196 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2024
    1. Advocating for the great booksidea, then, could mean fighting against anti-intellectualism, antira-tionalism (i.e., the reliance on ideology), and “agnotology.”

      definition of agnotology:

      Within the sociology of knowledge, agnotology (formerly agnatology) is the study of deliberate, culturally induced ignorance or doubt, typically to sell a product, influence opinion, or win favour, particularly through the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data (disinformation). More generally, the term includes the condition where more knowledge of a subject creates greater uncertainty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology

  2. Feb 2024
    1. we 00:11:13 have a media that needs to survive based on clicks and controversy and serving the most engaged people

      for - quote - roots of misinformation, quote - roots of fake news, key insight - roots of misinformation

      key insight - roots of misinformation - (see below)

      quote - roots of misinformation - we have a media that needs to survive based on - clicks and - controversy and - serving the most engaged people - so they both sides the issues - they they lift up - facts and - lies - as equivalent in order to claim no bias but - that in itself is a bias because - it gives more oxygen to the - lies and - the disinformation - that is really dangerous to our society and - we are living through the impacts of - those errors and - that malpractice -done by media in America

  3. Dec 2023
    1. Mind1, which refers to the neurocognitive activity that allows you to behave in the world.
      • for: hard problem of consciousness - UTok, question - consciosness - UTok mind 1a, Gregg Henrique

      • comment

      • question - consciousness - UTok mind 1b
        • This is a great diagram and conveys a lot in a succinct manner.
        • However, I have a gut feeling that the Mind 01a is not quite the right representation
        • If language and analysis is in the Mind 3 domain, then it is combined with Mind 1b as neurocognition is itself a mental construction, rather than an object
        • All this addresses that there is a deep entanglement between many scientifically analytically rich "objects" and constructed ideas
          • Scientific objects are spoken about and mixed with non-scientifically-laden objects in the world as if they are one and the same. They are not. Scientifically-laden objects have a huge amount of analytic theory behind them. Without familiarity with that theory, the object loses its validity, especially to the lay person.
          • This could be a possible explanation of why scientists are losing their credibility in modernity and giving rise to alternative facts, misinformation and fake news
      • for: science and religion, flat earth misconception, DH, Deep Humanity - science and religion - historical relationship

      • summary

        • Dutch historian Jochem Boodt explains how fake news isn't something new, but as old as the history books!
        • Science and religion were not antagonist in early Western history, as is believed today. This was fake news fabricated in a fascinating way.
        • He uses the example of the common misconception that before Columbus, people thought the earth was flat.
    1. Will artificial intelligence create useless class of people? - Yuval Noah Harari

      1:00 "bring the latest findings of science of the public", otherwise the public space "gets filled with conspiracy theories and fake news and whatever".<br /> he fails to mention that ALL his beautiful "scientists" are financially dependent on corporations, who dictate the expected results, and who sabotage "unwanted research".<br /> for example, the pharma industry will NEVER pay money for research of natural cancer cures, or "alternative" covid cures like ivermectin / zinc / vitamin C, because these cures have no patent, so there is no profit motive, and also because the "militant pacifists" want to fix overpopulation this way.<br /> a "scientist" should be someone, who has all freedom to propose hypotheses, which then are tested in experiments (peer review), and compared to real placebo control groups. because that is science, or "the scientific method". everything else is lobbying for "shekel shekel".

  4. Oct 2023
  5. Apr 2023
    1. “Fake news” was actual false news: stories that were blatantly made up, written and shared by people in the US who were economically or politically motivated.

      False news or fake news has been with us for many years. Regardless of who began the trend of "fake news," fake news has definitely evolved over time from the way it historical used in journalism via conventional news sources. It evolved in a matter of the speed at which it spreads and the greatness of its impact across the world. I would have to say that many people probably never paid attention to fake news until it was used politically with former President Donald Trump. The phrase "fake news" was thrown around loosely amongst social media platforms and various news outlets. I would have to disagree about it being spread by people in the US when the spread of false news/fake news goes beyond the US. I can say that there are common similarities of it being politically or economically motivated when looking are fake news that has gone viral over the years.

