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

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

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 437 posts

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

#131

Post by starik36 »

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…

> Fox News is the only

Seriously? Pretty much all major networks have been caught making stuff up. CNN has been caught giving debate questions ahead of time to their pet candidate.

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

#132

Post by SkyMarshal »

dev_dull wrote: post #113
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.

Stay unplugged from social media and especially mainstream media and you’ll be just fine.

Data journalism and long-form deep investigative journalism is fine, or least less bad. With the caveat that data journalism that illustrates past or current events is fine, but that which tries to draw correlations or make predictions should be taken with a grain of salt.

Short form journalism I ignore, or seek the primary source (like a president’s speech or similar).

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

#133

Post by maldusiecle »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #115
ben_w wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s unwise to rely on the incompetence of fake news websites. Compare two UK newspapers, The Guardian and The Daily Mail. They are both well-known and have popular domains which have been around for ages. Considering only their contradictions on the topic of Brexit, one of them must be about as dangerously out of touch with reality as it is possible to be. Which one? I know which one I believe, but I am not…

The Guardian are known for some excellent investigative journalism bad sadly even they can't seem to resist the temptation to put up a poorly researched opinion piece / rant or two occasionally to pander to their left-wing readership. That said, the Daily Mail is a gutter tabloid and among the worst of the worst. I'd lean more towards the Guardian but I don't think I'd trust either outright.

I'd agree not all of the Guardian's opinion pieces are trustworthy. This is true of a lot of news sources. I'd consider the ability to distinguish opinion pieces from factual reporting as one of the easy-to-learn stylistic differences to check, but I can see how that's unclear.

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

#134

Post by dahfizz »

dandare wrote: post #120
dev_dull wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stay unplugged from social media and especially mainstream media and you’ll be just fine.

You mean "Don't trust mainstream media, watch this shocking video instead"?

That's clearly not what OP said.

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

#135

Post by trgn »

dandare wrote: post #120
dev_dull wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stay unplugged from social media and especially mainstream media and you’ll be just fine.

You mean "Don't trust mainstream media, watch this shocking video instead"?

Maybe rather as in, stay away from mainstream media because the hosts will literally talk to you as if you were a toddler, yell at you really, constantly flash colorful thingies in your face, blast stupid loud jingles, and drag out idiotic news stories over days as if they were soap operas. I cringe when I visit my parents and CNN is on in the middle of the day. I'm convinced that that loud, obnoxious infotainment contributes to their degraded mental faculties.

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

#136

Post by neuronexmachina »

arayh wrote: post #30

Study says that damage to the prefrontal cortex in older adults can increase susceptibility to fraud and scams, which may be related to why older people share more fake news. [source] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4971060/

Woah, very interesting study, thanks for sharing.

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

#137

Post by sanmon3186 »

My hypothesis is that they grew with a notion that "if it is on a newspaper, magazine or a book, it must be true", which was indeed the case when compared to digital content in today's world.

It took me a long discussion to convince my Indian uncle that image of certificate (signed by director general of UNESCO) that he forwarded on WhatsApp, declaring Indian national anthem as the best national anthem in the world, can be created in 10 minutes by anyone these days.

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

#138

Post by malvosenior »

It depends on how you define fake news. I see most of what I'd consider fake news being shared by people under the age of 40. I'd classify most of The Verge articles as "fake news" for instance. They're politically charged clickbait/outragebait often with undisclosed relationships between the authors and subjects.

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

#139

Post by jmcqk6 »

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…

>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 sloppy news.

That's a pretty bold assertion. Let me make sure I'm getting this right. According to you, there is not a problem of people creating and spreading lies in order to forward their political agendas?

That sounds like an absurd proposition from you. We can see it almost every single day, especially on platforms like facebook.

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

#140

Post by Brakenshire »

trgn wrote: post #135
dandare wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean "Don't trust mainstream media, watch this shocking video instead"?

Maybe rather as in, stay away from mainstream media because the hosts will literally talk to you as if you were a toddler, yell at you really, constantly flash colorful thingies in your face, blast stupid loud jingles, and drag out idiotic news stories over days as if they were soap operas. I cringe when I visit my parents and CNN is on in the middle of the day. I'm convinced that that loud, obnoxious infotainment co…

That’s more 24 hour news than the mainstream media.
Post reply on HN