Fake News
The news has always been present in the society. At the beginning the main sources of information were radio and television, which only have broadcasted confirmed news. Nowadays the biggest player in providing current information is the Internet. Not many people thought about how the Internet would change the essence of the news.
It is a known fact that the fake news can have a huge influence on many fields of everyday life. One of the first examples which I remember was fake information about Steve Jobs’ death. As a consequence, Apple’s stock price crashed and immediately was relatively cheap. Afterwards the fake news was denied, Apple’s stock price went back to its normal price. It’s an example how a simple lie posted on the Internet can have a real life impact. Another example is the last election for US President. It is said that the fake news were used to encourage people to vote for particular candidate. It hasn’t been confirmed with solid evidences as the investigation is ongoing.
What is more, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology investigated the discrepancies between spreading true and false news stories. They have examined people’s reaction in social medias, sent surveys, interviewed users. The study is unsettling, showing false news spread faster than true news. Moreover, they confirmed the fake news may have impact in the real world – “False news can drive misallocation of resources during terror attacks and natural disasters, the misalignment of business investments, and misinformed elections.”
Nowadays the fake news are being perceived as negative incidents and the biggest tech companies started to fight against them. Companies like Google or Facebook announced start of their own programs against the fake news. It might be a move in the right direction, but can we be sure they will in fact remove only fake news and not also the news they think is not appropriate? What if we end up reading only the news which the biggest players in the market want us to read? What do you think about it?
The following links lead to two article about fake news which I consider interesting. Feel free to go over them:
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ReplyDeleteYou've raised up an interesting and important subject. I also remember other examples of fakes news, as a derailed train with poor refugees from the Near East, while all of this was fake and made in ways as cinema movieas are. There is much information also which is only partialy true, what gives them more trust credit, but the other part is a lie aimed to manipulate public opinion.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Google or Facebook with purpose told the public that they start to fight against fake news, to justify their tries to control and manipulate all news, you never know. I'm afraid fake news are such a complex problem that no organization can fight them efficiently from above. They can help but can't do all the work for once and for everybody. I think the only ultimate and safest solution is that people themselves raised up their consciousness and knowledge and check all the news they read, to be proof from any manipulation.
I consider partially true news even more hazardous than the fake news. It's really hard to tell if information is true when you know that part of it is correct. Then you often assume the rest of it is also true. Afterall, why somebody would lie if he is telling the truth at the same time.
DeleteExactly!
DeleteI agree with Paweł. The idea of that google and facebook will fight with fake news is brilliant, because small users cannot filter everything. How many of us read the same articles on many pages? We have't got enough time to do it. So I decided to read news from one page. Which is quite reckless.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I heard about hackathon in which you had to write something that would fight with fake news. That meeting was in Warsaw, but I don't know about results ;)
The power of facebook or google is their outreach. The flaw of people is their laziness. It's a lot easier to read all news in one place prepeared by somebody else rather than gathreing or confirming the news by yourself.
DeleteI'm glad to hear that such a meetings take palces even in Warsaw :)
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DeleteYou wrote you agree but at the same time you wrote also something opposite - that there is no need for rising consciousness and that watching only one source is enough.
DeleteIf you have no time, why then you watch anything at all? For me watching only one source is a lose of time and energy.
A really big problem with mass media, especially those speaking about politics, is that they speak much about opinions and less important events, but not about real academic knowledge, important events and ideas about how to solve problems.
People instead of thinking about solving problems and gaining knowledge in the area, they very often fight with others about opinions and beliefs, from one extreme option to another. This is totally unproductive and dangerous.
As I see it, people, despite lack of time, must have knowledge about law, about health, about devices they use, even if they are not specialist in these. Why then people can't spent a little more time for raising real knowledge and consciousnes and a little less for example for drinking parties? Our future depends on it...
I think people are cunning, because they pretend to be interested by watching useless manipulational media to have clean conscience or to look wise and important, because 'they know all the truth and solutions' because they believe in 'the one just party', as it could even help. But in fact they remain in their illusions and lose their time and energy, and they look not that wise in the end.