    1. Lying press (German: Lügenpresse, lit. 'press of lies') is a pejorative and disparaging political term used largely for the printed press and the mass media at large. It is used as an essential part of propaganda and is thus usually dishonest or at least not based on careful research.
    1. Now, I've made a number of documentaries about fake news. And what interests me is the first person to use the phrase mainstream media was Joseph Goebbels. And he, in one of his propaganda sheets, said “It's very important that you don't read the mainstream media because they'll tell you lies.” You must read the truth by the ramblings of his boss and his associated work. And you do have to watch this. This is a very, very well-established technique of fascists, is to tell you, don't read this stuff, read our stuff.<br /> —Ian Hislop, Editor, Private Eye Magazine 00:16:00, Satire in the Age of Murdoch and Trump, The Problem with Jon Stewart Podcast

  6. Feb 2023
    1. Pero demanda una gestión del caosprovocado por un volumen incontrolado que de-manda filtrados, selecciones o ediciones para re-cuperar o generar el sentido.

      Las neblinas de información - cuando la cantidad de ésta es tal que usuarios prefieren evitarla - propicia de igual manera la facilidad para recaer en fake news o incidir en el fenómeno de la post-verdad.

  7. Oct 2022
    1. Government and its instrumentalities have used RA 10175 in their attempt to silence not only critical reporting but even truthful coverage of government affairs. Adding the prerogative of prosecuting groups and individuals for supposedly generating and spreading false information to the vast powers of government will make the already difficult and even dangerous journalistic enterprise more uncertain, and will have a devastating impact on the people’s right to know what is going on in the government to whose officials they have delegated their sovereign powers. Any law penalizing the making and spreading of false information will, for the above reasons, more likely be part of the misinformation and disinformation problem rather than part of the solution.

      Senator Jinggoy Estrada has filed Senate Bill No. 1296 that would amend the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (RA 10175) to include "fake news" among the offenses the Act penalizes. The senator defines “fake news” as “misinformation and disinformation of stories (sic) which is (sic) presented as a (sic) fact, the veracity of which cannot be confirmed, with the purpose of distorting the truth and misleading its (sic) audience.” Not only do we have a problem with misinformation, we also have a problem what "fake news" really means in the first place. According to Teodoro, L. (2022), any legislation that criminalizes the creation and dissemination of incorrect information is more likely to contribute to the problem of misinformation and disinformation than to help solve it. While the roots of a certain piece of false information can be traced back to the source and be verified, the roots of the whole "fake news" problem is what the people really need to address in the first place.

    1. Trolls, in this context, are humans who hold accounts on social media platforms, more or less for one purpose: To generate comments that argue with people, insult and name-call other users and public figures, try to undermine the credibility of ideas they don’t like, and to intimidate individuals who post those ideas. And they support and advocate for fake news stories that they’re ideologically aligned with. They’re often pretty nasty in their comments. And that gets other, normal users, to be nasty, too.

      Not only programmed accounts are created but also troll accounts that propagate disinformation and spread fake news with the intent to cause havoc on every people. In short, once they start with a malicious comment some people will engage with the said comment which leads to more rage comments and disagreements towards each other. That is what they do, they trigger people to engage in their comments so that they can be spread more and produce more fake news. These troll accounts usually are prominent during elections, like in the Philippines some speculates that some of the candidates have made troll farms just to spread fake news all over social media in which some people engage on.

    2. So, bots are computer algorithms (set of logic steps to complete a specific task) that work in online social network sites to execute tasks autonomously and repetitively. They simulate the behavior of human beings in a social network, interacting with other users, and sharing information and messages [1]–[3]. Because of the algorithms behind bots’ logic, bots can learn from reaction patterns how to respond to certain situations. That is, they possess artificial intelligence (AI). 

      In all honesty, since I don't usually dwell on technology, coding, and stuff. I thought when you say "Bot" it is controlled by another user like a legit person, never knew that it was programmed and created to learn the usual patterns of posting of some people may be it on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. I think it is important to properly understand how "Bots" work to avoid misinformation and disinformation most importantly during this time of prominent social media use.

  8. Aug 2022
    1. MANILA, Philippines — Seven out of 10 adult Filipinos believe the problem of fake news and its spread on the internet is serious, according to the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS). The survey, done from Dec. 12 to Dec. 16 through in-person interviews of 1,440 adults, found 69 percent of Filipinos saying the problem of fake news in the media is serious, up from 60 percent in December 2017.

      The number of Filipinos that are aware of the dangers and severity of fake news is rising. The severe widespread of fake news can be typically seen on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It is very disappointing that fake news and disinformation is so widespread within society. However there is a glimmer of hope as more and more people recognize the problem at hand.

