In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
~George Orwell
The writer of short stories of this Kafka or Orwell type must be bold; he disdains the shelter of ambiguity; it is essential that each of his pieces should come off. He is gambling—in an honourable sense, for are not Kipling, Wells, Saki, Somerset Maugham gamblers also?—on the originality of his imagination, on his power to grip, on the persuasiveness of his manner of story-telling. It might be too much to say that all the world’s classic stories have had an element of the preposterous about them; one might safely say that any memorable story carried something which had to be put across. A part of the fascination of Nigel Kneale’s story-telling is that he takes long chances ; a part of the satisfaction of it is that in almost all cases he justifies the risks.
200+ fact-checkers, 56 countries
This
week, the fifth
annual Global Fact-Checking Summit (hosted by the IFCN) took place between
Wednesday and Friday in Rome. There, fact-checkers gathered to share best
practices, demo innovative new technology and discuss some of the problems that
misinformation poses to the industry.
On
the first day of the conference, the IFCN published
a report that takes a look behind the curtain of several different
fact-checking projects. Check out the sessions at here,
tweets from the conference at #GlobalFactV
and all the notes you need to know in
this Poynter story.
(Photo/Giulio
Riotta)More from Global Fact V
- Facebook announced several new updates to its anti-misinformation efforts.
- “Fact-checkers are no longer a fresh-faced movement.” Here are Alexios’ opening remarks.
- The IFCN tried to create a deepfake video of Mark Zuckerberg and Alex Jones — and failed. Here’s why.
Research you can use
- What makes people distrust science? It has nothing to do with politics, says a University of Amsterdam researcher.
- A team of researchers set up a fake Facebook account to find out how we “fall for fake news.”
- Two Indiana University researchers say that three types of biases that “make the social media ecosystem vulnerable” to misinformation.
(Shutterstock)This is how we do it
- What can all journalists learn from their local weather forecast? How to clearly explain data and faithfully battle misinformation of social media platforms.
- Advertisers are key but sometimes overlooked soldiers in the fight against fakery. Artificial intelligence can help warn those who “are looking to advertise on credible sites.”
- KDVR-TV in Colorado calls their fact-checking “problem-solving” and has published “The Problem-Solvers Voting Guide” for the upcoming election.
This is bad
- President Trump encourages Washington Post staffers to go on strike so that “fake news” will decline.
- The Fresno Bee finds itself in the position of having to do a fact check on the Fresno Bee.
- German media outlets fell for fake news published by a satirical magazine.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)This is fun
- “The most anticipated literary event of our time” — a “totally fake” and satirical book on the Mueller investigation — is coming soon. Read about it here.
- A Washington Post food columnist fact-checks the movie “Eating Animals” and tells us what the script gets wrong.
- Now this is important: A fact check of Kenyatta’s shirt.
A closer look
- Here’s an interesting exercise: Compare the research quality and factual resonance of two fact checks on the separation of children from their immigrant parents. FactCheck.org’s Q&A that cites agency data and eyewitnesses; The Blaze’s “fact check” that cites conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
- Facebook and YouTube are now using Wikipedia in their efforts to combat misinformation. But could that backfire?
- How should you handle lies from President Trump in a headline?
If you read one more thing
Journalism,
just by being journalism, is scarily helping to spread lies by politicians,
says Greg Sargent in The
Washington Post.
11 quick fact-checking links
- It appears that CNN’s Brian Stelter has officially coined the term “truth sandwich.”
- Using your site’s “About” page wisely can help readers learn about your mission and set you apart from “opaque” organizations.
- Here’s an interview with Briony Swire-Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University and her fight against misinformation.
- IJNET takes a look at ZimFact, Zimbabwe’s first first-checking project.
- WhatsApp’s misinformation problem continues to build.
- Google News Initiative says it will train 8,000 Indian journalists in fact-checking.
- The new owner of the Los Angeles Times, who also is a doctor, says “fake news is the cancer of our times” and promises to continue to fight it.
- The Pew Research Center found that Americans are pretty bad at telling news form opinion.
- The Trump administration tripled down on a four-Pinocchio falsehood that The Washington Post Fact Checker debunked.
- Turns out that people worry about fake news more than they’ve actually seen it.
- Gallup and the Knight Foundation found that Americans believe about two-thirds of news on social media is misinformation.
via Daniel, Jane, and Alexios