Information overload helps fake news spread
scientificamerican.com
Information overload helps fake news spread
1–10 of 171 posts
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#2I sympathize with people who want to see a technological basis for this, I really do. I just don't buy it. We just saw a press conference an hour ago by the executive office of the most powerful nation in the world allege with a straight face that the recent election was tainted by Canadian election machines running malicious software written by Venezuela, Cuba, "likely" China, and directed by George Soros and (from the grave -- I swear I'm not making this up) Hugo Chavez. And obviously evidence was provided for none of this.
People are going to believe that. LOTS of people are going to believe that. And it's not because of "information overload". It's just a lie. It's a lie that (1) is tempting for people to believe and (2) that someone is willing to tell.
The internet didn't make our brains more susceptible to fake news. It just made our leaders (some of them) more able to get away with lies.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#3I’ve always found the news from my trusted sources to be reasonable and accurate until it covers something I know about. Then it seems like a complete mess.
Humans tend to trust the first thing they hear and we tend to be less skeptical about news media especially if they seem very confident or persuasive.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#4I sympathize with people who want to see a technological basis for this, I really do. I just don't buy it. We just saw a press conference an hour ago by the executive office of the most powerful nation in the world allege with a straight face that the recent election was tainted by Canadian election machines running malicious software written by Venezuela, Cuba, "likely" China, and directed by George Soros and (from…
Whole heartedly agree. Nailed it and sailed it.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#5This constant pushing of stories about Fake News and Misinformation makes it really feel like there's a concerted effort to alter public opinion on censorship and free speech.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#6This constant pushing of stories about Fake News and Misinformation makes it really feel like there's a concerted effort to alter public opinion on censorship and free speech.
An effort which is as old as history itself.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#7I’ve always found the news from my trusted sources to be reasonable and accurate until it covers something I know about. Then it seems like a complete mess. Humans tend to trust the first thing they hear and we tend to be less skeptical about news media especially if they seem very confident or persuasive.
That's been true since journalism began as a profession.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#8Most information, also in scientific publications, is full with logical fallacies and other inconsistencies. This again causes people to jump to conclusions on the basis of limited information/evidence.
I tried to give a guideline on how to do critical thinking and how to investigate the truth about something.
The first steps are: 1) logical fallacies 2) the scientific method .. And I think that these should be part of basic education.
Then we have 4) possible fraud/crime 5) bias 6) Unknowns. Which help to understand the limits or problems with different conclusions.
And 7) solutions. is how to work towards a common acceptable solution
Here is the full guideline: https://saidit.net/s/Solutions/comments/50i5/how_to_investig... Feel free to comment / add to it.
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#9This constant pushing of stories about Fake News and Misinformation makes it really feel like there's a concerted effort to alter public opinion on censorship and free speech.
Maybe the authors think that misinformation is currently a bigger issue than censorship?
Re: Information overload helps fake news spread
#10This constant pushing of stories about Fake News and Misinformation makes it really feel like there's a concerted effort to alter public opinion on censorship and free speech.
I agree with the sentiment solely because most sides of the political spectrum are doing the same. Donald trump rose to the fame with calling everything fake news. Somehow everyone now believes there is fake news so they don't trust outside their own echo chambers which is called fake news by someone else.
I think it's media hacking another vulnerable parts of human beings. I see attempts to censor and attempts to fake being censored in order to hijack different vulnerabilities.