  9. Jul 2022
    1. Dogen can be very difficult to read or understand. That’s why we often need a commentary or teacher to introduce his way of writing and the underlying teaching. I often say he’s a thirteenth century cubist. Just like Picasso or in the writing world, Gertrude Stein, he tries to show all sides of the story in one paragraph or even one sentence. That is why he repeats himself and contradicts himself all in the same paragraph. If you are looking for the “right” understanding, you become confused and lost in his prism of various interpretations or views. Dogen’s “right” understanding is that there is none.   No one point of view is “right”. According to conditions, any view can be the right view in the right circumstance. Dogen really wants to take away our solid idea of a fixed ground of reality. It is not form or emptiness. It is not both or neither. There is no one right, fixed view. That is our “clinging”.

      Dogen contradicts himself because he tries to show "all sides of the story". His teaching is a "pointing out" instruction that ANY viewpoint is simply that, perspectival knowing.

      An important question then, is this, if Dogen (and Nagarjuna) are claiming that there is no objective reality in our constructed world of concepts and language, is science being denied? Is fake news ok? Is this a position that basically accepts post modernism? No, I would say no to all of these. It's pointing out the LIMITATIONS of concepts and language. They are incomplete and always leave with a sense of wanting more. And since Post Modernism is also one point of view, it is also thrown out by Dogen and Nagarjuna. Remember, ALL points of views are points of view. Fake news is also a point of view so those who practice it can also not justify it.

      What Dogen and Nagarjuna are saying is that as soon as one enters the world of concepts and language, any concept and anything side is inherently one sided. It is inherently perspectival and situated in an inherently incomplete conceptual space.

      As Tibetan doctor/monk Barry Kerzin points out in this conversation with physicist Carlo Rovelli, there is a critical difference between "existence" and "intrinsic existence". The first is not being denied by Nagarjuna, but the second, intrinsic existence, the existence of concepts and the words that represent them, is. If these two are confused, it can lead straight to nihilism.

      https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FsPSMTNjwHZw%2F&group=world

      This also aligns with John Vervaeke's perspectival and propositional knowing in his 4 P ways of knowing about reality: Propositional, Perspectival, Participatory and Procedural. A good explanation of Vervaeke's 4Ps is here: https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FGyx5tyFttfA%2F&group=world

  10. Jun 2022
    1. algorithmic radicalization is presumably a simpler problem to solve than the fact that there are people who deliberately seek out vile content. “These are the three stories—echo chambers, foreign influence campaigns, and radicalizing recommendation algorithms—but, when you look at the literature, they’ve all been overstated.”

      algorithmic radicalization

    1. the man's eight videos posted to TikTok last Thursday and Friday generated much attention. Combined, the posts garnered more than 2 million views and were recirculated on YouTube and Instagram by large-scale content creators reaching exponentially more people

      When parody is consumed as news, and the fake news spreads.

  11. Apr 2022
    1. Die Beantwortung der Frage, wie man die[93] Demokratie verteidigen, stützen oder gar ausbauen kann, geht weit über das Themadieses Buches hinaus

      Betrifft den Inhalt des Buches aber wie richtigerweise kurz angerissen ganz klar - genauso wie Tiedemann und Nida-Rümelin es ausweisen, ohne es ganz auszuhandeln

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  12. Mar 2022
    1. “So far, most trials that have compared COVID-19 mortality between jurisdictions with stringent lockdowns against those with more liberal approaches have not demonstrated any mortality reduction from the more stringent policies,” he said.

      That's bollocks. Even when this article was published it was bollocks. There was evidence from all around the world that lockdowns work.

  13. Feb 2022
    1. “If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not, if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.”

      I think something that is not being acknowledged very often when it comes to the conversation of discussing misinformation and disinformation is that there is always an unspoken social pressure or influence to always seem "likeable" "in-the-know" or "always right." Especially considering where social media is a very big resource in today's social climate, many people may not be honest about it, however a lot of us are fearful that if we say the wrong thing or think the wrong things, people may not befriend us, embrace us, or like you. So, there is a certain social engineering that is occurring where people are subscribing to certain ideas simply because that seems to be the group consensus and that causes pressure. We all must be accountable for debunking lies.

  14. Jan 2022
  15. Dec 2021
    1. Teachers typically focus on the first point, with an emphasis on legacy local news outlets (such as daily or weekly newspapers) and national news sources (such as weekly or monthly magazines and network news organizations). While students do need to learn how to evaluate news from these sources, the reality is that very few young people — even as they grow older — will use them the way their teachers and parents do.

