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Americans Don't Think the Platforms Are Doing Enough To Fight Fake News (poynter.org)
Journalists regularly weigh in on what platforms like Facebook and Google are and aren't doing to stop the spread of viral misinformation. But what do Americans at large think? From a report: Nothing good, according to a new survey published by Gallup and the Knight Foundation on Wednesday. The report, based on web surveys from a random sample of 1,203 U.S. adults, found that 85 percent of Americans don't think the platforms are doing enough to stop the spread of fake news. Additionally, 88 percent want tech companies to be transparent about how they surface content, while 79 percent think those companies should be regulated like other media organizations -- a common trope among journalists. That's despite the fact that the majority of people surveyed (54 percent) said social media platforms help keep them informed and that they're concerned about those companies making editorial judgments.
I think we haven't done enough to separate these two concepts. We're confusing manipulative lies with opinions incompatible with the worldview of a segment of the population, and it will destroy us.
propaganda
noun propaganda \ prä-p-gan-d , pr- \
1) : the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
2) : ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect
“That the existential realm of man could be taken over by pseudorealities whose fictitious nature threatens to become indiscernible is truly a depressing thought. And yet, the Platonic nightmare, I hold, possesses an alarming contemporary relevance. For the general public is being reduced to a state where people are not only unable to find out about the truth but also become unable even to search for the truth because they are satisfied with deception and trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied with a fictitious reality created by design through the abuse of language.”
--Josef Pieper
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Americans Don't Think the Platforms Are Doing Enough To Remove Worldviews Contrary To Their Own
would work. As would:
Americans Are Over The Whole Bill Of Rights Thing, Want To Feel Warm, Fuzzy, And Safe.
Check your premises.
You can't really win when 50% of the population considers one news fake, and the other 50% considers the opposite news to be fake...
Maybe just let people read different news sources and decide.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So the people with a vested interest in propping up traditional media and censorship miraculously discover in a poll that... Americans want more censorship!
It's like Stalin proclaiming that Russians want more communism!
Or like Brawndo proclaiming that Brawndo is what people crave!
109% of Lee Harvey Oswalds killed JFK.
What about the other 109%?
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Howabout teaching critical thinking skills at every grade level. A large chunk of this generation may already be too far gone, but that doesn't mean we can't begin fixing the problem with the next one. Anyone with even a modest ability to critically think when confronted with hyperbole on social media sites can quickly discern real from fake news, or at least realize the need to use Google or other search engines (such as duckduckgo.com) to check the veracity of any "news" report or bombastic claim.
The problem is that the definition of "fake news" seems to have changed for incorrect facts or biased viewpoints to "anything that contradicts my beliefs or I simply don't like"
Because your perception of things given to you by people who want you to distrust the media is incorrect.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
So you have a plan to prevent all the idiots out there from believing fake news? You can be personally responsible all you want and preach personal responsibility of others, but you will continue to be affected by the others that choose to believe fake news since they are part of shaping your society.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
... served up inside a bubble is a goddam mistake.
The bubbles are out to make money, and they aren't concerned with diligence as much as money.
Right now, some of my extended family are shitting their britches because their bubbles have removed Alex Jones.
Not by way of support or that ass, but by way of providing information, I pointed out that jerk is available all over the fucking place.
The hard part is to exit the confines of the bubble long enough to read.
However, that's too much trouble for them.
An easier, more satisfying approach is to stay in the bubble and bitch like hell.
Batshit crazy people.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I'm right there with you - part of the responsibility of living in a free democratic society is educating yourself and trying to make rational decisions and choices.
Unfortunately, humanity regularly demonstrates it's too stupid for this responsibility. Facebook is both part of the problem, as there's no way to downvote stupid and it contributes to the "what should I be enraged at today without thinking about it" culture, and it's also just a place that demonstrates this is the basic nature of humanity, whether on FB or not.
I choose not to participate in social media hysteria and stupidity, because I feel it actively makes me dumber.
there's plenty of actual fake news going around. Google "QAnon". There's also a ton of misinformation around Climate Change. And then there's John Oliver's video on Astroturfing last week.
There's literally billions being spent to spread what can only be called lies. I'm less worried about folks confusing opinions with facts and more worried about them confusing outright lies for something true. That's what's going to destroy us.
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You know.. if I see something on a legitimate news site that sounds outrageous or out of step with reality in some way? I look elsewhere to see if it's being reported accurately (Snopes is good for this). Most people? Not so much, apparently. Stop using Zuckerbook and other so-called 'social media' as a news source, for starters! Then apply this Magical Thing called 'critical thinking', and (shocker!) common sense. There, was that so hard?
Hey, give CNN a break. They created a 24/7 news cycle they have to fill with 23 hours of pontificating pundits. The pundits have become more the news than actual breaking events.
