Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Information overload helps fake news spread

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 171 posts

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#21

Post by glennpratt »

timr wrote: post #12
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…

> I won't mention names because I'll only be downvoted

Unfortunately, I don't know you or trust you, so this post seems like more noise.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#22

Post by esja »

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.

Your first paragraph describes the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge...

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#23

Post by paulz_ »

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.

Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame wrote about this experience calling it "Gell-Mann Amnesia."

>“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.” – Michael Crichton

I've noticed I have this sort of meta Gell-Mann effect where every time I think of that annecdote the news seems much more dubious. Then a short while later I go back to not thinking about it and reading the news as I otherwise would.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#24

Post by ssambros »

yokaze wrote: post #17
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.

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

No, but how do we jump to conclusion that government, government-controlled or government-aligned entity should be allowed to control the information we receive?

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#25

Post by ethanwillis »

zyxzevn wrote: post #8

Most 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…

But what's number 3??

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#26

Post by nprz »

bosswipe wrote: post #19
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".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggCipbiHwE

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#27

Post by jasonv »

paulz_ wrote: post #23
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.

Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame wrote about this experience calling it "Gell-Mann Amnesia." >“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wron…

Reading HN though, every assertion from someone who knows something can become a thread of dispute, disagreements and "yeah, but" digressions.

So, maybe, who knows anything..

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#28

Post by wombatmobile »

timr wrote: post #12
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…

> I won't mention names because I'll only be downvoted

Interesting choice you're making there - social acceptance prioritised over journalistic accuracy and scientific advocacy.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#29

Post by jeffbee »

newacct583 wrote: post #2

I 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 question for me is whether these people are huffing their own product, or they know they are lying. If Sydney Powell sincerely subscribes to the idea that Hugo Chavez, who died seven years ago, hacked the 2020 US election, then that has broad implications about the way we've underestimated the whole Boomer lead poisoning thing.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#30

Post by damnencryption »

vorpalhex wrote: post #14

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 info…

Average person in developed countries spend more than few hours consuming media every day even more so in the US. Why do we think this is sustainable?

I have always wondered the second order effect of binging so much media and it kind of shows these days with people being dumbfounded/superficial and making connections where none exists.

Post reply on HN