      Moving away from printed newspapers into social media

    2. Wardle discourages use of the phrase, largely because it is unhelpful: “The term ‘fake’ doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of the different types of misinformation (the inadvertent sharing of false information) and disinformation (the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false).

      Against using the term "fake news"

    3. Journalism’s purpose, as the American Press Institute puts it, is “to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.”

      What is journalism?

    4. As news consumption has moved online, news organizations long recognized for their credibility and adherence to traditional standards of quality journal-ism have seen their profits disappear and their staffs decimated. As a result, many communities have lost common sources of information — and a common understanding of facts.Add social platforms with their algorithms and bots, and the public is now caught in a powerful and danger-ous whirlwind of self- and auto-selected news, rumors, gossip, state-sponsored propaganda and falsehoods

      Origins of Fake News

    1. Prof. Shane Crotty. (2021, November 2). Wow. COVID vaccine misinformation continues to be soooo horrible. This is incredible widespread and ABSOLUTELY made up. (Just like the insanity of implantable chips they continue to claim over and over) These fabrications are so damaging to the health of Americans. [Tweet]. @profshanecrotty. https://twitter.com/profshanecrotty/status/1455540502955241489

  16. Nov 2021
  17. Oct 2021
    1. We propose a tri-relationship embedding framework TriFN, which models publisher-news relations and user-news interactions simultaneously for fake news classification. We conduct experiments on two real-world datasets, which demonstrate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms other baseline methods for fake news detection.

      It was said in the conclusion that the TriFN can have a good fake news detection performance in the early stage of information dissemination because of the interactions in social media. User credibility was also mentioned since low credibility users tend to spread fake news.

      This means that users play a big part in detecting and reducing fake news in social media. Let's be responsible to only share credible news articles and report the misleading ones.

    1. The rationale is that stories that mix true and false facts may represent attempts to mislead readers. Thus, we focus our analysis on understanding how features can be used to discriminate true and fake news.

      I think the mix of true and false information is the most difficult to detect since the false information is intentionally in-between facts and articles on social media feed on surface reading to cause misleading. Even basic google searching can be tricked this way because the algorithm will most likely show results related the keywords on the facts, and not proving that an information is false.

    2. FAKE NEWS DETECTION IN PRACTICE

      The article showed the scientific processes that can be used in analyzing information and how they applied it in fact-checking. Technology makes fact-checking easier and faster but humans are still the most accurate. That is why studying information science is important because of its relevance to the society.

  18. Sep 2021
    1. SuzeeB🙂. (2021, September 14). Dear vaccinated, We did not take your freedom. The government did. We are not holding your freedoms to ransom. The government is. If we are a danger to you, then your vaccine doesn’t work. If it does, then you should already be free. The government has lied to you. [Tweet]. @NatalieSuB. https://twitter.com/NatalieSuB/status/1437835320628809733

  19. Aug 2021
  20. Jul 2021
    1. Blogging about your work hits both of those marks. It also means that you have to translate your work from academese to language that non-academics will understand (i.e. jargon) and also foreground the relevance of your work. You have to tell people why your work is important and what it adds to the world.

      This is such an important point. Donald Trump did such an excellent job speaking at a level a lay person could understand when downplaying the seriousness of the Covid-19 virus thus undermining the scientific and medical community voices, that many Americans are refusing to vaccinate. This puts the world at risk for future variants that might be much worse than the ones we have now. More academics simplifying knowledge will help stem the tide of fake news, political propaganda and truly harmful misinformation.

  21. Jun 2021
  22. May 2021
    1. Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH. (2021, April 20). I was very pleased to see Levitt resign yesterday from the science advisory board of the anti-vaxx group PANDA. Previously Sikora had resigned. This press release mentions other resignations. Anyone know if the 3 GBD authors finally resigned? Here’s PANDA’s views on vaccines: Https://t.co/wVZX7XujZ3 [Tweet]. @GYamey. https://twitter.com/GYamey/status/1384476491317227525

  23. Apr 2021
  24. Mar 2021
    1. Nick Barrowman. (2021, March 26). Throughout the pandemic, a widespread inability to reason counterfactually has been on display. For example, some people apparently think lockdowns don’t work. They seem unable to imagine the situation had there not been a lockdown. Lockdowns are costly, but they work! [Tweet]. @nbarrowman. https://twitter.com/nbarrowman/status/1375240312264740870