If you disagree, just look - remember how loud there was about tibetan holocaust done by China? Many people were showing tibetan flags, but that's all. Soon almost everyone has forgotten about everything, but Tibet still is under chinese occupation and the dead are still dead :/
Untill people find a time for getting konwledge instead of opinions and other useless information, nothing will help to fight against fake news and manipulation, which certainly lead to our - entire mankind - tragedy.
Fake news? You mean not everything on the Internet is unconditionally true?! I am thoroughly shocked!!!
ReplyDeleteJust kidding. I use similar solution to what Pawel mentioned but I extended it in such a way that if I read something interesting i try to find it in 2-3 more pages to see if it really is as it was described. This way i know it was not fake news and it also provides me with multiple points of view on a particular subject.
Fake news are big in modern world, in my opinion because everyone wants to read something extraordinary. There is demand so there is supply, who cares that it's not true or is economical with the truth. Look at the POTUS - he gets away with it so why shouldn't others :)
I hear you and I'm doing soemthing similar. I don't check every single news, only the ones that interesed me and are unbelievable. In such a case I'm trying to confirm the news in another source.
DeleteIn my opinion fake news problem starts to be one of the most important issues of XXI century civilisation. In this huge information flow it's start to be problem with separation between true and false. Always in history somebody was trying to manipulate the truth for his/her benefits. These days, during the internet revolution this behaviour is unstoppable and very dangerous. The saddest think is that in my opinion there's no way out from this.
ReplyDeleteBecause who can we trust to decide what is fake and what is real, such power is corruptible.
The fake news is important problem and I also don't think it can be stopped, but I think it can be mitigated. As long as fake news are only fake news and have no impact on real world we might settle with it as good enough solution.
DeleteVery interesting topic to raise awareness about what is actually true in the internet. It could be terrifying if some of the articles websites or comments were fake. After all, when we read something there, we instantly assume that is true, not fake.
ReplyDeleteThat second article about twitter made me really think about it, I mean it stated that lies were 70% more likely to be retweeted than truth! Maybe this kind of information is just easier to believe than the real.Bots usually spread fake news and make it look like they are the real one.
I think we should question everything we read in the internet. We have to avoid manipulation that media could be creating to make us think and behave in the certain way. Even Google has problems with fake news and information.
I think that lies spread faster not only online. The experiment only confirmed that. Usually the lie is more interesting or scandalous than truth and people love to share that kind of information.
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ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that fake news should be prohibited by law.
DeleteIt is a manipulation of the society, probably someone benefits from it.
Any man in his right mind will check fake news in other sources but not everyone is inquisitive and they will to pass it along. In a way, it is brainwashed society.
I don't think prohibition by law would solve the issue. It might help a little bit at first, but then the "law" could punish also true news if they would consider a true news to be harmful and nobody would be able fight against them.
DeleteSince television transmits a lot of false information, or simply manipulates us, we should not be surprised that this is also the case with the Internet. However, we must be careful. If we start banning different pages for providing false information, this can be used against us. Instead, information will be banished that is uncomfortable for influential people.
ReplyDeleteI think that a better method is to make people aware of this phenomenon, its scale and what dangers it brings. It would also be useful to have a community created database with fake information and their sources where you could look in case of a doubt.
I agree with you. If the people would have more awareness it should be a lot harder to fool them. The database it also a great idea. I would add name/alias of the person who cerated fake news and has been cought to the database. Then it would be harder for him/her to spread the fake news.
DeleteI think that nobody can’t have opportunity to tell you what you should to do. We live in different countries, we have different politics systems but the basics thing should be the same for everybody. Freedom inside the Internet is a very tricky matter and your words clearly confirm that. The Internet is a tool, which give you limitless opportunities. So as people are different, things will be various there. Everybody could say something. For one person it will be offensive, for other it won’t. There is no obligation to use the Internet, especially Facebook or Google. Of course it is simpler to use Google and it’s nice to hear that those companies want to fight with false news but what would happen when they start to control what we read?
ReplyDeleteFreedom is one thing, everbody can share they point of view in the internet and it's not considered as fake news. When a person spread the facts which are not true then it's a case of the fake news. For example there huge difference between "I passed the exam" versus "I think I have passed the exam".
