Politifacts Guide to Fake News
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Real Talk About Fake News
Real Talk About Fake News WLA Conference 2018 Real Talk About Fake News Website: http://bit.ly/2qgeaQZ Slide Deck: http://bit.ly/2SihcE9 About Us Shana Ferguson, Teacher Librarian & National Board Certified Teacher, Columbia River HS, Vancouver Public Schools, Vancouver, WA @medialitnerd www.medialitnerd.com Katie Nedved, Teacher Librarian & National Board Certified Teacher, Henrietta Lacks Health & Bioscience High School, Evergreen Public Schools, Vancouver, WA @katienedved www.helacell.org/library Di Zhang, Adult Services Librarian, The Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA [email protected] Session Overview Public Libraries & Community Engagement School Libraries & Teacher Librarians Sample lessons & topics Evaluation Overview Biggest Topics/Pro Tips Pulse of the Room Which level of library do you serve? Have you taught misinformation (“fake news”) lessons? Where do your patrons get their news? Public Library- Why We Started Talking About Fake News -Community members asked us (confusion over fraudulent news stories and misinformation during 2016 elections) -Fake news is here to stay and ramping up -Digital information literacy is a necessary skill in 21st Century -Librarians, educators and journalists all have roles to play in combating fake news Photo credit: University Sunrise Rotary Club Seattle Public Library’s Approach- Research & Collaboration - Read wide and deep into issue (with help from other libraries, news orgs). - Create curriculum for 2 hour class. - Promote widely, especially with existing media connections. - Encourage and support staff to teach and assist in classes, adapt curriculum to needs of audience. Seattle Public Library’s Approach- Partner with Local Orgs MOHAI Community Conversation on Fake News 9-27-18 Partnerships with: - MOHAI - King County TV Outcomes: - Follow up program w/ MOHAI - Panelists & attendees are future potential partners Seattle Public Library’s Approach- Roadshow - There is an audience- find them. -
THE EFFECTS of FACT-CHECKING THREAT Results from a Field Experiment in the States
NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION Research Paper THE EFFECTS OF FACT-CHECKING THREAT Results from a field experiment in the states Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler* October 2013 Executive summary Politicians in the United States are coming under increasing scrutiny from fact-checkers like PolitiFact, Factcheck.org, and the Washington Post Fact Checker, who examine the accuracy of public statements that are often reported without challenge by traditional news organizations. However, we know little about the effects of this practice, especially on public officials. One possibility is that fact-checking might help to deter the dissemination of misinformation, especially for candidates and legislators at lower levels of government who receive relatively little scrutiny and are sensitive to potential threats to re-election. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a field experiment during the 2012 campaign evaluating the effects of reminding state legislators about the electoral and reputational threat posed by fact-checking. Our experimental sample consisted of nearly 1200 legislators in nine states with state PolitiFact affiliates. We found that legislators who were sent reminders that they are vulnerable to fact-checking were less likely to receive a negative PolitiFact rating or have the accuracy of their statements questioned publicly than legislators who were not sent reminders. These results suggest that the electoral and reputational threat posed by fact-checking can affect the behavior of elected officials. In this way, fact-checking could play an important role in improving political discourse and strengthening democratic accountability. * Brendan Nyhan ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. -
How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics
GETTY CORUM IMAGES/SAMUEL How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics By Simon Clark July 2020 WWW.AMERICANPROGRESS.ORG How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics By Simon Clark July 2020 Contents 1 Introduction and summary 4 Tracing the origins of white supremacist ideas 13 How did this start, and how can it end? 16 Conclusion 17 About the author and acknowledgments 18 Endnotes Introduction and summary The United States is living through a moment of profound and positive change in attitudes toward race, with a large majority of citizens1 coming to grips with the deeply embedded historical legacy of racist structures and ideas. The recent protests and public reaction to George Floyd’s murder are a testament to many individu- als’ deep commitment to renewing the founding ideals of the republic. But there is another, more dangerous, side to this debate—one that seeks to rehabilitate toxic political notions of racial superiority, stokes fear of immigrants and minorities to inflame grievances for political ends, and attempts to build a notion of an embat- tled white majority which has to defend its power by any means necessary. These notions, once the preserve of fringe white nationalist groups, have increasingly infiltrated the mainstream of American political and cultural discussion, with poi- sonous results. For a starting point, one must look no further than President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for policy and chief speechwriter, Stephen Miller. In December 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch published a cache of more than 900 emails2 Miller wrote to his contacts at Breitbart News before the 2016 presidential election. -
