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Information overload helps fake news spread

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#91

Post by KittenInABox »

Nacdor wrote: post #44

I think one of the root causes of this is the increasingly partisan behavior of the "mainstream" media. People are sick of having their opinions dictated to them, they're sick of media outlets that all push the same narratives 24/7 (Russiagate, anyone?), and they're desperately searching for any outlet that will objectively report "all the news that's fit to print" (as the NY Times likes to say). In the past year we…

I don't know if Bari Weiss can be part of this. Bari Weiss had apparently been slamming her co workers in public during a company-wide meeting. If I knew my co worker was publicly insulting me on twitter while we were in a meeting together I would also call for my co worker to no longer be my co worker for contributing to a hostile workplace.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#92

Post by Veen »

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…

> It's to improve those critical rationality skills and the ability to analyze information

You're assuming the majority of people are bamboozled by bias and propaganda, and if they were better educated they'd be immune.

But it's just as likely that they'll continue to believe what suits them regardless of rationality training. Assessing sources and analyzing information is hard work. So is thinking, and it's especially difficult if the results go against the beliefs of your social group.

I'm not convinced that critical thinking skills will make the slightest bit of difference to the vast majority of people .

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#93

Post by jfengel »

partiallypro wrote: post #11
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.

I feel the same way about computer science majors. (At least, the vast majority of them who go into programming, rather than pure theoretical computer science.) Aside from a tiny minority who get to write infrastructure, whose customers are other programmers, the vast majority of programmers will be employed in some domain.

I'd rather see programmers have any outside experience... even literature or music or one of those other fields we often deride. The people who majored in that field are likely to be our customers, and when we don't know how they work, we won't be able to serve their needs.

At the very least, every programmer should have a minor in some other field. (And ideally not everybody going into the same physics or math fields.)

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#94

Post by dtho »

fokinsean wrote: post #48
Nacdor wrote: post #44

I think one of the root causes of this is the increasingly partisan behavior of the "mainstream" media. People are sick of having their opinions dictated to them, they're sick of media outlets that all push the same narratives 24/7 (Russiagate, anyone?), and they're desperately searching for any outlet that will objectively report "all the news that's fit to print" (as the NY Times likes to say). In the past year we…

> People are sick of having their opinions dictated to them I'm fairly sure my family's opinions come straight from the media.

That's the problem he's pointing out. The media doesn't attempt to portray reality objectively or truthfully whatsoever. They have gotten quite good at influencing our opinions without rationalizing those opinions.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#95

Post by Veen »

agentdrtran wrote: post #88
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…

> It's to improve those critical rationality skills and the ability to analyze information. You can not apply personal solutions to systemic problems.

Another (less fashionable) way of putting it: you can't fix human nature, so you need institutions that mitigate the worst effects.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#96

Post by kibwen »

Nacdor wrote: post #67
kibwen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like anyone railing against "mainstream" media hasn't been paying attention for the past decade. Facebook, Reddit, etc. each command more daily eyeballs than any cable news network, and yet somehow they're not mainstream? Social networks are the overwhelming bulk of the media apparatus these days.

Facebook and Reddit are not publishers of news so that comparison makes no sense.

That's a distinction without consequence. Your comment is about media companies "dictating" things; social media just trades the editorial desk for Facebook's opaque newsfeed algorithm, or the faceless Reddit hivemind, or Twitter's endless sea of bots. All that matters is reach, and social media has traditional media outnumbered and outgunned.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#97

Post by dtho »

_jal wrote: post #74
thehappypm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russiagate is basically the idea that the Trump campaign was working closely with Russia to "cheat" the 2016 election. The Mueller report showed.. Russia was messing around for sure, but the Trump campaign wasn't really involved in any meaningful way.

That is incorrect. The Mueller report clearly showed a great deal of coordination, and could not reach accusations because of limits placed on the investigation. A Mueller investigation with different parameters would have reached very different conclusions.

Is it fair to assassinate someone's character by suggesting to millions of people that this someone is a criminal when they have not been found guilty in the court of law?

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#98

Post by jellicle »

The current largest reasons for the spread of "fake news" are:

1) Fox network profits from doing so

2) Facebook Corp. profits from doing so

Neither of those two reasons are "information overload".

You know how every once in a while, some email spam network gets shut down and all of a sudden, the global email spam volume gets cut in half? Just from one network? That's what would happen if Facebook and Fox were shut down.

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#99

Post by trap_chateau »

bananabreakfast wrote: post #54
Nacdor wrote: post #44

I think one of the root causes of this is the increasingly partisan behavior of the "mainstream" media. People are sick of having their opinions dictated to them, they're sick of media outlets that all push the same narratives 24/7 (Russiagate, anyone?), and they're desperately searching for any outlet that will objectively report "all the news that's fit to print" (as the NY Times likes to say). In the past year we…

What in the hell is Russiagate? If you're referring to Russia actively interfering with American elections through a pointed and state sponsored disinformation campaign that continues to this day... then that's not a narrative? That's a thing that's happening that matters and is one of the principle sources of bad actors behind this very article

Adding to this, a plug for the senate intelligence committee's report on russian campaign and interference in the 2016 election: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/docu...

Re: Information overload helps fake news spread

#100

Post by justin66 »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #43
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.

Richard Stengel was just appointed to Biden's transition team: Stengel wrote last year in a Washington Post op-ed that US freedom of speech was too unfettered and that changes must be considered: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/29/why-ameri... Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley warned about Stengel’s appointment in a column Tuesday: “It would be difficult to select a more anti-free speech figure t…

Biden's transition team will include many Actual Republicans as well. Including the experts they consult with, you're talking about hundreds of people. It's a mistake to infer that he will or will not be basing policy positions solely on their opinions.
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