“Some people who read books blew up a railway once and tried to murder someone.”
~ Bathroom clippings
US defence chief condemns Khashoggi killing as Saudi foreign minister rejects 'hysteria'
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis condemned the killing of Washington Post contributor and Saudi government critic Jamal Khashoggi as intolerable, minutes before Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, at the same venue, characterised the global reaction to the murder as hysterical.
Younger Americans are better than older Americans at telling factual news statements from opinions – “While some say wisdom comes with age, younger Americans are better than their elders at separating factual from opinion statements in the news, according to a new analysis from Pew Research Center. In a survey conducted Feb. 22 to March 4, 2018, the Center asked U.S. adults to categorize five factual statements and five opinion statements. As a previous report revealed, about a quarter of Americans overall could accurately classify all five factual statements (26%) and about a third could classify all five opinion statements (35%).
But age matters, according to this new analysis, as younger adults were more likely than older Americans to correctly categorize all five of the factual statements, and also more likely to do so for the five opinion statements. About a third of 18- to 49-year-olds (32%) correctly identified all five of the factual statements as factual, compared with two-in-ten among those ages 50 and older. A similar pattern emerges for the opinion statements. Among 18- to 49-year-olds, 44% correctly identified all five opinion statements as opinions, compared with 26% among those ages 50 and older. When looking at the 10 statements individually, younger adults were not only better overall at correctly identifying factual and opinion news statements – they could do so regardless of the ideological appeal of the statements. (In selecting statements, the study strived to include an equal number that would appeal to the sensitivities of each side of the aisle; to learn how the Center determined the ideological appeal of the statements, see the methodology.)…”
Robert Mueller Reportedly Has Recordings Of Trump Aide Roger Stone Boasting About Coordinating With Wikileaks Inquisitur
US midterm elections: A guide to everything you need to know
CNN – “Millions of voters will soon go to the polls across the US, but they won’t be picking a president. The impact of the midterm elections, however, could be almost as significant. President Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot, but the results will be a referendum on the polarizing US leader, his policies and the Republican politicians who have tied their fortunes to his. President Trump could have more power or less in Washington by the end of Election Day. The elections are on Tuesday, November 6, but lots of people will have already voted by then because early voting is a thing in the US, where about 40% of ballots were cast before Election Day in 2016. Here’s everything you need to know about the US midterm elections.” [h/t Pete Weiss]
- What are the US midterm elections?
- Why so much interest in an election that doesn’t involve picking a president?
- Which political parties are involved?
- What are some of the top issues in this election?
- What does this mean for the rest of the world?
- What are the possible scenarios?
- What are some of the marquee races?
- And will history be made?
- What happens immediately after the midterms?
The limits of media literacy studies
The
first step in the fact-checking process is to determine whether something is a
fact that warrants checking or an opinion that can’t be. This is literally the
first module of our hands-on fact-checking mini-course.
So
it was fascinating to see that the Pew Research Center published a study on
exactly this topic: How good are Americans at making the distinction between
fact and opinion? Their
top line result: Not much.
The
questions asked in the survey were relatively straightforward (see the related quiz),
but only about a quarter of respondents accurately spotted all five factual
statements and about a third did the same for the five opinion statements. (Not
to brag or anything but both of us got top marks.)
Even
this might underestimate how poorly the public can distinguish between fact and
opinion outside the pristine parameters of a research experiment (i.e. on the
actual internet).
“It's
like asking people on a written test to distinguish between the hand movements
of the crawl versus the side stroke, and from the answers they circle, infer
that they'll be able to do it when you toss them into the water,” said Sam
Wineburg, founder of the Stanford History Education Group and Margaret Jacks
Professor of Education at Stanford University, in an email to Alexios.
With
due caveats about the real-life applicability of the study, one thing that
caught Pew’s (and our) attention is that Americans age 18-49 scored
significantly better than those 50 and older. That echoes other findings in
this space, such as Briony Swire-Thomson’s study
on fact check retention being worse with people older than 65.
At
the same time, there are ample reasons to be concerned about young people’s
media literacy. A study published
earlier this month by the nonprofit Project Information Literacy found that
almost half of nearly 6,000 American college students surveyed said they lacked
confidence in discerning real from fake news on social media.
And
Wineburg still doubts whether or not the Pew study means much in real life.
“I
don't believe the study tells us a whit about what people do online,” Wineburg
said.
(Shutterstock)This is new
- Facebook is now downranking headlines that are false even if the whole story isn’t.
- The British government has outlawed the use of the term “fake news” in official documents.
- WikiTribune has laid off all its journalists.
This is how we do it
- Poynter has hired a new editor and program manager for MediaWise.
- British fact-checking charity Full Fact is now keeping tabs on the top research about fact-checking.
- Dulce Ramos has been an invaluable asset for the IFCN. As she moves on, we are looking for a new Program Manager. Apply fast.
(AP Photo/Andre Penner)This is bad
- In a meeting with Brazilian electoral authorities, WhatsApp claimed it was partnering with fact-checkers Aos Fatos — except it isn’t. WhatsApp later clarified and apologized.
- Speaking of WhatsApp, The New York Times misrepresented a research finding about its misinformation challenge. It remains uncorrected.
- Mainstream media outlets shared fake celebrity gossip in an effort to get people to register to vote. Sigh.
This is fun
- Don’t hate on that Business Insider piece on the HSBC overachiever, verify its photos.
- Learn about what MediaWise calls a “zombie claim.”
- Several media outlets visited Facebook’s “war room” where employees are monitoring misinformation and interference in elections in the United States and Brazil. Gizmodo had some choice words about that.
(Screenshot)A closer look
- The New York Times editorial pages went on a bit of a misinformation spree. They published columns about the platforms’ responsibility to address misinformation, teaching Silicon Valley how to be ethical and how artificial intelligence won’t stop fake news.
- Smart take from Aos Fatos’ Tai Nalon on the challenge with fighting WhatsApp misinformation in a country where the app is bundled into data plans: “It’s unequal. You can access misinformation for free but not fact-checking.”
- The Wall Street Journal wrote about the ongoing scalability challenge of Facebook’s fact-checking project.
If you read one more thing
India’s
problematic solution to misinformation on WhatsApp: turn
off the internet.
10 quick fact-checking links
- Full Fact is hiring a senior philanthropy officer.
- Thanks, YouTube.
- Donald Trump is confused about how Facebook’s anti-misinformation efforts work. So we created a simple infographic for him.
- BuzzFeed News debunked misinformation about the migrant caravan en route to the U.S. — some of which was shared by the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
- Rasmus Kleis Nielsen of the Reuters Institute stressed the importance of understanding how misinformation reaches people in his MisinfoCon slides.
- Another person was arrested in Egypt under the country’s “fake news” law.
- The New York Times’ Farhad Manjoo wrote about how misinformation on WhatsApp could be more of a human nature problem than a platform problem.
- Twitter has banned more accounts linked to Alex Jones and InfoWars.
- Facebook is now publishing a blog series on how it identifies misinformation.
- A Washington Post columnist wrote about why he fell for a fake viral video on Facebook.