“Fake News” is a buzz term that could encompass the 2016 election. Spawned during the onslaught of legitimately made-up stories designed to go viral on social media and impact public opinion, fake news continues to run rampant across social media platforms. It’s an area that outlets like Twitter and Facebook have verbally committed to tamping down, but as we begin the run up to the 2020 election, something just as insidious is already rearing its ugly head: deepfakes.

If you’re unfamiliar with what a deepfake is, there’s a chance you may have already fallen for one. Deepfakes are altered videos that utilize artificial intelligence to make them appear genuine—and many of them are incredibly successful in that regard. Last week an edited video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began circulating on social media sites, edited and spliced in such a way that it made her appear to slur her words.

While not a top-tier deepfake, it served its purpose as a tool of disinformation—and made many headlines, as well. When legitimate news outlets are put into a position of letting their viewers know that something is false, it means that the narrative has already seeped into the cultural groundwater.

The fear going forward, according to The Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas, is that this is only the beginning, and these fake-out videos will get much better in quality. Videos edited to show people saying things that they never did; videos designed to destroy someone’s reputation—it’s a frightening but very real possibility in our social media driven world.

If it was difficult enough to snuff out fake news stories in text, well, just think of how quickly falsehoods will spread when they’re on video. So as always—and especially now—be sure to vet and verify everything that you see on social media. Fake articles are pervasive enough, but fake videos are especially terrifying.    

Sunday was the series finale for HBO’s Game of Thrones, one of the shows credited for ushering in our new “Golden Age” of television. It was the culmination of eight years of storytelling (and far longer if you’re including the source material), so naturally expectations were sky-high.

Who would ultimately rule the Seven Kingdoms? Which character am I irrationally invested in that will meet the pointy end of a sword? How are they going to inevitably screw this up?

With a production this massive, there’s bound to me some lapses, minor plot holes, and continuity errors. But nobody was prepared for Zephyrhills. That’s right: In one of the most pivotal scenes to wrap-up the entire series, a water bottle somehow snuck its way into the scene. A water bottle in Westeros. For shame.

The kicker here is that this is the second time in this six-episode season that 21^st Century consumables have found their way on screen, as everyone was in an uproar when a Starbucks cup appeared in episode four. Both of these errors were plain and clear, and also come in the context of a season that took nearly two years to produce.

If the audience wasn’t ready for this all to wrap up, it’s clear that the showrunners were.

It was an ignominious ending to a series that’s redefined original programming, and occupied an innumerable amount of time in the minds of fans. After all of the guesswork and conspiratorial theorizing, in the end, Game of Thrones was just another show with thirsty actors and seemingly lazy editors.

Will this sully GoT’s legacy going forward? Probably not. But the execution of its final season and the glaring errors which were easily caught on TV but somehow missed by production staff with always mean there’s a caveat with season eight. “Yes it’s good, but…”

Spell check. Fact check. Beverage check. Double check. It’s important in business and everyday life, and it’s certainly important with a generational television production.

Fresh off of my return from vacation, I’d be remiss if I didn’t immediately issue a massive ‘thank you’ to Russell for filling in in my stead. He did quite a bang-up job manning the blog for three weeks—I think he’s got a handle on this whole blogging thing. So thanks, Russell, for providing some top shelf content while I was away.

Now any time you leave for a trip, a common refrain from your peers is, “Take lots of pictures!” Back in the aughts, the result of this was heading to the local grocery store to develop film from your travels to physically share with friends and family. Seems weird now, right?

Of course things have shifted mightily since the genesis of social media, and for most, that’s now where our memories live—in digital photo albums across the internet. An important component to sharing photos on social media is the engagement factor—likes, reactions, comments. Well, one major photo-centric platform may be getting rid of that altogether.

If you’ve been following the news and the maelstrom of negative headlines following social media companies like ominous storm clouds, you’re aware of some changes that have been proposed to make the environment a more “friendly” place. Instagram is flirting with a massive adjustment to its app in that light, testing the removal of public “likes” and story views. These, of course, form the basis of the platform’s algorithm (High levels of engagement with specific photos will push them higher into your feed), and also provide the user with a shot of digital MSG when they see the likes start rolling in.

