hair down and have fun with the news. The Guardian newspaper, for example, proclaimed that former British chancellor and current backbench member of parliament George Osborne – who is under fire for accepting an extra job as a newspaper editor – would soon be working at a fashion label called Georgio.
Even technology companies such as Google and Facebook use April Fool’s Day to announced silly made-up products and innovations such as selfie sticks for computers.
But times, and the media, have changed. With the proliferation of fake news, it can be hard to tell the real stories from the made-up ones. As if every day were April Fool’s day, outlandish tales are shared on social media platforms as if they are real. Will fake news be the end of the long tradition of April Fool’s jokes or is it merely a call to arms?
