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Fake News Challenge

fakenewschallenge.org

11–20 of 233 posts

Re: Fake News Challenge

#11
Fake news is generally identified by the reputation of its author (New York Times vs Alt-Right Patriot Freedom Observer). Nothing published by the Times or Wall Street Journal (despite any editorial bias) is fake, simply because we know (except in the rare circumstance) that they apply journalistic integrity in sourcing and writing articles. Much of what's published on "fringe" sites, especially if no mainstream outlets cover it, is likely fake (i.e. if it's making a factual claim about the world, not just expressing an opinion).

Obviously followers of these sites will fight back against any "fake" labels, by arguing there is a "cover-up" by organized opposition, that their truth is being suppressed, that any fake news classifier intrinsically has a liberal bias, and so on. The difficulty for me is not identifying what's fake, but convincing anyone else that it is.

Re: Fake News Challenge

#12
post #7

This is not solvable by humans or machine learning. For example "leonardo dicaprio charity linked to 3 bil money laundering scandal", "raport says trump spent night with hookers in Russia", "angelina jolie divorcig brad pitt", "terrorist attack in Paris, 200 dead" etc. Some of those headlines seems like clickbait and false news but they are not, good luck with classifying those and similar.

Tomorrow's lottery ticket numbers will be 12345

Re: Fake News Challenge

#13
post #6

I'd prefer to see computer learning to identify political propaganda and state the biases in the text as that would be truly unpartisan. Does anyone know if this challenge has anything to do with Media Matters / Shareblue?

> Does anyone know if this challenge has anything to do with Media Matters / Shareblue?

If you scroll to the "About" section you can see who's who and do some digging to see if connected.

http://www.fakenewschallenge.org#about

Or just contact them and ask (info@fakenewschallenge.org).

Re: Fake News Challenge

#15

Fake news is generally identified by the reputation of its author (New York Times vs Alt-Right Patriot Freedom Observer). Nothing published by the Times or Wall Street Journal (despite any editorial bias) is fake, simply because we know (except in the rare circumstance) that they apply journalistic integrity in sourcing and writing articles. Much of what's published on "fringe" sites, especially if no mainstream outl…

Man some of you guys seriously need to read Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky.

I'm as anti-Trump as it gets, but the idea that NYT or WSJ are bastions of reputable journalism is ridiculous.

See, for example, the list of controversies associated with the output of Pulitzer prize winner Thomas Friedman.

Re: Fake News Challenge

#17

Fake news is generally identified by the reputation of its author (New York Times vs Alt-Right Patriot Freedom Observer). Nothing published by the Times or Wall Street Journal (despite any editorial bias) is fake, simply because we know (except in the rare circumstance) that they apply journalistic integrity in sourcing and writing articles. Much of what's published on "fringe" sites, especially if no mainstream outl…

So in your assessment "fake" just means non-mainstream. Haven't seen the word defined like this before.

Re: Fake News Challenge

#18
post #2

It is simple: everything that does not match your beliefs is a fake news.

The day we believe that is the day the fascists win.

Unfortunately, it's how most people, on both sides, define it.

Far too many people are unwilling to recognize that news that confirms their world view might be fact. They cannot or will not challenge it, and simply accept it as fact.

Re: Fake News Challenge

#20
post #6

I'd prefer to see computer learning to identify political propaganda and state the biases in the text as that would be truly unpartisan. Does anyone know if this challenge has anything to do with Media Matters / Shareblue?

I agree. The problem is the only thing Democrats or Republicans hate more that each other nowadays is people who are nonpartisan. Very few sane voices can be heard over the screaming of partisan hacks lately.
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