Fake news is all the rage these days, and to varying degrees, we are all getting duped.


Over the past week or so, there has been considerable discussion about the proliferation of fake news on the Internet, especially on social media, and the extent to which it may have affected the results of the recent United States (US) presidential election. Currently, most major news platforms use social networks, especially Twitter and Facebook to not only break the latest news stories, but also to point to published articles on their own websites. However, as we, here at ICT Pulse, had begun to discuss in our own recently published article, Have we gotten so proficient in gaming the Internet it is losing its lustre?, increasingly, the Internet has become a numbers game: number of followers; number of page views, likes, retweets; search engine ranking, etc. Hence, should we be surprised when people start to game the Internet – and all of us – with fake news?

A just published study conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Education, of a cross-section of students in the US, found that a significant portion of those surveyed could not distinguish between real news and fake news:

Middle school, high school and college students in 12 states were asked to evaluate the information presented in tweets, comments and articles. More than 7,800 student responses were collected.

In exercise after exercise, the researchers were “shocked” — their word, not ours — by how many students failed to effectively evaluate the credibility of that information.

The students displayed a “stunning and dismaying consistency” in their responses, the researchers wrote, getting duped again and again. They weren’t looking for high-level analysis of data but just a “reasonable bar” of, for instance, telling fake accounts from real ones, activist groups from neutral sources and ads from articles..

“Many assume that because young people are fluent in social media they are equally savvy about what they find there,” the researchers wrote. “Our work shows the opposite.”

(Source: NPR)

Unfortunately, it is not just children and teeangers who are getting duped by fake news. Adults – who you would hope would know better, and would be more inclined to question what they read and believe – are also falling into that trap. Increasingly, one might hear from an acquaintance about a (somewhat farfetched) news story that they read on Twitter, but they are repeating, or sharing, it without question. As disturbing as it might be, could it be that people are somehow assuming that if something gets published on Twitter, or Facebook for example, it is automatically true, or can be taken at face value?

Sadly, the situation is being compounded by the fact that, generally, people are not reading as much as they used to. Further, for those who are happy to catch the headlines posted on social media, there really is no impetus to delve deeper behind a headline, and hopefully discern and become better informed on issues.

Having said this, could it be argued that these changing attitudes and behaviour are just a sign of the times: the hustle and bustle of our lives? As we try to fill in more into our days, we really do not have the time to think, or to question information presented to us that – if  we had time to think – we would be more than sceptical about? instead, is it that we want things simple: so we can absorb information easily and move onto other things?

Sadly, as these latest scandals about the amount of fake news that is being circulated have emphasised, there are no free rides. Although information and news are readily available, we must be prepared to analyse, discriminate, and think for ourselves to distinguish fact from fiction.

 

Image credit:  Dan Tantrum (flickr)

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