Seeking the truth and NOT what’s comfortable

People Sometimes Seek The Truth, But Most Prefer Like-minded Views

It may be hard to believe everything that is said on a blog like this where you have no idea who the authors are. However, you can always trust an educated and respected expert journalist on disseminating wisdom on how to navigate the current mediasphere.

Let us introduce you to Christiane Amanpour, a world-respected (2.9million followers on Twitter!) journalist who has spoken to world leaders, reported on devastating wars and has earned the trust of her viewers and at a TedxGlobal event, she expressed her views on fake news

Watch her TedTalk Now: 

If you’re a bit time poor, here is a quick summary of some of her insights and tips on “How to seek truth in the era of fake news” (ROM) – research, objectivity, morality

Research

‘Research the facts’ may seem redundant and oversaid but nevertheless crucial. If you understand the research, and the facts behind the truth you will have a better context. “so if 99.9 percent of the science on climate is empirical, scientific evidence, but it’s competing almost equally with a handful of deniers, that is not the truth; that is the epitome of fake news.” People are entitled to their opinions, but if you have a massive group of professionals supporting their research, consider it to be truthful.

Objectivity

The battle between bias and objectively is clear in any news source. Being able to tell a story from every angle and not a personal perspective is without a doubt hard. However,  the issue is that objectivity is not the same as fair and balanced. This is where Amanpour brings in a personal story when she was accused of not being an objective reporter when presenting on the Balkan Wars as she reported more on the minority party of the incident. Here she realises that ‘objectivity means giving all sides an equal hearing and talking to all sides, but not treating all sides equally, not creating a forced moral equivalence or a factual equivalence.” Objectivity constantly hangs in the balance. This can be a challenging yet impactful way to seek truth.

Morality

We all have different morals and here Amanpour asks for developers and technology giants to build morality and quote “Filter out the Crap! You guys are good at technology, let’s figure out an algorithm that works. Can we not?” Despite having good intentions, I disagree with pushing all the responsibility to commercial giants to tackle the issue as I have repeatedly said that the answer relies on informed citizenship, being aware of what we read and what we share and contribute as digital citizens.

Not only Amanpour has shed light on the fake news epidemic, in fact many other experts have also spoken on the topic. Check it out here.

-Cecilia

Art of Conning: Actual Fake News

As the last part of the series, this one will focus on actual fake news.

Source: Swadeology

Unlike satire, actual fake news deliberately aim to mislead and misinform whether for revenue or political purposes.

Alex Jones & Infowars

Managed by far-right conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, Infowars has published harmful stories such as the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and Boston Marathon bombing being hoaxes that involved ‘crisis actors’.

So, what are the tech companies doing?

After the Senate hearing about the alleged anti-conservative bias on major tech platforms where Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter CEO ,Jack Dorsey, testified, Twitter and Periscope permanently banned Alex Jones and Infowars from their platforms.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1037804427992686593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1037804427992686593&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2018%2F9%2F6%2F17829264%2Falex-jones-info-wars-banned-twitter

Twitter follows Google parent, Alphabet, Inc, along with Apple, Facebook and Spotify in banning Jones and Infowars from posting content on their platforms. Since then, Paypal has also banned Jones and Infowars from using their service and platform.

Can of Worms?

While many has welcomed the ban, conservatives have criticised it as an infringement of free speech. To what extent does our opinions count as truths? How do we draw the line between an objective truth and an individual perspective?

-Maria

Art of Conning: A Half-Truth

 

We all think we’re pretty smart enough not to believe that weird article your grandma shared on Facebook.

Ok, Grandma

Source: Imgur

Thing is, fake news isn’t always that easy to spot. Sign in to any social media and the endless scrolling overwhelms you with huge amounts of information. On top of that, fake news spread quickly online, and before you can even fact check one article someone’s already got their pitchforks ready.

So, beyond obviously fake and manipulated photos/videos, how are you being conned online? This series will look at the ways were being deceived online by fake news when we least suspect it.

