Module 4: the world of digital misinformation

Question 1

Definitions

Answer 1

• falsehoods: a statement is false if its false or misleading, whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears
• misinformation: unintentional dissemination of false information
• disinformation: the intentional dissemination of false information
• fake news: a type of disinformation that mimics the look and feel of real news to increase its deceptive power

Question 2

Motivations for fake news

Answer 2

1. financial: attracting clicks and advertising revenue
2. Ideological: personal agenda, weapons of mass misinformation

Question 3

What makes people vulnerable to believing fake news

Answer 3

1. Sender (credibility, proximity)
2. Receiver (confirmation bias, motivations for sharing and corrections)
3. Message (format, plausibility- mentions experts/ conversation tone/ stirs emotion/ ask you to forward”
4. Channel (reliance/ trusted or popular)
5. Context (info overload or instability)
6. Higher social media use - more likely to believe fake news
7. Informational apathy allows the spread

Question 4

Consequences of fake news

Answer 4

• short term: political decisions, business, peace and order, reputation
• long term: devaluation of information, erosion of trust in institutions, larger social divisions, chilling effect

Question 5

Authenticating fake news

Answer 5

1. internal acts: initial check between user and info
2. external acts: when internal checks is insufficient, user will move to external checks

Question 6

Authentication as a social process

Answer 6

1. Motivation for authenticating
   - self image
   - group cohesion
2. Strategies for authentication
   - group beliefs
   - source affiliation
   - sharing as authenticating
3. Consequences of authentication
   - institutionalization of interdependence
   - ritualization of collective authentication

Question 7

Interventions

Answer 7

1. Gamifying interventions
   - goviral
   - bad news
2. POFMA (protection from online falsehoods and manipulation act)
   - take down or correction orders against false statements
3. Communication
   - originate from internal or external sources
4. tech companies interventions
   - support third-party fact checkers and journalists
   - promoting media literacy among users
   - reduces financial incentives for content producers
   - implementing new feature to flag content
   - deleting posts/ removing accounts

Question 8

Vertifcation

Answer 8

the process of evaluating the story before it becomes news

Question 9

Fact checking

Answer 9

-a process that occurs post publication and compares an explicit claim made publicly against trusted sources of facts
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