DeleteFake news is a real problem these times. It’s hard to count how many times I was fooled by one of them. Sometimes these fake information content is about trivial things like transfers on football market but on the other hand we can get erroneous information which occurs by making bad decisions which can ruin our world. Do we end up reading only the news which the biggest players in the market want us to read? I think it’s happening right now. We can minimize the consequences by having a wide spectrum of information sources so we can draw conclusions and personally find out which one is “probably” a real one.
ReplyDeleteBeing fooled by fake news happend to me as well. Fortunately it hadn't have any impact to my everday life except being misinformed.
DeleteFake news is a form of manipulation and I believe that manimulation was always present in the media, be it television, radio or press. Nevertheless, there is no doubt it has much more power now - in the Internet era.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I don't see an effective way to fight it. Being skeptical and looking for a confirmation every time something seems suspicious would be a good practice but somehow I don't see it happening on a large scale.
As for the Google and Facebook, it would be great if they could help. I like the idea of offering users alternative information next to the videos about conspiracy theories. On the other hand, doesn't adding any information to content they consider - let's say - controversial seem like a form of manipulation, as well?
Manipulation in media was and always will be present. In my opinion back in television era the people were more sceptiacal and they usually tried to confirm the news from another source. On the other hand in the Internet era when we have instant access to news all around world is hard to confirm if on the other side of the globe the event about we read is really happening.
DeleteMore and more people use the Internet as the source of information. Nowadays, anyone can post fake news to the internet or create a website that is deliberately similar to an actual news site.
ReplyDeleteSuch actions may be motivated by different intentions, e.g. to serve as political propaganda or to provide an easy income. That latter type of fake news is extremely dangerous, as untrue information about deaths of celebrities can have a great impact on the stock market. I myself once took a piece of fake news for granted. According to one article, US President Donald Trump was travelling with his wife's look-alike. It was accompanied by pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Trump in which the First Lady looked somehow strange. The media often reported on the crisis in their marriage, which is why I believed this news.
I think that it is really hard to detect and reject the fake news if it's part of organized attack i.e. using fake news in US president election. To this day nobody has 100% certanity if it was really organized action and how big was its influence.
DeleteThere is a big mess in infosphere.. and it will probably get only worse. It's not easy to verify information - it takes time and not everyone has so much of it or wants to waste it this way. Different groups are interested in manipulating people with information. First that comes to my mind are advertisers and marketing guys. But also modern warfare is not only fought on traditional battlegrounds but also in the Internet. Cyberwarfare is not only limited to breaking enemy systems but also manipulating civilians.
ReplyDeleteFake news is actually something that existed since forever. It’s directly related with propaganda, misinformation or hoaxes and those are tools known since ancient times. Regulations won’t solve this problem and there is no reason to trust corporations like Facebook or Google. They will just filter news that they deem as „fake” and push their agenda on us. All we can really do is try to verify data with other sources and take everything with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with opinion that fake news is one of the most important problems our civilization. I think that laziness of people in validating informations process (news, facts in books etc.) is very low. In each days we reading, listening, watching many info and we believe this info is reliable. We should be check interesting info in many sources. However many websites and newsrooms copy information from competitives. Horrible situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marek. Any war will be focused in manipulation and cyber attack.
“Only the people with an IQ above 160 can solve these questions. Are you one of them? Click to find out…” [We have photos!]
ReplyDeleteI always think skeptically about all articles and news. Every day I see click-bait headlines, this is the first sign that they don't contain valuable content. Fake news, sometimes we create it, without verifying information and believing everything in 'well-known' websites. If such news would not have clicks and a sufficient number of views, nobody would create them.
I think Danzel Washington sums it up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrE1ZvldiFE
ReplyDeleteThe problem of information is very well known f.e. by analyzing Donald Trump's presidential campaign. It's proved that 13 Russian agents were registering their fake accounts and pages to misinform the American society (https://niebezpiecznik.pl/post/jak-rosjanie-wplywali-na-przebieg-wyborow-prezydenckich-w-usa/)
So we can see that's a very important issue because it's even a real threat for national security. Russians proved that they don't need complex methods to change the way of election. Going back to the question - we can't really get rid of fake news, because what will happen is written in the question. It's human choice what he/she belives in, I think that we have to focus on the real knowledge rather than reading clickbait articles and things like that. The real knowledge - the one that comes from universites, reaserch papers is the truth, because it's based on facts.