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.

[Septuagenarian]

Produced by students, and I think it's bipartisan as well as general enough to fit into a Communication Studies curriculum.

The United States of Distraction
Fighting The Fake News Invasion

https://www.documentarystorm.com/the-un ... straction/

The 21st century has given people more access to information, and although this is generally a good thing, it has also given them access to fake news. These days it’s hard to distinguish between the two. Democracy depends on the availability of reputable information; fake news poses a real threat to democracy.

The endless stream of content that people swipe through on their smart devices leaves them with almost no usable evidence to decipher fact from fiction and journalism from fake news. It’s really easy to get lost; many people click on all the links without really paying attention to where they’re going. We are so consumed with our phones that we don’t take the time to find out what’s really going on.

While social media can offer good ideas, it also creates toxicity because many people react without taking the time to analyze the facts. Social media seems to be trying constantly to distract users through constant advertisements. This robs a lot of people of the ability to think critically.

Social media gives the sense that if you’re not informed of every single detail about everything, somehow that is bad and people feel they are no longer able to choose when to put down their phones, turn off the TV, or step away from their computers. It’s like they’ve lost their ability to identify when they’ve had enough. Some studies show that the average person spends between 11 and 16 hours a day consuming media. That is most of his or her waking hours. This influences the individual’s perspective and worldview to the point that many are not using their own ideas to decide what to believe.

The media doesn’t necessarily want the truth, it wants attention and they get that through spectacles and extremism. As a result, platforms such as Facebook started flagging real news stories as inappropriate content simply because they were not coming from well-known sources. And so a lot of real stories get called fake news.

This film, shot and produced by students, tries to shed light on the growing phenomena that are keeping a large percentage of the population blind to what is really going on in the country and the world. There is an urgent need for media literacy education to give citizens the tools needed to identify information that they can trust. Watch this provocative film now.

Also, at the end there is an invitation to, "Join the community that is
keeping news honest--Credder." https://credder.com/

[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?

[Septuagenarian]

Self removed.

[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.

[Septuagenarian]

Self removed.

[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.