Module 4 Fake News Flashcards
What is misinformation?
The unintentional and inadvertent dissemination of false information
What is disinformation?
The intentional dissemination of false information
What is fake news?
A specific type of falsehood intentionally packaged to look like real news to deceive others
Why do people spread fake news?
Financial gains
- Attracting Clicks to websites
- Advertising Revenues
Ideological gains
- Personal Agendas
- As a weapon for cyber/social warfare
What are the short term consequences of fake news?
- Political Decisions
- Interfering with political elections - Business
- Targeted business will lose customers if fake news is bad - Peace and order
- Fake news about panic buying will cause people to panic - Reputation
- Fake news about a person could ruin their reputation
What are the long term effects of fake news?
- Devaluation of information
- An excess amount of fake news will devalue any news even if they are official news - Erosion of trust in institutions
- People will loose trust in mainstream media such as news outlets - Larger Social Divisions
- Fake news could target specific racial groups and cause a racial divide - Chilling Effect
- Politicians may spread fake news and prevent people from exercising their freedom of speech
Who can fight against fake news?
- Individuals
- Government
- Technology Companies
- Fact Checkers and Journalists.
What can individuals do to help fight against fake news?
- Message Tone
- If the tone of the message is to rouse people and play with their emotions, more likely to be fake news - Self Judge
- Judge and think for ourselves if the news is fake or not - Message Cues
- Are there any likes behind the post? The fewer the likes the higher the chance that it is fake - Source of Message
- Where did the message come from? Was it from a reliable party?
What are the external acts of authentication?
- Incidental & Interpersonal
- Through word of mouth, from close friends or even relatives - INcidental & Institutional
- Wait for follow up from official sources - Intentional & Interpersonal
- Sending messages to family or friends to verify the information - Intentional & Institutional
- Googling or searching the internet for verification of the news
What does POFMA stand for?
Protection from Online Falsehood & Manipulations Act (2019)
What is the process that takes place pre-publication?
The process is known as Verification which evaluates a story before it becomes the news
What is the process that happens post-publication?
The process is known as fact-checking where you compare an explicit claim made publicly against trusted sources of facts
What are the layers behind a truth sandwhich?
- Telling the truth
- Briefly Describe the falsehood
- Fact check and end by repeating the truth
How can the government support efforts against fake news?
The government can create more regulations against fake news
How can technology companies play their role in fighting fake news?
- Support third party fact-checkers
- Promote media literacy among users
- Reduce financial incentives and attention given to spreaders of fake news
What is the main difference between fact-checking and verification?
Verification is the process of checking the story before it becomes news
Fact Checking is contrasting the publication against a trusted source of information after the story has been published.
What are the five kinds of fact checkers?
- News organisation
- Government owned fact checkers
- Independent organisation
- Volunteer groups
- Individuals
What are the main problems with fact checkers?
They could be biased.