  25. Feb 2021
  26. Jan 2021
  27. Dec 2020
  28. Nov 2020
  29. Oct 2020
    1. and narratives in fiction, popular nonfiction, and marketing material. These texts shape the public’s knowledge about and potential engagement with transoce-anic networks.

      on peut se demander si la littérature (+cinéma etc.) ne se dédouane pas de sa responsabilité vis-à-vis de ses effets sur l’imaginaire collectif – une question qui mérite assurément d’être réinvestie à l’ère des fake news – puisqu’elle façonne en partie la représentation que le public se fait sur un sujet.

      on reprochera par exemple aux films historiques (mettant en scène un musicien dont les gestes ne correspondent pas à ce qui est joué, une athlète de haut niveau qui reproduit pauvrement la technique de course, un film d’époque avec des écriteaux dans une police de caractères inventée en 2000…) de véhiculer des absurdités collatérales à leur réalisation mal informée.

    1. People come to Google looking for information they can trust, and that information often comes from the reporting of journalists and news organizations around the world.

      Heavy hit in light of the Facebook data scandal this week on top of accusations about fake news spreading.

    1. Some (36%) said they agreed that the threat of “‘fake news’ had made them distrust the credibility of any news.” Almost half (45%) lacked confidence with discerning “real news” from “fake news,” and only 14% said they were “very confident” that they could detect “fake news.”

      These numbers are insane!

    1. The furore over Fake News is really about the seizures caused by overactivity in these synapses - confabulation and hallucination in the global brain of mutual media. With popularity always following a power law, runaway memetic outbreaks can become endemic, especially when the platform is doing what it can to accelerate them without any sense of their context or meaning.

      One might think that Facebook could easily analyze the things within their network that are getting above average reach and filter out or tamp down the network effects of the most damaging things which in the long run I suspect are going to damage their network overall.

    1. “every courageous and incisive measure to solve internal problems of our own society, to improve self-confidence, discipline, morale and community spirit of our own people, is a diplomatic victory over Moscow worth a thousand diplomatic notes and joint communiqués. If we cannot abandon fatalism and indifference in the face of deficiencies of our own society, Moscow will profit.”

      Perhaps the best defense against active measures is a little bit of activism of our own

  30. Sep 2020
  31. Aug 2020
  32. Jul 2020
  33. Jun 2020
    1. Just as journalists should be able to write about anything they want, comedians should be able to do the same and tell jokes about anything they please

      where's the line though? every output generates a feedback loop with the hivemind, turning into input to ourselves with our cracking, overwhelmed, filters

      it's unrealistic to wish everyone to see jokes are jokes, to rely on journalists to generate unbiased facts, and politicians as self serving leeches, err that's my bias speaking

    1. Altay, S., de Araujo, E., & Mercier, H. (2020, June 4). “If this account is true, it is most enormously wonderful”: Interestingness-if-true and the sharing of true and false news.

  34. May 2020
  35. Apr 2020
    1. scoped to a particular domain.

      Climate Feedback group (see here and here) seems to be one of these Restricted Publisher Groups. However, it doesn't seem to be "scoped to a particular domain" (see for example here, here, or here).

      Is this a third configuration of Publisher Groups? Or a different kind of groups altogether? Or have these domains been enabled one by one to the Publisher Group scope? Is this behaviour explained somewhere?

    1. Vers une régulation nécessaire du marché de l’info ?

      On trouve ici la question principale à laquelle répond cet article : Face à la prolifération des fake news faut-il agir, et si oui comment?

      La première partie de la question est presque réthorique, après l'argumentation qui vient d'être faite la réponse "oui" s'impose d'elle-même, il faut agir.

      La deuxième partie de cette question est introduite 3 lignes plus bas par un "Que faire?" qui permet à l'auteur d'apporter ses deux propositions.

    2. Que faire ? “Ouvrir un chapitre sur la régulation du marché de l’information, en concertation avec les pouvoirs politiques et les grands acteurs du net. Cela consiste à s’intéresser à la question de la visibilité des contenus” analyse-t- il. Est-il normal que certains mots-clefs renvoient prioritairement à des sites contraires à l’orthodoxie scientifique ? Les GAFA** en concertation avec les politiques ont assurément un rôle à jouer à ce sujet. “L’autre aspect, au moins aussi important, est l’éducation. Il faut se saisir de cette révolution du marché de l’information pour opérer une révolution pédagogique et offrir aux apprenants toutes les occasions pour qu’ils puissent comprendre non seulement le contenu – de la connaissance – mais aussi les raisons pour lesquelles ce contenu leur résiste”, conclut-il. L’urgence est réelle

      Ce paragraphe présente la thèse de l'auteur qui est la suivante : On ne doit pas rester inactif face à la prolifération des fausses informations : il faut réguler la visibilité des contenus et promouvoir l'éducation aux médias et à la pensée critique.