Understanding the Challenges of Collaborative Evidence-Based
Do you have a source for that? Understanding the Challenges of Collaborative Evidence-based Journalism Sheila O’Riordan Gaye Kiely Bill Emerson Joseph Feller Business Information Business Information Business Information Business Information Systems, University Systems, University Systems, University Systems, University College Cork, Ireland College Cork, Ireland College Cork, Ireland College Cork, Ireland [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT consumption has evolved [25]. There has been a move WikiTribune is a pilot news service, where evidence-based towards digital news with increasing user involvement as articles are co-created by professional journalists and a well as the use of social media platforms for accessing and community of volunteers using an open and collaborative discussing current affairs [14,39,43]. As such, the boundaries digital platform. The WikiTribune project is set within an are shifting between professional and amateur contributions. evolving and dynamic media landscape, operating under Traditional news organizations are adding interactive principles of openness and transparency. It combines a features as participatory journalism practices rise (see [8,42]) commercial for-profit business model with an open and the technologies that allow citizens to interact en masse collaborative mode of production with contributions from provide new avenues for engaging in democratic both paid professionals and unpaid volunteers. This deliberation [19]; the “process of reaching reasoned descriptive case study captures the first 12-months of agreement among free and equal citizens” [6:322]. WikiTribune’s operations to understand the challenges and opportunities within this hybrid model of production. We use With these changes, a number of challenges have arisen. -
Climate Change in the Era of Post-Truth
09_ARBOLEDA_EDITEDPROOF_KS (DO NOT DELETE) 11/8/2018 2:50 PM Climate Change in the Era of Post- Truth INTRODUCTION In The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening our Planet, Destroying our Politics, and Driving us Crazy,1 climate scientist Michael Mann joins with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Tom Toles to take on climate change denialism. Mann, the Director of the Earth System Science Center at The Pennsylvania State University, augments his prose with cartoons from Toles, who normally draws for the editorial section of the Washington Post.2 Together, Mann and Toles set out to debunk the main arguments that special interest groups use to undermine climate change policy. The book begins with an introduction to the scientific method and its application to climate change science.3 It then describes the current and potential effects of climate change on everyday life.4 In its second half, the book transitions to the politics surrounding climate change in the United States.5 A major focus of the book is the “war on climate science,” the phrase Mann and Toles use to describe how the fossil fuel industry has created misinformation to discourage action on climate change.6 The Madhouse Effect was published in 2016, at a moment when the United States was choosing between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates whose climate change agendas differed wildly. The book’s publication failed to avert the election of President Donald Trump, a climate change denier who has referred to the phenomenon as a “hoax” created by China.7 Still, The Madhouse Effect presents a valuable depiction of the underground currents that influence DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38W669857 Copyright © 2018 Regents of the University of California 1. -
IN AMERICAN POLITICS TODAY, EVEN FACT-CHECKERS ARE VIEWED THROUGH PARTISAN LENSES by David C
IN AMERICAN POLITICS TODAY, EVEN FACT-CHECKERS ARE VIEWED THROUGH PARTISAN LENSES by David C. Barker, American University What can be done about the “post-truth” era in American politics? Many hope that beefed-up fact-checking by reputable nonpartisan organizations like Fact Checker, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and Snopes can equip citizens with the tools needed to identify lies, thus reducing the incentive politicians have to propagate untruths. Unfortunately, as revealed by research I have done with colleagues, fact-checking organizations have not provided a cure-all to misinformation. Fact-checkers cannot prevent the politicization of facts, because they themselves are evaluated through a partisan lens. Partisan Biases and Trust of Fact Checkers in the 2016 Election In May of 2016, just a couple of weeks before the California Democratic primary, my colleagues and I conducted an experiment that exposed a representative sample of Californians to the statement: “Nonpartisan fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact rate controversial candidate statements for truthfulness.” We also exposed one randomized half of the sample to the following statement and image: “Each presidential candidate's current PolitiFact average truthfulness score is placed on the scale below.” The Politifact image validated the mainstream narrative about Donald Trump’s disdain for facts, and also reinforced Bernie Sanders’s tell-it-like-it-is reputation. But it contradicted conventional wisdom by revealing that Clinton had been the most accurate candidate overall (though the difference between the Clinton and Sanders ratings was not statistically significant). What did we expect to find? Some observers presume that Republicans are the most impervious to professional fact-checking. -
