‘TAMING OF THE SHREW’: SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAKE NEWS

Engineer Tororiro Isaac Chaza PMP

“And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,

And not obedient to his honest will,

What is she but a foul contending rebel

And graceless traitor to her loving lord?”

- Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew.’

This is a non-partisan discourse on the currently playing Zimbabwe Harmonised Elections saga.

The just held Zimbabwe Harmonized elections sparked a whirl of fake news in an unprecedented manner. The elections have been dubbed ‘free and fair’ as, unlike in past elections, there was a measure of press freedom and no suppression of online media. In a bid to get the latest news about the election results, reactions, and repercussions I became glued to TV news, radio talk-shows and cyberspace’s social media instruments such as whatsapp, twitter, facebook, Internet news websites, etc. The official source of the results would have been the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) website had it been updated expeditiously. But alas, there was nothing on it as it had been apparently hacked. A few weeks ago it was reported that the ZEC’s voters roll database had been hacked and voters’ personal information illegally published on the Internet. So whilst ZEC did a commendable job of using the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system for registering voters, it did not beef up on cybersecurity. Furthermore the BVR system was not employed for voter authentication on voting day. Instead a hard copy manual verification method was used, further fuelling news, fake or perceived, of potential vote tampering.

 Shakespeare's comedy ‘Taming of the Shrew’ came to mind when I heard people, including senior officials, clamouring for the control of online fake news, or the exercise of restraint and responsible reporting. The generation of content on cyberspace is an uncontrollable beast. It is a ‘shrew.’

• ‘Shrew’ -  a violent, turbulent, or brawling woman. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/, or
• a woman who is argumentative, nagging, and ill tempered. - https://www.vocabulary.com/

In one of the ‘Taming of The Shrew’ scene, a certain Tranio remarks about the ‘shrew’ whose name is Katharina, “Husht master….. That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.” So to put it aptly, a ‘shrew’ is best described as a ‘froward wench.’

• ‘froward’ - Middle English, meaning habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition - - https://www.merriam-webster.com/
•  ‘wench’ – Middle English for girl or maiden, (later used to mean prostitute) https://www.vocabulary.com/

I tender an apology to the female gender for choosing the similitude of social media to the ‘shrew’ which, in Old English is a female. Please keep on reading as I absolve myself. But I could not find a better label for social media than a ‘shrew’ or ‘froward wench.’ Now as the ‘shrew’ feasts on fake news it becomes a furious beast. Fake news is a phenomenon, which has always existed since creation. Remember the story of Eve being fed on ‘fake content’ by the serpent whilst the husband was absently musing himself trying to name all the animals and plants. What is fake news?

• Fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media. - https://en.wikipedia.org/ 

And,

• Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead in order to damage an agency, entity, or person, and/or gain financially or politically, often using sensationalist, dishonest, or outright fabricated headlines to increase readership, online sharing, and Internet click revenue. - https://en.wikipedia.org/

 Is the similitude of online ‘fake news’ to a ‘shrew’ clear now? In order to absolve myself from the indictment of gender bias I liken the fabricators of fake news to the man in King Solomon’s adage, “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends,” (Proverbs 16:28 KJV). Fake news creates strife and separates friends. I belong to many social media groups so the tumult that I have experienced is incredible. I have seen normally demure and docile members of chat groups I belong to being awakened like a whirlwind, expressing their views, arguing about the truthfulness of reports, attacking and defending their truth (read biased opinion). Even the religious social media groups that normally exchange motivational scriptures became ablaze with the ‘shrew’s’ ill-tempered tiffs as they became ‘whisperers.’.

 Analogous to this, is the fires that raged on (are still raging on at the time of writing this article) in California coincidentally at the same time as the Zimbabwean elections. Attempts to douse these wind-assisted fires seem to have failed. The fires may eventually die down but the devastation will be felt for a long time to come. The active chat group members, like the fires of California, raged on at even higher intensity. The election reports became personally ‘true’ fuelled by one’s own bias of whom one was going to vote for prior to the vote, whom one actually voted for on the day, and whom one is judging as a cause of the ensuing mayhem. The pound of the sound bytes soared. The tedious and traditional method of reporting results did not do anything to douse the flames. The post election violence, fueled to a certain extent by the ‘shrew,’ did not do any good as it enflamed the beast to greater heights. You could smell the elevated levels of cortisol (stress hormone) everywhere. I was not spared as I became a fervent ‘whisperer’ wrestling with the violent, turbulent and brawling ‘shrew,’ commenting, counter-commenting and being combative with my opinions.

 In Shakespeare’s conclusion of ‘Taming of the Shrew’ the husband Petruchio tames Katharina, the ‘froward wench’ who urges the other women to be subservient to their husbands. That is where the similitude between the ‘shrew’ character in the legendary playwright's comedy and my observations of social media ends. The social media ‘shrew’ cannot be tamed. Why? It’s a beast, which feasts on the human being’s need to be connected, informed, misinformed, lied to and ‘liked,’ giving truth to King Solomon’s observation in Proverbs 18:8 (AMP) that “The words of a whisperer (gossip) are like dainty morsels [to be greedily eaten]; They go down into the innermost chambers of the body [to be remembered and mused upon].”

I have even observed higher instances of people cyberchatting while driving, a dangerous exercise, which I myself have had to consciously and conscientiously refrain from. There are reports that we have now developed cyber addictions such as online addiction disorder and its cohorts, smartphone disorder, IAD (internet addiction disorder), nomophobia (fear of having no mobile phone), and FOMO (fear of missing out). 

•  Social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and dozens of others allow people to stay in touch like never before. However, some people spend so much time on these sites that it begins to interfere with their lives. Psychologists are referring to this as a social networking compulsion or addiction. https://drlwilson.com/

 In the case of the Zimbabwe elections could the ‘shrew’ have been contained? Perhaps the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) could have attempted to curb the amount of false news by expeditiously announcing the election results using ‘cybersecure’ electronic media. But I doubt that the ‘shrew’ would have rested. Like the California fires the rage only dies down when there is no more forest to burn.

 But there is personal discipline that I am instituting in order not to be ‘tossed to and fro’ by waves of the ‘shrew.’ I got it from King Solomon who quipped “It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house,” (Proverbs 21:9 KJV). So I am staying on the housetop by resisting to comment (for a while), and exiting social media groups. I further advise “do not cyberchat and drive.” The ‘shrew’ will get the better of you by agitating you, and you will have an accident!