  36. Nov 2019
    1. Disinformation in Contemporary U.S. ForeignPolicy: Impacts and Ethics in an Era of Fake News,Social Media, and Artificial Intelligence

      The authors examine the implications of fake news (aka disinformation campaigns). Before we start reading the article, I would like you to go out into the internet (preferably the reliable and credible sources on the net) and find more about American disinformation campaigns abroad. Please share the cases you found here.

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    Annotators

    1. Disinformation in Contemporary U.S. Foreign Policy: Impacts and Ethics in an Era of Fake News, Social Media, and Artificial Intelligence

      The authors examine the implications of fake news (aka disinformation campaigns). Before we start reading the article, I would like you to go out into the internet (preferably the reliable and credible sources on the net) and find more about American disinformation campaigns abroad. Please share the cases you found here.

  37. Oct 2019
    1. The president likes to point out that some polls underestimated his support in the 2016 election and failed to predict his victory. But these impeachment polls aren’t interesting as a predictor of electoral success.

      " push" polls or polls designed to shape public opinion rather than accurately report it are what the author is dishonestly referring to here. the recent Fox News poll cited intentionally over sampled Democrats by 14% to support a false narrative.

  38. Jul 2019
    1. Is The Onion fake news?

      Kind of. Strictly speaking, fake news is completely made up and designed to deceive readers to maximise traffic and profit.

  39. Mar 2019
    1. this comparison is 100% BS people dont keep money in the bank if they save, average people put their money in homes and that is measured by wealth

  40. Feb 2019
  41. Nov 2018
    1. As deepfakes make their way into social media, their spread will likely follow the same pattern as other fake news stories. In a MIT study investigating the diffusion of false content on Twitter published between 2006 and 2017, researchers found that “falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than truth in all categories of information.” False stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than the truth and reached 1,500 people six times more quickly than accurate articles.

      This sort of research should make it eaiser to find and stamp out from the social media side of things. We need regulations to actually make it happen however.

  42. Sep 2018
    1. Fifteen minutes into the program, listeners began to call the station in terror, believing that the earth was really being invaded by Martians.

      To what extent is this accurate and to what extent a myth?

    1. But in the digital age, when speech can exist mostly unfettered, the big threat to truth looks very different. It’s not just censorship, but an avalanche of undistinguished speech—some true, some false, some fake, some important, some trivial, much of it out-of-context, all burying us.
  43. Aug 2018
    1. Half of Americans say news and current events matter a lot to their daily lives, while 30 percent say the news doesn’t have much to do with them. The rest aren’t sure. A quarter of Americans say they paid a lot of attention to the news on Tuesday, with 32 percent paying just some attention, 26 percent paying not very much attention and 18 percent paying no attention at all. Forty-seven percent thought the news was at least a little busier than average. Of those who paid any attention to the news on Tuesday, 32 percent spent an hour or more reading, watching or listening. About 23 percent spent 30 minutes to an hour, 18 percent spent 15 minutes to half an hour, and 21 percent spent less than 15 minutes. Just 15 percent of those who paid any attention to the news Tuesday have a great deal of trust in the media to state the facts fully, accurately and fairly. Thirty-eight percent have a fair amount of trust, 28 percent don’t have much trust in the media, and 11 percent have none at all. Those who followed the news on Tuesday were most likely to say they had gotten their news from an online news source (42 percent) or local TV (37 percent), followed by national cable TV (33 percent), social media (28 percent), national network news (23 percent), radio (19 percent) and conversations with other people (19 percent). The least popular source was print newspapers and magazines (10 percent).
    1. By contrast, Jeong’s tweets were, at best, mean to some white people

      The 'by contrast' here is saying that Jeong's tirades against white people "could [not] have made others around her uncomfortable".

    2. that she had openly supported the notorious neo-Nazi weev

      This is an outright lie: Quinn Norton said that she was friendly with weev, but she strongly disagrees with him.

    3. The screencapped tweets also circulated among fringe alt-right sites like the Daily Caller

      The Daily Caller is not 'alt-right'. This statement has no basis.

    4. in at least two instances dropped the n-word.