FAKE NEWS!”: President Trump’S Campaign Against the Media on @Realdonaldtrump and Reactions to It on Twitter
“FAKE NEWS!”: President Trump’s Campaign Against the Media on @realdonaldtrump and Reactions To It on Twitter A PEORIA Project White Paper Michael Cornfield GWU Graduate School of Political Management [email protected] April 10, 2019 This report was made possible by a generous grant from William Madway. SUMMARY: This white paper examines President Trump’s campaign to fan distrust of the news media (Fox News excepted) through his tweeting of the phrase “Fake News (Media).” The report identifies and illustrates eight delegitimation techniques found in the twenty-five most retweeted Trump tweets containing that phrase between January 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018. The report also looks at direct responses and public reactions to those tweets, as found respectively on the comment thread at @realdonaldtrump and in random samples (N = 2500) of US computer-based tweets containing the term on the days in that time period of his most retweeted “Fake News” tweets. Along with the high percentage of retweets built into this search, the sample exhibits techniques and patterns of response which are identified and illustrated. The main findings: ● The term “fake news” emerged in public usage in October 2016 to describe hoaxes, rumors, and false alarms, primarily in connection with the Trump-Clinton presidential contest and its electoral result. ● President-elect Trump adopted the term, intensified it into “Fake News,” and directed it at “Fake News Media” starting in December 2016-January 2017. 1 ● Subsequently, the term has been used on Twitter largely in relation to Trump tweets that deploy it. In other words, “Fake News” rarely appears on Twitter referring to something other than what Trump is tweeting about. -
Articles & Reports
1 Reading & Resource List on Information Literacy Articles & Reports Adegoke, Yemisi. "Like. Share. Kill.: Nigerian police say false information on Facebook is killing people." BBC News. Accessed November 21, 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt- sh/nigeria_fake_news. See how Facebook posts are fueling ethnic violence. ALA Public Programs Office. “News: Fake News: A Library Resource Round-Up.” American Library Association. February 23, 2017. http://www.programminglibrarian.org/articles/fake-news-library-round. ALA Public Programs Office. “Post-Truth: Fake News and a New Era of Information Literacy.” American Library Association. Accessed March 2, 2017. http://www.programminglibrarian.org/learn/post-truth- fake-news-and-new-era-information-literacy. This has a 45-minute webinar by Dr. Nicole A. Cook, University of Illinois School of Information Sciences, which is intended for librarians but is an excellent introduction to fake news. Albright, Jonathan. “The Micro-Propaganda Machine.” Medium. November 4, 2018. https://medium.com/s/the-micro-propaganda-machine/. In a three-part series, Albright critically examines the role of Facebook in spreading lies and propaganda. Allen, Mike. “Machine learning can’g flag false news, new studies show.” Axios. October 15, 2019. ios.com/machine-learning-cant-flag-false-news-55aeb82e-bcbb-4d5c-bfda-1af84c77003b.html. Allsop, Jon. "After 10,000 'false or misleading claims,' are we any better at calling out Trump's lies?" Columbia Journalism Review. April 30, 2019. https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/trump_fact- check_washington_post.php. Allsop, Jon. “Our polluted information ecosystem.” Columbia Journalism Review. December 11, 2019. https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/cjr_disinformation_conference.php. Amazeen, Michelle A. -
Religion and Fake News: Faith-Based Alternative Information Ecosystems in the U.S. and Europe
Religion and Fake News: Faith-based Alternative Information Ecosystems in the U.S. and Europe Christopher Douglas | 6 January 2018 Summary he intersection of fake news and religion is marked by three asymmetries. First, fake news circulates more among Americans than Europeans. Second, fake news circulates T among conservatives more than liberals. Third, fake news for conservatives often feature religious themes. The origin of the fake news information-entertainment ecosystem lies largely in Christian fundamentalism’s cultivation of counter-expertise. The intersection of fake news and religion today is being exploited by Russia to subvert Western democracies and deepen social divisions. Western countries need to strengthen mainstream evidence-based journalism, incorporate conservative religious leaders into mainstream discussions, and detach high religiosity from fake news information ecosystems. Page 1 About the Report This report was commissioned by the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies (CIRIS) on behalf of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD). About the TPNRD The TPNRD is a forum of diplomats from North America and Europe who collaborate on religion-related foreign policy issues. Launched in 2015, the network is co-chaired by officials from the European External Action Service and the U.S. Department of State. About CIRIS CIRIS is a multi-disciplinary research centre at Clare College, Cambridge. CIRIS’s role as the Secretariat of the TPNRD is generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation’s initiative on religion in international affairs. For further information about CIRIS, visit ciris.org.uk. About the Author Christopher Douglas teaches American literature and religion at the University of Victoria, Canada. -
Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Has Launched an Alternative to Facebook and Twitter 11/18/19, 8:11 PM
Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales has launched an alternative to Facebook and Twitter 11/18/19, 8:11 PM Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales has launched an alternative to Facebook and Twitter In a nutshell: Hardly anyone would say that social media is good for you, yet billions use it in one form or another (often concurrently) every single day. These platforms make billions of dollars by addicting users and getting them to click ads. One Wikipedia co-founder wants to change that with a new social media site that is supported by the users rather than big advertisers. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is launching a social-media website called WT: Social. The platform aims to compete with Facebook and Twitter, except instead of funding it using advertising, Wales is taking a page from the Wikipedia playbook and financing it through user donations. "The business model of social media companies, of pure advertising, is problematic," Wales told Financial Times. "It turns out the huge winner is low-quality content." WT: Social got its start as Wikitribune, a site that published original news stories with the community fact-checking and sub-editing articles. The venture never gained much traction, so Wales is moving it to the new platform with a more social networking focus. "Instead of optimizing our algorithm to addict you and keep you clicking, we will only make money if you voluntarily choose to support us – which means that our goal is not clicks but actually being meaningful to your life." The site will still post articles, but instead of giving priority to content with the most "Likes," its algorithms will list the newest stories first. -
Analyzing Language in Fake News and Political Fact-Checking
Truth of Varying Shades: Analyzing Language in Fake News and Political Fact-Checking Hannah Rashkin† Eunsol Choi† Jin Yea Jang‡ Svitlana Volkova‡ Yejin Choi† †Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington {hrashkin,eunsol,yejin}@cs.washington.edu ‡Data Sciences and Analytics, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory {jinyea.jang,svitlana.volkova}@pnnl.gov Abstract “You cannot get ebola from just riding on a plane or a bus.” We present an analytic study on the lan- guage of news media in the context of po- True Mostly True False litical fact-checking and fake news detec- -Rated Mostly True by PolitiFact, (Oct. 2014) tion. We compare the language of real news with that of satire, hoaxes, and pro- paganda to find linguistic characteristics “Google search spike suggests many people of untrustworthy text. To probe the feasi- don’t know why they voted for Brexit.” bility of automatic political fact-checking, we also present a case study based on True Mostly False False PolitiFact.com using their factuality judg- ments on a 6-point scale. Experiments -Rated Mostly False by PolitiFact, (June 2016) show that while media fact-checking re- Figure 1: Example statements rated by PolitiFact mains to be an open research question, as mostly true and mostly false. Misleading phras- stylistic cues can help determine the truth- ing - bolded in green - was one reason for the in- fulness of text. between ratings. 1 Introduction Words in news media and political discourse have and Google search trends – are presented ambigu- a considerable power in shaping people’s beliefs ously as if they were directly linked. -
Disinformation Annotated Bibliography
Disinformation Annotated Bibliography By Gabrielle Lim Copyright © The Citizen Lab Licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike licence). Electronic version first published in 2019 by the Citizen Lab. This work can be accessed through https://citizenlab.ca/2019/05/burned-after-reading-endless-mayflys- ephemeral-disinformation-campaign. Document Version: 1.0 The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license under which this report is licensed lets you freely copy, distribute, remix, transform, and build on it, as long as you: • give appropriate credit; • indicate whether you made changes; and • use and link to the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. However, any rights in excerpts reproduced in this report remain with their respective authors; and any rights in brand and product names and associated logos remain with their respective owners. Uses of these that are protected by copyright or trademark rights require the rightsholder’s prior written agreement. Suggested Citation Gabrielle Lim. "Disinformation Annotated Bibliography." Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, May 2019. Acknowledgements Special thanks to Ron Deibert, John Scott-Railton, and Adam Senft. The design of this document is by Mari Zhou. About the Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. We use a “mixed methods” approach to research that combines methods from political science, law, computer science, and area studies.