That’s why you’ll hear conversations about “How many likes I got on that photo.” Positive interaction naturally makes people feel good, and their accumulation of likes plastered on their photos turns into a social media bragging point.

But it also fosters an extremely competitive environment where the memory becomes less about the photo and more about how popular it is. For that reason, Instagram has begun testing hiding these likes from everyone but the user.

So does this signal the end to the Age of Likes? Not necessarily. The all-important algorithm will still boost highly-engaged posts to the top of feeds, so you’ll of course be able to glean the popularity of a certain image by where it resides. Should Instagram go all-in on hiding likes, it will also create a dividing line of sorts—those who simply value their own content for what it is, and those who key in on the number of those clicking on it.

Essentially, screenshots of user likes will become a “thing” on Instagram. I can think of nothing less engaging.

It’s good news that social media platforms are tinkering with methods to make them friendlier, less competitive places. But with the mental and monetary value many people derive from levels of likes, views, and comments, there’s simply no way they’ll be able to eliminate that aspect from the platforms they created.   

I find it fascinating that people are fascinated with the British Royal Family.  I mean, didn’t we fight two wars so we don’t have to be concerned with what the Queen thinks or feels?  That being said, there are many facts I found interesting about the latest branch on the Mountbatten-Windsor family tree.

1.  He’s the first Royal born into the family that’s eligible for U.S. citizenship.  Because his mother is an American who’s lived stateside in the past five years, he can have dual passports.  BTW:  she’s the first American to marry into the Royal family since 1937, and the last time it happened the Royal himself had to abdicate to get married. Fortunately, we’ve advanced far enough Harry can stay inline. 

2.  He will not be a prince.  The rule was changed by his great-great-great-grandfather in 1917.  Being seventh in line, he’s out of the HRH succession which gives him a lot more freedom.  The birth of his third cousin knocked his father down to sixth, which opened up the opportunity for Harry to marry Meghan without much fuss.  The new Royal actually has a chance at a pretty normal, albeit very privileged, life.

3.  Exactly when and where he was born was kept a secret.  All of his older cousins were born in London, in the same hospital as their father and the new father, their uncle.  He may not have even been born in a hospital; it could have been a home birth.  And, as of this writing, he hasn’t appeared in public.  His grandmother started the tradition of appearing on the hospital steps within hours of giving birth.  His aunt continued the tradition with all three cousins, but we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him, yet.

4.  His birth was announced first on Instagram.  This shows how quickly tradition can change.  A new (?) tradition was started with the younger two of his cousins when their births were announced via Twitter.  For centuries before, birth announcements were made via official statement.  The Royals are not only keeping up, they’re surpassing each other.

Although I’ve seen the commercial several times since the game in February, when I saw it and heard that trill again this morning a couple of new thoughts occurred to me.

Maybe it’s because I recently read that Cardi B has applied for trademark of her famous “Okurrr.” Or, maybe it’s because Carter is galivanting around Europe and I’m left to come up with a blog topic every Tuesday. Boy, he makes this look effortless.  But I really do think it’s because Cardi B’s application reminded me of a couple of aspects of article writing.

One aspect is to not reinvent the wheel, just put new rims on it.  In other words, use what’s you’ve already got:  a blog post, a key note, a book chapter; all of these make great article topics.  You may need to edit the content a bit for the style editors prefer.  Cardi B didn’t come up with the phrase O.K., she just made it her own with a little reformatting. 

Another way Miss B has reminded me of article writing is in what she’s applied for.  You need to protect your content.  When you pitch out your article never, I mean never, give away or sell the rights to it.  You want to be able to use the content of the article again and again.  You also don’t want to give exclusivity of the article.  Let the editor know up front you’re pitching it out on a non-exclusive basis and it will appear in other industry and association publications.  An exception, and we do this on occasion, is to give exclusivity within an industry.  It’s alright to let one construction association know it won’t be in any other construction association publications, but it still will be in the restaurant or insurance or auto industry publications. 

Saving the best aspect for last – the application made by Cardi B “…mostly covers merchandise, with separate filings made for paper goods.”  Which shows even a Millennial rapper recognized the on-going power of print!