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Information overload helps fake news spread

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#11

Post by partiallypro »

goalieca wrote: post #3

I’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.

I've always felt that instead of J School, journalists should have majors in topics they are covering and a minor in journalism. When I was in college and worked for the school newspaper I tried hammering this to people, but all the journalism/media professors felt it was a bad idea, probably because it is such a threat to their profession.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#12

Post by timr »

goalieca wrote: post #3

I’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.

"I’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."

Same. This year, with the coverage of Covid (an area where I have a certain level of expertise), I've been bombarded with the extremely low quality level of essentially all of the major news providers. They are more than willing to amplify the most speculative voices, credulously, without even basic fact-checking. The ones that depend on advertising are the worst, overall. Writers with no subject-matter expertise will take a scary quote from a single source, won't bother to make even the simplest of efforts to verify the claim, and will publish it just to get the scoop.

I won't mention names because I'll only be downvoted, but there are some extremely high-profile "scientific" media figures who are constantly broadcasting utter nonsense. And because they heard it from a "scientist" on the news, people will attack you if you rebut it. I am old enough to remember when journalists were skeptical of the people they interviewed, and the rule was that no fact was published without independent verification (read "All the President's Men" for example).

2020 is the year where the news media fell apart for me -- it is all simply entertainment now, which is unfortunate.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#13

Post by damnencryption »

goalieca wrote: post #3

I’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.

> 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.

This has been widely studied and seems to be surprisingly effective. When there is lack of expertise or objective metrics, people default to social proof or whatever misleading thing they could use as a measure. Many sales people abuse this and it is written in those manuals as well.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#14

Post by vorpalhex »

I'm really conflicted over this article because it makes some really good points but is missing the forest through the trees.

Information overload is very real, and people are very prone to making mistakes when digesting information from social media.

The answer isn't to kill social media or force users to solve CAPTCHAS before posting. It's to improve those critical rationality skills and the ability to analyze information.

Social media algorithms are harmful, but they're ultimately dumb likelihood solutions that do naive grouping - it just turns out that more partisan/outrageous content tends to be more exciting and elicit more key value actions.

The fix isn't to try and play legal games with social media providers, but to teach users how the mousetrap works and what are the levers they can control (and the ones they can't).

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#15

Post by farias0 »

nprz wrote: post #5

This 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.

Don't you think this public worrying is deserved, given the rise of Facebook and algorithms, troll farms and everything else?

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#16

Post by goalieca »

theplague42 wrote: post #9
nprz wrote: post #5

This 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?

Where to draw the line between misinformation and the government approved version of the truth. The facts of any matter are not always so simple and lies by omission can be as misleading as any falsehood.

Our justice system tries to resolve this through an adversarial system. It’s not perfect but I can’t imagine allowing any single entity to determine what the truth is.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#17

Post by yokaze »

nprz wrote: post #5

This 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.

So, you are rejecting the premise that a lot of misinformation is spread and it has much wider reach than in the past?

I would say it has, and I consider only reasonable that there is a desire to understand the mechanisms behind it. I would consider the effects net negative. No need to a concerted effort.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#18

Post by deepnotderp »

goalieca wrote: post #3

I’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.

Gell Mann amnesia

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#19

Post by bosswipe »

nprz wrote: post #5

This 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.

If I may paraphrase you, "it feels (without evidence) like there's a giant conspiracy across many organizations involving hundreds or thousands of people acting in coordination, this implies an unknown secret powerful central propaganda ministry that hatches plans to further upcoming moves".

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#20

Post by damnencryption »

farias0 wrote: post #15
nprz wrote: post #5

This 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.

Don't you think this public worrying is deserved, given the rise of Facebook and algorithms, troll farms and everything else?

What changed in the recent years is the amount of media time nutjobs on the internet get that everyone ignored back then. Nothing else. If you checked qanon groups before and after media attention, you will notice a steep increase in member count.

There is a dilemma. Should we report and amplify their voice or should we shut up about an "increasing" problem?

Some problems do disappear when you ignore them.

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