Lecture 10 - Fake Newz

Question 1

What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation?

Answer 1

Misinformation = Unintentional
Disinformation = Intentional

Question 2

What are the 7 common forms of information disorder from lowest to highest level of deception are:

Answer 2

1. Satire/Parody
   a. Fabricated story but meant as satire. No intention to cause harm but has potential to fool.
2. False Connection
   a. When headlines, visuals or captions don’t support the content.
3. Misleading Content
   a. Misleading use of information to frame an issue or individual.
4. False Context
   a. When genuine context is shared with false contextual information.
5. Imposter content
   a. When genuine sources are impersonated.
6. Manipulated content
   a. Content that has been manipulated to deceive.
7. Fabricated content
   a. Content that is 100% fake, designed to deceive and do harm.

Question 3

Why do people fall for fake news?

Answer 3

• If people get news through people they trust, they are more likely to believe it.
• If the fake news is surrounded by true news, it is hard to distinguish the fake news.

Question 4

Why Is fake news a problem?

Answer 4

• Financially motivated vs Politically motivated news
  o Confusion about current events.
  o Suggestions of poor ability to recognise.
  o Reduces trust in civic institutions.
• Viewing fake news may foster feeling of alienation
  o Perceived realism of fake news stronger with lower exposure to genuine news

Question 5

What is an Echo Chamber?

Answer 5

1. Echo chamber: people with the same attitudes/beliefs group together and block out different attitudes

Question 6

What is an Filter Bubble?

Answer 6

1. Echo chamber: people with the same attitudes/beliefs group together and block out different attitudes
2. Filter bubble: When algorithms automatically recommend content the person is likely to agree with (based on previous behaviour)

Question 7

What are the consequences of fake news?

Answer 7

• Very difficult to trace back how you got the message
• Undermines existing systems and structures
• True facts have limited reach

Question 8

What are the Human Vulnerabilties concering Fake News

Answer 8

• Truth bias
  o We tend to think people are telling the truth
• Naïve realism
  o Our perceptions of reality are true, while others are uninformed and biased
• Confirmation Bias
  o We seek information that confirms existing beliefs
• Dunning-Kruger effect
  o We think we’re more competent than we are, and our ability to be aware
• Sleeper Effect
  o A delayed increase in the effect of a message that is accompanied by a discounting cue. F.e. people that were exposed to a propaganda message might forget that it was propaganda after a while.

People who get challenged get more convinced of their worldview.
Repeating fake news makes it feel more real.

Question 9

What is the Illusory Truth Effect?

Answer 9

pre-exposure to a statement increases the likelihood it will be judged as accurate

Question 10

What is the role of social media?

Answer 10

Plays a role in facilitating fake news, as it makes sharing information quickly really

Question 11

What are the downsides of technology in facilitating fake news?

Answer 11

• Ease of share
• Homogeneity and filter bubbles
  o We’re more likely to be friends with likeminded people and less likely to interact with material that comes from a different point of view.
• Facebook’s fake news problem
  o We can’t expect these companies to step up against fake news, because it is not part of their business model.
• Twitter’s bot problem Fake accounts are used to swing public debate.

Question 12

What are the problems and solutions for fake news

Answer 12

To battle the continued influence effect, alternative accounts can be given and retractions repeated.
To battle the familiarity backfire effect we can place emphasis on facts and provide preexposure warnings.
To battle the overkill backfire effect we can use simple, brief rebuttals and foster healthy skepticism.
To battle the worldview backfire effect, evidence can be framed in a worldview affirming and identity affirming context.

Question 13

What are the issues with Deep Fakes?

Answer 13

Deep fakes can pose a risk to news authenticity.
- Solutions could be technical video inspection, stamps of approval or only trust trusted sources.

Question 14

What are the origins of misinformation according to lewandowsky?

Answer 14

1. Rumors and Fiction
   a. People seem to mainly pass on information that will evoke an emotional response in the recipient, irrespective of the information’s truth value. Thus, stories containing content likely to evoke disgust, fear, or happiness are spread more readily from person to person and more widely through social media than are neutral stories
   b. Additionally, people extract knowledge even from sources that are explicitly identified as fictional. This process is often adaptive, because fiction frequently contains valid information about the world, but fiction writers are not obliged to stick to the facts, which creates an avenue for the spread of misinformation, even by stories that are explicitly identified as fictional
2. Governments and Politicians
   a. Governments and politicians can be sources of misinformation, willingly and unwillingly.
   b. .e. The U.S. government officials proclaimed there was no doubt that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and even after no WMDs were ever found in Iraq 20% to 30% of Americans believed that WMDs had actually been discovered in Iraq years after the invasion.
3. Vested corporate interests
   a. There is also evidence of concerted efforts by vested interests to disseminate misinformation, especially when it comes to issues of the environment and public health that have the potential to motivate policies that would impose a regulatory burden on certain industries (mainly the tobacco manufacturers or the fossil-fuel industry).
   b. However, the spreading of misinformation is by no means always based on concerted efforts by vested interests. On the contrary, industry itself has been harmed by misinformation in some instances.
4. The media
   a. There are systemic reasons for why the media might get things wrong:
   i. The media can inadvertently oversimplify, misrepresent, or overdramatize scientific results
   ii. In all areas of reporting, journalists often aim to present a “balanced” story, but if they stick to these principles of “balance” even when it is not warranted, the outcome can be highly misleading.

Information on the Internet can be highly misleading, and it is progressively expert advice.

Question 15

What is Selective Exposure?

Answer 15

• Meaning that when people have more media options to choose from, they are more biased toward like-minded media sources.