Information and Disinformation Online Flashcards
What is the difference between misinformation, disinformation, and fake news?
Mis: false info spread without being aware it is fake
Dis: knowingly spreading fake information
Fake news: inaccurate information presented as news
What is the role of system 1/system 2, pre-existing world views, and the blending of false with true information in the spread of misinformation?
System 1: low effort, low resource intensive, quicker, automatic
System 2: more effortful thinking, high resource intensive, slower, non-automatic
Pre-existing world views: have a view of how the world works, people less critical of their world views (confirmation bias)
Fake news: blending truth and falsehood, makes it more believable when lies have a little bit of truth to them
How are you able to distinguish good from bad (or absent) sourcing of facts?
SHEEP:
Source: check source
History: does the source have an agenda
Evidence: is it backed up by reliable info?
Emotion: does it rely on emotion to make a point?
Picture: what message does an image portray and is the source using it to get your attention
Know whether fact-checking works to control misinformation, and what factors make it more or less likely to work
Negative: Fact checking is less effective than completely removing the content. Is not effective if it contradicts your ideology, even if it is misinformation. Right wingers do not trust fact checking, argue it is biased.
Positive: the source is more trustworthy if it comes from a third party.
Be able to describe the role of the internet in the US political polarisation and the changing trends of polarisation in the UK
The internet doesnot increase polarisation but it does allow for polarisation to be seen more, but does not bring together people who are polarised.
In the UK people do not identify with their political party, but instead the Brexit side they voted for, those on opposing views dislike each other.
Understand Alexander’s concept of meta-debate
Fundamental rules of debating, communicating.
Be able to summarise the findings of the Baughen et al. study on intervention to improve internet communities (what do people prefer/dislike)
Prefer: many want empowerment, anonymity, democratic up/downvoting, humanising outcomes (such as profile pictures with your face, showing moods)
Dislike: while they also don’t want, intrusive interventions or interventions that censor or blunt their meaning
How have new methods of communication media always caused alarm in people and what are the pros and cons to making communication more accessible?
People worry making the ability to communicate and spread information more easily will allow for people to spread information they should not share or to spread BS.
Pro: everyone can get and use the information
Con: spreading of BS, distracts consumers from what matters
How has switching from subscription to click-driven media changed content?
Has become more click-bait. impacting the validity and accuracy of information being shared
What is the relative importance of state propaganda and finical motives in creating fake news?
Makes it difficult for the consumer to understand information, exhausts your critical thinking. Fake news pays, as it promotes clicking on their website.
Why is the spread of misinformation helped by creating fake persons?
Deepfakes promote that the message being said is real as it is being told from someone with authority.
What are the three tools suggested for combatting misinformation?
- Machine learning to detect online misinformation
- Government regulation (however there are issues with this, e.g. who gets to determine what is and is not misinformation?)
- Education (media literacy and critical thinking)
What does research say about people’s ability to tell true from false news when it supports vs. opposes their political views?
We believe information that is consistent with our own beliefs and are sceptical of information that does not agree with it. We place loyalty to their political identities above the truth, leading to failure in telling truth from falsehood. However, politically discordant news is typically believed more than false but politically concordant news.
Political identity and politically motivated reasoning are not the primary factors driving the inability to tell truth from falsehood. We are better at discerning the truth from falsehood of politically concordant news compared to politically discordant news (the opposite to what we expect)
How can we explain why people share fake news even if they know it is not true? How common is this phenomenon compared to sharing fake news out of error? What are the three ways this is done?
- Preference based account: placing our preferences for political identity above truth, thus sharing politically consistent views. This might be done to further their agenda, sow chaos. 16% of false news is shared on purpose.
- Inattention based account: preference for sharing accurate content, however social media distracts us from this preference. inattention to accuracy is responsible for roughly 50% of misinformation being shared.
- Confusion based account: people generally mistake false claims as true, that is why they share fake news even if they know it is not true
What are eight of the practical drawbacks of fact-checking?
- Truth is not black and white, leads to AI running the risk of false positives
- Misinformation spreads rapidly
- Not scalable
- ‘Implied truth’ effect
- Fails to reach intended audience
- Fades over time
- Incomplete protection against familiarity effects
- Causes corrected users to subsequently share more low-quality and partisan content
