Lecture 7 concepts Flashcards
Post-truth
A term that refers to the 21st century rise in concerns and disputes over public truth claims. Objective facts are less influential than appeals to emotion and personal beliefs.
Fake news
1) Fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but not in organisational process or intent
2) Aesthetically resembles actual legitimate mainstream news content, but that is fabricated or extremely inaccurate
3) Information that is either false or misleading and is propagated with either the intention to deceive or an utter disregard for the truth
Misinformation, disinformation and mal-information
Misinformation: unintentionally distributing false information
Disinformation: knowingly developing and disseminating incorrect information intended to deceive
Mal-information: information that is based in reality but disseminated with the intent to inflict harm
Why do people fall for fake news?
1) Cognitive biases
2) Political motivations
3) Sensationalist journalism
4) Bullshit receptivity
5) Social media technology
6) Echo chambers and online personalization AI
Confirmation bias
Tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs
Availability bias
The tendency to be guided by information that is recent, frequent, psychological salient, or easily imagined
Yellow journalism
A style of newspaper reporting that emphasises sensationalism over facts
Filter bubble/ideological frame
A state of intellectual isolation that can result from personalised searches
Echo chambers
A social phenomenon where the filter bubbles of interacting individuals strongly overlap
Misinformation techniques
- Impersonation: either impersonating a real person or organization by mimicking their appearance, or posing as a legitimate news website or blog without the usual journalistic credentials and guidelines
- Emotional content: playing into people’s basic emotions
- Polarisation: amplify existing grievances and make them look more important or popular than they really are
- Conspiracies: belief that unexplained events are orchestrated by a covert group or organization
- Discredit: deflect attention away from the association by attacking the source of the criticism or denying that the problem exists
- Trolling: Deliberately evoking an emotional response by using bait
Potential interventions for fake news
1) Empowering individuals to evaluate the fake news they encounter
2) Implementing structural changes aimed at preventing exposure of individuals to fake news in the first instance
