Do you believe fake news?

[CapitalB]

People who scored low on a test of cognitive ability continued to be influenced by damaging information about the person even after they were explicitly told the information was false.

But you can protect yourself from the fake news;

A recommendation that follows from research on the illusion of truth effect is to serve as your own fact checker. If you are convinced that some claim is true, ask yourself why. Is it because you have credible evidence that the claim is true, or is it just because you’ve encountered the claim over and over? Also ask yourself if you know of any evidence that refutes the claim. (You just might be surprised to find that you do.)

Just thought some people on this forum needed some encouragement to fact check.

[Verum]

Another interesting article and slightly more incendiary in nature:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/11/why_conservatives_are_more_susceptible_to_believing_in_lies.html

[GordonH]

Here's an idea, read an article on the same subject from both left & right news source. Truth is most likely somewhere in the middle of them both.

[CapitalB]

Here's an idea, read an article on the same subject from both left & right news source. Truth is most likely somewhere in the middle of them both.

Some people are pretty happy accepting any source that agrees with their existing point of view though. Personally if I'm really engaged by a subject I like to spend a bit of time researching it and finding the facts. Thats me though, I love facts, some people though are more comfortable with anecdotes and minority positions though everyone thinks they're in the majority so thats a tricky point.

[Silverstarqueen]

Nearly half of Americans believe in aliens.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ne ... 0624b0abe4

For me, it depends who says it's fake news. If it's anyone related to the Trump campaign or Trump administration, I would have to do a lot of checking before I believed it. In other words, any trust however temporary it might be held is gone.
From other sources, I still often check around to see what other sources say, but I am more likely to at least consider it might be true.

[Bsuds]

And the other half are Aliens, but don't worry cause Trump is going to deport them.

[Silverstarqueen]

As soon as that wall goes up, both types of aliens will immediately be stopped. Price of sea going boats and small planes is going up.

[Staredintoabyss]

It is almost all slanted now, go in expecting bias and expecting to read diverse sources.
It is the only way to be anything better than a parrot for other peolles lies.

[BC Landlord]

Stopped watching CBC long time ago.

[OKkayak]

Using multiple sources and cross-referencing stories on an issue or event. Isn't this preached in school anymore?

[OKkayak]

May I ask,

You may.

are you referring to journalism or analyzing and using sources for social media participation?

For everything. The media has lots of exaggerated and inaccurate information out there, no question about that. Some media sources would even qualify as spreading "fake news" but that doesn't mean everything and anything from media company "XYZ" is inaccurate, false or fake.

Now, there are websites out there that thats all they do, promote "fake news", misinformation, what ever you want to call it. Me personally, I'm in no way an expert on anything virus related, but browsing these frequently used websites there are a lot of "articles" on other topics that I do know quite a bit about and they're complete bogus, so there is no reason for me to blindly believe anything they say on subjects I may not know about much.

Despite as much cross-referencing I try to do, I don't get it right all the time, thats for sure. But I do try.

[Babba_not_Gump]

Unfortunately with the state of news and social media today there's a risk that the public will of lose the freedom to sort things out for themselves: meaning we'll have to deal with censors and / or algorithms to do it for us.

And we all know where that loss of freedom is likely to come from.

[Mrmarvingardens]

To answer the question...No I don't, but a lot do.
Septuagenariun has argued it is already here.
Even more disturbing than fake news is the lack of serious journalism.
Pay close attention to the news stories you read, watch or listen to.
They are glorified media releases, p.r. statements and so on espousing a particular point of view.
As an example, the host of local talk radio,stated: "I am not going to talk about that until the police issue their statement" Really? Also has a bad habit of insulting listeners who don't agree.
Almost gone are the people who look for rather than at news topics.
Most news readers have no in depth knowledge of their subject., but like to opine the topic
At the local level, it is especially bad.
No city hall reporter to gather and report news that is important to local citizens;
Five radio stations,excepting the C.B.C. use news services: I Hart radio (U.S. owned) Canadian Press, (from Toronto)
A once free newspaper with good news reporting, now a joke;
The Daily Courier, hanging on by a thread, and can't decide if it is really a newspaper, changing its content almost on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, the news media wants the government money to combat on line content.
Sad.

[Poindexter]

And we all know where that loss of freedom is likely to come from.

It's already here, and by that I mean here here.

There's a real science behind turning people against science.

[TylerM4]

Anyone with 1/2 a brain knows that media/news is almost always sensationalized and a horrible source of information REGARDLESS of where it comes from. Left, Right, foreign, Bi, straight - you name it - it's all sensationalized and manipulated. Media agencies create content to attract views and earn advertising revenue - not to properly educate the audience.