OR - the media itself is giving people reason to distrust them by simply adding in their own (biased) adjectives and continuously pushing "nothing burgers" while purposefully withholding certain stories, truths or defenses. Politicians do enough lying on their own. The last thing we need to the 'reporters' adding another layer of lies on top of the lies we were already told. The ministry of information is strong.
I don't have the cycles to verify each and every statement made by "X" politician, let alone every (opinionated, hyperbolic) statement made by each of the various 'wings' of the media. Ill just turn off all the politics and talk to the people around me, and see how they're doing.
Did you actually look at cnn.com before making up that line of bullshit?
This all smells like utter bullshit to me. Evidence or GTFO!
(I welcome the downmods for demanding evidence for wild claims)
SJW n. One who posts facts.
If you both think the trivially modified in flight news you receive via video and internet can be trusted more than anecdote and believe any platform should be deciding what is fake and real for you then you already have demonstrated you lack the required critical thinking skills to participate in politics. Nothing against you but you are probably calling healthy rational skepticism paranoia by this point and believing every plea to authority that falls in line with your confirmation bias.
If this represents you, please stop voting or spreading your political ideas. DON'T participate. I don't care what your actually political views are or if there are millions of you ready to raise me up as king and get my way on all my views. If your views aren't based on sound reason and logic it no longer matters what they are.
Do you have any proof that the media is purposely withholding stories?
That would require a perfect conspiracy of everyone involved in the news cycle at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, USA Today, New York Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Al Jazeera, etc.
Now imagine what it would take to get everyone involved to shut up without scooping each other. News outlets get paid through advertising. If some amazing event occurs, the first outlet to report it gets the most eyes and the most advertising revenue. That is how it works. Your conspiracy theory runs counter to this.
I have a rule of thumb I try to keep in mind. If your explanation requires a conspiracy to work, your explanation is almost certainly wrong. People talk.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
When the MSM themselves are almost just as bad at fake news level and just as guilty of propaganda? Also can American think for themselves instead of have others dictate their worldview?
You're searching for a fixed phrase, doofus. Google gets fooled by just a single word of difference. Are you seriously expecting me to remember a headline exactly? And if you ever bothered to see CNN's front page since early 2016, you'd know this is not an isolated occurence but something that happens all the time. Heck, they have a piece of anti-Israel drivel on their front page right now.
But no, your side is holiest of holy. Every SJW and neo-nazi these days says that. Polish "patriots" put people into prison for claiming that any Poles cooperated with the Nazis (~80% of Jews who died to Nazis were denounced by their neighbours), or that Poland had any concentration camps (every single ex-German camp that wasn't dismantled before Soviets came operated after the war, some up to 1956). Then you say that no, CNN can't be anti-semitic racist and genderist, because CNN is good and I'm evil.
You make me sick.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
If this was unclear, I call SJW beliefs a religion, as it has all hallmarks of one.
That's probably unfair to stuff like Hinduism, most tribal faiths and so on -- so perhaps a different name would be better. But a number of ideologies behave nearly identically:
* Christianity
* Islam
* SJWery aka so-called third-wave "feminism" (which is an insult to a noble movement that real (ie, "first wave") feminism was)
* communism
* NSDAP beliefs (the word "nazi" became a generic insult these days)
* current Polish nationalism
* current Turkish nationalism
(current Russian fascism is nasty but works somewhat differently than those above)
* etc, etc
All of these are extremely xenophobic, want all unbelievers gone or converted, sprout mutually hostile factions, are thoroughly unscientific -- and, above all, can't take the slightest bit of criticism.
Somewhere during the last American election campaign CNN went through a sudden change: in place of a reliable news source where bias was limited to commentary, they became ardent preachers of the new religion.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
if the movement wasn't getting national coverage. It's one thing to see stories on Fox News (which, let's not mince words here, is more or less the Republican Party's propaganda arm). But I've seen bloody CNN talking about it.
Now true, it's not like they could spend that time covering something like the 45,000 folks who die of preventable diseases every year or the war in Yemen being fought with our weapons or the last round of Wallstreet deregulation that just happened and is going to cause a market crash in about 6 years....
My point, in case it wasn't obvious, is that these nut job conspiracy theories are leaping off 4 chan and it's happening for a reason. Somebody with a lot of pull would much rather we pay attention to that then to our ever worsening economic situation... We can debate who that is, but that's secondary to the simple fact that we're being distracted from more important matters.
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What is wrong with being anti-Israel? The borders keep moving and if they aren't stopped they will soon have committed a genocide.
You got the direction wrong. Only one of the sides has "Death to $OPPONENT" on their flags, only one says no one but them deserve to live on those lands, and only one wants unconditional "supremacy of $RELIGION".
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.