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People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

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Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#121

Post by maldusiecle »

ben_w wrote: post #107
maldusiecle wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't tell the difference between The Daily Mail and The Guardian based on stylistic cues, I don't know what to tell you. It is true that stylistic cues won't tell you everything. The rest, unfortunately, is a lot harder to teach. Avoiding the obviously-shoddy sites is sufficient as a start; the rest is really going to be dependent on particular knowledge in areas like science, history, etc. EDIT: Kinda surpri…

> If you can't tell the difference between The Daily Mail and The Guardian based on stylistic cues, I don't know what to tell you. Then you missed my point. Of course I can tell the difference , but which one is true — the one founded in 1821 or the one founded in 1896?

Don't look at the founding date, that's completely irrelevant. Look at the Daily Mail homepage. Does it look like a news site, or does it look like a tabloid?

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#122

Post by mcculley »

dandare wrote: post #110

Anecdotal evidence: I remember how my 65 years old dad changed from a large-minded, world-traveling retired professor to an avid consumer of fake news in the span of fewer than two years. Yes, it was a shock, but most of all I am mortified that this could happen to me as well when I get to his age.

You are not alone. I have witnessed similar changes in people older than me. I have also been wondering how to prevent that.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#123

Post by ams6110 »

rfinney wrote: post #56
dragonwriter wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It makes sense - they grew up in a time where news was (relatively) reliable/truthful, No, they grew up in a time when media distortion was less likely to be revealed because the major media was narrower and it's ideological biases more consistent, and voices outside the major media had major barriers to reaching any substantial audience.

Hmmm. Time magazine, the morning newspapers and CBS/ABC/NBC evening news was much more middle of the road than today's Drudge/Huffpost, CNN/Fox and google/reddit (and HN) type ideological bubbles. More straight news. Back farther in the past, the many competing newspapers were very partisan. Perhaps we're just back to that situation.

I remember when CNN launched. News all day was a novelty; no other TV network was like it. I was a kid, but it did seem to me to be much more conservative (in the sense of not overtly sensational) and "straight" news at the time.

I guess today's CNN and their much more pronounced left-wing orientation is just a response to the right-leaning stuff from Fox? Or it just seems more left-wing now in comparison.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#124

Post by jgroszko »

magduf wrote: post #72
btbuildem wrote: post #40

Having spent Christmas back home, I've come to the conclusion that people over 65 should not have the right to vote. You've had almost forty years of voting, you don't really have any future left, and your minds aren't what they used to be. Please stay out of it.

I'm not sure this is fair to all people over 65. It sounds like maybe your relatives are much like mine, and I agree, my relatives shouldn't be voting either. If we're going to put up a discriminatory barrier to voting, I think it'd be more effective if it was education-based. People with no education make poor voting choices, as we've seen in recent elections.

So under-represented or disadvantaged communities that don't have the resources to meet the education standards don't get to vote? Education requirements can very easily become a proxy for race/class.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#125

Post by Kurtz79 »

nabla9 wrote: post #69
dragonwriter wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It makes sense - they grew up in a time where news was (relatively) reliable/truthful, No, they grew up in a time when media distortion was less likely to be revealed because the major media was narrower and it's ideological biases more consistent, and voices outside the major media had major barriers to reaching any substantial audience.

Media distortion and truthfulness are not the same thing. People and media will always have a viewpoint that distorts their objectivity. That is just fact of live and not necessarily bad thing as long as it's honest belief. Media used to be more reliable and truthful in the past with the normal distortions that people had. Mainstream media is still like this. Their problem is the lack of money and time that lowers th…

Agreed completely.

In addition, a huge difference between traditional media, and modern "fake news" is accountability.

As biased as they can be, traditional articles always come with an author name, and published or run under the responsibility of the media themselves.

They can, and often do, give a specific story a slant which supports their point of view or agenda, but they really cannot outright lie, since they would be called out or even be subject to legal action:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/23/sicilian-journ...

"Fake News" have no traceable source, no attributable author, no accountability.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#126

Post by ideonexus »

rchaud wrote: post #29

Not at all a surprise. The first time my dad used the Internet to look at used car ads on Craigslist, I found him trying to fight off a cascading series of popups (this was in the mid-2000s) that launched when he clicked the "You are our 1 millionth customer" ads. Older people who are new to the Internet may simply think it's regulated like TV and Radio commercials are. Couple that with how easy it is to target these…

This reminds me of when my father-in-law got a fullscreen pop-up claiming to have seized his computer unless he paid $20. While I was looking at it to figure out how to close the window, he said, "I've already paid them twice now!!!"

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#127

Post by WhompingWindows »

ThomPete wrote: post #92

This article is a perfect example of the incredibly sloppy and biased thinking that happens in media and which is part of the very problem it talks about. Fake news first and formost is a clickbait scam to get advertising dollars, NOT a political propaganda approach and this tendency to keep using it as if it's an actual political issue is really absurd and itself an example of what is probably more an example of slo…

You're not accounting for internal and external to the US attempts to manipulate our democracy via social media. The IRA created fake accounts to encourage tribalism and partisan thinking. It's not new for Americans or companies as well, there's been manipulating the web with bots and disinformation ourselves for years. To say it's purely clickbait is to ignore a large amount of evidence that it's also politically motivated.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#128

Post by refurb »

jessaustin wrote: post #50
pjc50 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Young people have always been less interested in politics. 1968 would like a word.

I hope you're referring to the civil rights movement, and not to those who elected Nixon so we could have a Drug War and stay in Vietnam for another seven years.

Nixon was the president that extricated the US from Vietnam through the peace talks. And the US' involvement only lasted another 5 years, not 7 years.

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#129

Post by howard941 »

kaffeemitsahne wrote: post #89
magduf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is fair to all people over 65. It sounds like maybe your relatives are much like mine, and I agree, my relatives shouldn't be voting either. If we're going to put up a discriminatory barrier to voting, I think it'd be more effective if it was education-based. People with no education make poor voting choices, as we've seen in recent elections.

It's quite frightening to see how popular this education barrier to voting idea is. Another one I've heard is that everyone should make a test before being allowed to vote.

I'm inclined to support educational qualifications for elections supervisors and poll workers, not voters, and while we're there, forcing open source/open inspection ballot counting systems. Isn't it long past time to deal with the ineptitude problem and corrupt canvassing at the source?

Re: People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

#130

Post by djohnston »

dandare wrote: post #110

Anecdotal evidence: I remember how my 65 years old dad changed from a large-minded, world-traveling retired professor to an avid consumer of fake news in the span of fewer than two years. Yes, it was a shock, but most of all I am mortified that this could happen to me as well when I get to his age.

it's probably less likely for younger people because we grew up with this form of media.
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