The first part of this series looks at how fake news deceive even the most media literate of us- when something real and true is presented as a lie.

When the Truth becomes a Lie

With millions of photos and videos being shared everyday, the Internet provides a rich database of content. Content that can easily be misinterpreted or decontextualised. According to a research by the Visual Social Media Lab, 30 percent of problematic photos are real, but out-of-context, photos.

During September 2017, a Facebook post claimed that the following video was Hurricane Irma tearing through Antigua and Barbuda.

 

This video wasn’t even shot in the Carribean. It was actually from April 2016, during a tornado in Dolores, Uruguay.

 

A Half-Truth

A half-truth is defined as a statement that contains elements of the truth, but is deceptive in nature.

In January 2018, Donald Trump, tweeted that Black Unemployment was at its lowest due to his policies.

Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2018

He isn’t technically wrong. Black unemployment was at record low, but the rate has been in decline since 2010.

Source: politifact

This is precisely what is problematic, and potentially terrifying, about fake news. We often see truth and facts as the means to combat fake news. But what happens when truth can be manipulated and presented as a lie? Who do we trust then?

Next in the series- Art of Conning: Manipulation

-Maria

Does the #Truth matter anymore?

Truth & Technology

In a Guardian article, Katherine Viner asks: In an age where social media news reporting has dominated over media institutions, and everyone has their facts, ‘does the truth matter any more?’

Source: Sébastien Thibault

Technology is rapidly developing. This isn’t necessarily good or bad. But what is worrying is whether or not we have the skills to adapt to it. In an age where attention, clicks, and data are the new economy, less than 40% of us actually go further than the headline, and read the article.

Read before you Share

Here’s a random thought, how about we all read a full article before we share it to our friends? – simple enough yeah? In reality, statistics show that:

59 Percent Of You Will Share an Article without even Reading It

Why you ask? First, the human attention span is getting shorter everyday- why else are we so attracted to GIFs and MEMES?

Second, we are lazy (to put it bluntly). It requires time and effort to read an article.

Third, some headlines are just too intriguingly funny, weird, touching or interesting not to share right away. In fact, we love the attention from friends and social media when we share an article and the ‘fake’ reputation that we read.  It’s no wonder that the strength and popularity of a piece sometimes comes down to the strength of its headline.

But do we really want to become a generation of lazy, manipulated, misinformed users? 

In the war against fake news, we’ve already tried multiple solutions.

1. we’ve used algorithms by digitally identifying false information and validating information- but, how reliable is this? Can machines differentiate humoristic or sarcasm or even bias?
2. Our friend Facebook has actively installed tools to prevent misleading/spam posts. They have provided us options to hide content with our own classifications of what is false. – but, have any of you used these tools yet?
3. Even Governments have been active, countries such as Malaysia have turned to legislation and laws to combat fake news. However , censorship and freedom of speech concerns render the laws ineffective and counterproductive as debates of whether fake news should be considered ‘illegal’ continue

The real solution lies in you

We can’t escape from bias but we can’t escape from facts either. Think twice before you share the next thing you read. 

Cecilia

Fake News, What is it?

Fake News is the deliberate spreading of false information through the mainstream media. It most commonly manifests itself in sensationalised news that has not been fact checked. The result is the spreading of untrue ideas, which, if given enough attention, can become true in the minds of the masses.

American President Donald Trump made the term famous when he used it to attack journalists that challenged, opposed or disagreed with him during his election campaign of 2016. Trump continues to vilify the media describing them as “disgusting”. (see article below)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/03/trump-whips-up-crowd-anger-as-he-vilifies-media

Consumers of media must be vigilant in fact checking their news. Being critical of the information you are receiving is important to upholding the truth and not allowing fake news to dominate the screens.Below is an article titled, How to Spot Fake News which offers advice on how to astutely navigate the media sphere.

https://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

Jake