      The rhetoric is that "no human being is" that, including that no human being is a terrorist. Echoes of "no human being is illegal". Another instance of the radical left cannibalizing itself.

  44. Jul 2018
    1. To begin to develop a grammar of fake news, I collected six types of false information we’ve seen this election season.
    1. By now we’ve all agreed the term “fake news” is unhelpful, but without an alternative, we’re left awkwardly using air quotes whenever we utter the phrase. The reason we’re struggling with a replacement is because this is about more than news, it’s about the entire information ecosystem. And the term fake doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of the different types of misinformation (the inadvertent sharing of false information) and disinformation (the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false).
    1. For one, much of the new research centers on U.S. politics and, specifically, elections. But social networks drive conversations about many other topics such as business, education, health, and personal relationships. To battle bad online information, it would be helpful to know whether people respond to these sorts of topics differently than they respond to information about political candidates and elections. It also would be useful to know whether myths about certain subjects — for instance, a business product or education trend — are trickier to correct than others.
    2. Scholars have known for decades that people tend to search for and believe information that confirms what they already think is true. The new elements are social media and the global networks of friends who use it. People let their guard down on online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, where friends, family members, and coworkers share photos, gossip, and a wide variety of other information. That’s one reason why people may fall for false news, as S. Shyam Sundar, a Pennsylvania State University communication professor, explains in The Conversation. Another reason: People are less skeptical of information they encounter on platforms they have personalized — through friend requests and “liked” pages, for instance — to reflect their interests and identity.
    3. Another key, potentially surprising, takeaway from that study: “In general, fake news consumption seems to be a complement to, rather than a substitute for, hard news — visits to fake news websites are highest among people who consume the most hard news and do not measurably decrease among the most politically knowledgeable individuals.”
    4. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford released a report showing that false news sites appear to have a limited reach in Europe. For instance, in France, where Russians are accused of trying to interfere with the most recent presidential election, most of the false news sites studied reached 1% or less of the country’s online population each month in 2017. However, when researchers looked at how people interacted with false news on Facebook — via shares and comments, for example — “a handful of false news outlets in [the] sample generated more or as many interactions as established news brands.”
    5. As false news has become a global phenomenon, scholars have responded. They’ve ramped up their efforts to understand how and why bad information spreads online — and how to stop it. In the past 18 months, they’ve flooded academic journals with new research and have raised the level of urgency. In a March 2018 article, titled “The Science of Fake News,” in the prestigious journal Science, 16 high-profile academics came together to issue a call to action, urging internet and social media platforms to work with scholars to evaluate the problem and find solutions.
    1. Here’s the message it sent to the people on Reddit, according to one commenter:

      This links not to the quote that comes after, but the admission that he was trolling. The journalists here are lying and they know that they are lying.

    2. “Nobody at Arenanet is safe from the hand of Reddit. We’re literally running the company now, they’re in fear of the very users they seek to consort with ... The moment a dev steps out of line or try to talk back to a player, guess what, they’ll know we got their hands on their throat and we can squeeze any time we like.”

      The post that is cited here is a troll. It is obvious from the text, but the user later on admitted it as well.

      The admission: http://archive.is/UIZ5N<br> Analysis: https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/8x1ptz/confirmation_that_the_reddit_will_fire_you_post/

  45. May 2018
  46. Apr 2018
    1. Who is Jordan Peterson, favorite figure of the alt-right

      Except alt-right do not like JP. Lying news outlets have no dignity or integrity. That is why no one watches them on youtube. Old media is on its way out. Truth is the future.

    1. 77 percent of adults in a recent Monmouth poll said they think that TV news and newspapers at least occasionally regularly report fake stories. That number included 31 percent who said the news outlets report fake news “regularly” and 46 percent think they occasionally do. When asked to define the term “fake news,” 65 percent said it also applies to how news outlets make editorial decisions about what they chose to report, not just stories where the facts are wrong.
    1. you’ve got to explain to me why these putative ability differences aren’t handicapping women

      You've got to explain to me why this putative racism doesn't handicap women.

    2. Racism

      I do not see a causal analysis. No doubt there is racism, but attributing everything to racism is dishonest. Racism contributes by how much exactly?

    3. No such income gap exists between black and white women raised in similar households.

      It is obvious from the graph that black women earn more.

