Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Study: Most Students Can't Spot Fake News (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the real-world-problems dept.

Even those who think that the U.S. Presidential election wasn't affected by the swath of fake news articles swirling on Facebook and other social media networks, they tend to agree that there is a lot of misinformation on the web. At Slashdot, it's hard to say that anyone here will not be able to tell fake news from a real one. But what about kids? How is our future generation doing? Not so well, apparently. An anonymous reader shares an Engadget report:A Stanford study of 7,804 middle school, high school and college students has found that most of them couldn't identify fake news on their own. Their susceptibility varied with age, but even a large number of the older students fell prey to bogus reports. Over two-thirds of middle school kids didn't see why they shouldn't trust a bank executive's post claiming that young adults need financial help, while nearly 40 percent of high schoolers didn't question the link between an unsourced photo and the claims attached to it. Why did many of the students misjudge the authenticity of a story? They were fixated on the appearance of legitimacy, rather than the quality of information. A large photo or a lot of detail was enough to make a Twitter post seem credible, even if the actual content was incomplete or wrong. There are plenty of adults who respond this way, we'd add, but students are more vulnerable than most.

7 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Duh. by houstonbofh · · Score: 3, Informative

    But it is all "Fake News." Once the official news stations started editing video and showing bias, it became a question of degree, not truth or lie...

  2. It is ALL fake news by lessthan0 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ron Paul compiled a list of fake news from mainstream/big media based on the Wikileaks emails from John Podesta. There was amazing collaboration between the Clinton campaign and major media outlets, and spin perpetrated on the world. It is shameful.

    http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/revealed-the-real-fake-news-list

    Offenders include ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Daily Beast, Huff Po, MSNBC, NBC, NY Times, Politico, Washington Post and more.

    Polls were rigged by oversampling democrats vs. republicans/independents so many were flat wrong. Aggregate sites like 538 were wrong. "Legitimate" news sites pushed a common agenda and it was fake. Your only hope is to read multiple outlets, traditional and non-traditional news, with very different points of view, focus on facts, know that the EVERY reporter is biased, take that into account, and draw your own conclusions.

    "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past."
    -- George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

    1. Re:It is ALL fake news by jergantic · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is some random joker with a blog who simply listed all major news organizations as fake because they "told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction". He provides no sources to back up this claim. These news sites did not, in reality, tell us this; they told us that this was claimed by the US government, which was true.

      538 simply performed a statistical analysis of the polls. They gave Trump around a 30% chance of winning and wrote multiple stories emphasizing that it wasn't a done deal. They were not "wrong".

  3. Re:Hillary did not lose because of fake news by unixisc · · Score: 5, Informative

    People who followed the Clintons during the 90s - when Trump was one of their fanbois - know all the things that you pretend don't exist. The Rose Law Firm, Hilary's Cattle Futures, Whitewater, her attempt to take over US healthcare, et al. Those were done fully utilizing the fact that her husband ran things. Then after Bill's term ended, Hilary became a senator, a role in which she achieved squat, then ran for president and thankfully got pummelled by Obama. Then became Secretary of State and managed to totally mismanage the Arab Spring crises that followed, as well as violating government rules on handling government information. Crimes that sent other people to jail.

    Quit being a shill for her. The Dems could have won this election had they played fair and let Bernie beat her. I actually disagree w/ Bernie on most things, but I'll say this for him: he drew bigger crowds than Trump, and had he been the nominee, any GOP candidate - be it Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich,... would have lost in a landslide. Similar to Obama's win over Romney

  4. Re:But they definitely feel better about themselve by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Informative

    "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

    Great quote, but it has more impact if you cite your source: Socrates, 469-399 BC.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  5. Re:Fascinating to watch by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have to call BS on your BS

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/...

    It really was there for a long time, but they took it down after the election.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  6. Re:Modern kids are retarded (literally) by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seriously... I never engaged in rampant shoplifting, arson, or vandalism.

    And you think these things are done to a greater degree today?

    If so, you're wrong. I don't know when you grew up, but property crime in the US has been steadily declining for decades.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.