Misinformation

Why do we do bad things? A look at the science of sin - Nightlife - ABC ...

The Guardian: “Online resource picked the word over ‘disinformation’ where other dictionaries had opted for ‘toxic’ and ‘single-use.’ “Misinformation”, as opposed to disinformation, is Dictionary.com’s word of the year. It followed “toxic”, picked for the same honor by Oxford Dictionaries, and “single-use”, picked by Collins. Jane Solomon, a linguist-in-residence at Dictionary.com, said the choice of “mis” over “dis” was deliberate, intended to serve as a “call to action” to be vigilant in the battle against fake news, flat earthers and anti-vaxxers, among other conduits. The Oakland-based company wanted to highlight the idea of intent to mislead, and that misinformation can be spread unwittingly.

NSW is 'head office' and other states are lunch rooms, call centres: Treasurer - ABC News Try Telling this to Adelaide Bobbies :-)

Young people also believe social media helps teens become more civically minded and exposes them to greater diversity – either through the people they interact with or the viewpoints they come across. Roughly two-thirds of teens say these sites help people their age interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds, find different points of view or show their support for causes or issues. And they see digital environments as important spaces for youth to connect with their friends and interact with others who share similar interests. For example, 60% of teens say they spend time with their friends online on a daily or nearly daily basis, and 77% say they ever spend time in online groups and forums…”

“Teens credit social media for helping to build stronger friendships and exposing them to a more diverse world, but they express concern that these sites lead to drama and social pressure. Amid growing concern over social media’s impact and influence on today’s youth, a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens finds that many young people acknowledge the unique challenges – and benefits – of growing up in the digital age. Today, social media use is nearly universal among teens.

“Understanding Great Works (Beta) is a free research tool from JSTOR Labs that fosters student engagement with classic literature by connecting passages in primary texts with journal articles and book chapters on JSTOR that cite those lines. Building on the success of the Understanding Shakespeare tool, Understanding Great Works encompasses several key works of British literature such as Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice, the King James Bible, as well as all Shakespeare sonnets and plays. These initial texts have been selected in collaboration with Studies in English Literature and JSTOR Labs plans to add new ones monthly; we invite you to vote for the texts you’d like to see next



Principles and Boundaries of Fact-checking: Journalists’ Perceptions by Paul Mena. Published online: 16 Nov 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2018.1547655 [paywall]
“This study examines journalists’ perceptions of fact-checking, a growing journalistic activity focused on assessing the veracity of public claims.

What U.S. journalists think of fact-checking

As a community, fact-checkers are kind of siloed off into their own little section of the journalism universe. They help drive the news cycle, but their unique format sets them apart them from the rest of the press.

So what do traditional journalists think of their fact-obsessed peers? A new study from Paul Mena at the University of Florida tries to answer that question.

In a web-based survey of 61 American journalists and fact-checkers, Mena asked a series of questions about the purpose of fact-checking, how transparent to be and which political party is more prone to falsehoods. He found that there was broad consensus on some of the core tenets of fact-checking.

“It is noteworthy that a large majority of all respondents dissented with the idea that it is OK for a fact-checker to strongly express his or her political leanings,” Mena told Daniel in a message. “As it is noted in the paper, this result challenges some perspectives that advocate for an ‘adversarial journalism.’”

At the same time, Mena found that respondents disagreed on when fact checks should incorporate the word “lie” for false claims. While 68 percent of regular fact-checkers disagreed that they should say someone lied, only 20 percent of traditional journalists thought similarly.

Additionally, there was an interesting trend in responses about which political party is most likely to make false statements.

“The perception that Republicans are more likely to produce false claims was significantly higher than the perception that Democrats are more likely to produce false statements, although the difference was moderate,” the study reads. “In any case, there were considerable percentages of respondents who answered that they neither agree nor disagree with the statements.”

What do you think of Mena’s findings and the disparity between full-time fact-checkers and traditional journalists? Let us know by emailing factchecknet@poynter.org or tweeting @factchecknet.

(Screenshot from Dictionary.com)

This is new

• Dictionary.com named “misinformation” its word of the year.
• First Draft launched a collaborative verification project in Nigeria ahead of the country’s February elections.
• This company is working on a tool that could make it easier to fact-check in real time.

Show and tell

• Climate Feedback got Fox News and two British newspapers to correct a story that claimed a mini-Ice Age was imminent.
• The Agence France-Presse’s fact-checking project has expanded to more than a dozen countries as it enters its second year. In honor of the occasion, the outlet published a roundup of its fact-checkers’ favorite stories. It was a good week for Factuel overall, as it got a debunk about strikers retweeted far more than the original hoax.
• Lead Stories and Nieuwscheckers teamed up to unearth a network of fake news sites that target Trump supporters using fake Facebook accounts, groups and Twitter trolling.

(Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)

The Bad Place

• A viral photo of a mother fleeing tear gas at the U.S.-Mexico border was co-opted for a series of conspiracy theories about the migrant caravan. And no, The Red Cross is not ignoring California wildlife victims to help migrants instead.
• Taiwan officials claim that China is using social media to peddle misinformation and propaganda ahead of this weekend’s elections.
• In the span of two months, Indonesian authorities have arrested more than a dozen civilians who spread misinformation on Facebook.

Research you can use

• Adding a photograph to a false message — even if it is generic — could systematically shape people’s beliefs over time.
• In this newsletter, we talk a lot about how misinformation affects audiences in the West. But this new survey found that Kenyans and Nigerians see significantly more fakery than Americans do.
• Bill Adair at the Duke Reporters’ Lab wrote about what he learned from a focus group of people were exposed to a pop-up fact-checking tool on TV.

(Shutterstock)

A closer look

• Daniel spoke with the Tow Center’s Jonathan Albright about the U.S. midterms, how Facebook groups are hotbeds of misinformation and what fact-checkers can do about it.
• Deepfakes: Don’t fret, prepare.
• Rolling Stone profiled some of the people behind the pages that Facebook has taken down in recent months — and not all of them are misinformation-pushers.

Help us improve this newsletter

We’re revamping The Week in Fact-Checking for 2019 — including the name. Tell us what you want it to be like by filling out this survey.

6 quick fact-checking links

1. Global Fact 6 registrations are open. Don’t miss out!
2. This post is a good example of how easy it is to pass off misinformation as real on Facebook.
3. The latest country to deal with election-related misinformation: Fiji.
4. China's crime-fighting facial recognition technology doesn't always work perfectly.
5. ICYMI in a previous version of this newsletter, we are all awash in pseudoscience.
6. CNN fact-checked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in real time — an idea that fact-checkers have floated to the networks for years.

Until next week,

by Daniel and Alexios