  47. Feb 2018
    1. Most people are rather confident oftheir ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So thephenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted muchsustained inquir

      Is this still present today. Witness this essay

    1. What kinds of social mediausers readjunk news? We examine the distribution of the most significant sources of junk news in the three months before PresidentDonaldTrump’sfirstState of the Union Address. Drawing ona list of sources that consistently publish political news and information that isextremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news and other forms of junk news, we find that the distribution of such content is unevenlyspread across the ideological spectrum. We demonstrate that (1) onTwitter, a network of Trumpsupporters sharesthe widest range of knownjunk newssources and circulatesmore junk news than all the other groups put together;(2)on Facebook,extreme hard right pages—distinct from Republican pages—sharethe widest range of known junk news sourcesand circulate more junk news than all the other audiences put together;(3)on average, the audiences for junk news on Twitter share a wider range of known junk news sources than audiences on Facebook’s public pages
  48. Jan 2018
    1. We now have influential partisan media outlets that help people believe what they want to believe, irrespective of factual accuracy. Inconvenient facts are labeled “fake news” and disregarded. In a nutshell, we no longer inhabit a shared reality, and as a result, major problems are going unaddressed because a segment of Americans rejects inconvenient truths

      This is such an incredible statement about the situation we are in--like saying we have gone through the looking glass...

  49. Nov 2017
  50. May 2017
    1. Did the writer engage with anyone who disagrees? Did they call a senator whose legislation bugs them? Did they try to grasp what the president-elect was doing, or merely repeat one of his more outrageous statements? If it's a broadcast interview, was the guest presented with genuine opposing views and challenged to answer? Those who wrestle with opposing arguments do you a service and often improve their own arguments.

      This is a double-edged sword in traditional media - the need to get both sides of the argument. It is important for balanced and factual reporting, but it can also be problematic as it frames both sides as having equal importance in an issue. Think of the debate about climate change. In the name of journalistic fairness, a mainstream reporter may often feel obliged to get the opinion of a climate change denier to balance the story. This often gives the impression that the deniers are of equal weight on the issue. Could lead the general public to believe that climate change is a devisive issue since there are 2 sides, despite the fact that 99% of the science and research is weighted towards climate change. Should both sides be given equal weight in journalism? Could this actually help to create an environment of skepticism about facts? Making all facts seem debatable?

    1. Stephanie Busari: How fake news does real harm

      I can totally relate with this woman's message. I feel ashamed I was not one of the ones who listened, like she did.

      I ignored "the hoax" and did nothing. I didn't share. i didn't care. i wrote it off. As a Mom it makes me a bit sick to think I turned my back on another woman's child.

  51. Apr 2017
    1. packaged the basic science of climate change into fake newspaper articles bearing two very different headlines

      Using fake news for the public good!

    1. 1) No one can even agree on a definition of “fake news,” even though a ridiculous number of words are being spent trying to define it.2) Folks don’t seem to understand the evolving nature of the problem, the way that manipulation evolves, or how the approaches they propose can be misused by those with whom they fundamentally disagree.3) No amount of “fixing” Facebook or Google will address the underlying factors shaping the culture and information wars in which America is currently enmeshed.
  52. Mar 2017
    1. Banning Baby Jesus

      "Banning Baby Jesus" is an interesting way to phrase the subject of this fake news article. Certainly, using the word "banning" is meant to elicit stronger, negative feelings about what is being done. Also, phrasing the alleged action in terms of banning "baby Jesus", as opposed to say, banning "the nativity scene" is also a way to elicit stronger, negative feelings.

    1. Teaching students to separate fact from fiction has become a priority after an election in which false "news" played a large role.

      Incredibly important right now.

  53. Feb 2017
    1. Switzerland has had the fourth-highest number of headlines relating to fake news since October, putting it behind the U.K., the Netherlands and Canada, respectively.

      Surprising.

  54. Dec 2016
    1. Another 23 percent showed signs of accepting the story to some degree, the researchers said.

      The headline for this article is really deceptive. Or the summary of the statistics is sloppy. Or both. Either way, this is dangerous from a political perspective, as is evident in the comments field. From bipartisan, lazy accusations of "fake news" to disbelief in the accounts of survivors of abuse, this story will be used in nasty ways that go far beyond what it deserves.

    1. a new set of ways to report and share news could arise: a social network where the sources of articles were highlighted rather than the users sharing them. A platform that makes it easier to read a full story than to share one unread. A news feed that provides alternative sources and analysis beneath every shared article.

      This sounds like the kind of platforms I'd like to have. Reminiscent of some of the discussion at the beginning of TWIG: 379 Ixnay on the Eet-tway.