Fake News Research by David Freitag https://padlet.com/david_freitag/nv32hjrk26c8 This is where I will take notes on articles related to fake news that I explore. en-us 2016-12-14 02:48:48 UTC 2017-02-25 17:49:41 UTC hello@padlet.com How Fake News Goes Viral - A Case Study david_freitag https://padlet.com/david_freitag/nv32hjrk26c8/wish/143515113 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake-news-spreads.html

Facts:
1. One man had only 40 Twitter followers, but his fake news post went viral and was shared over 16,000 times.
2. Fake news is created by entrepreneurs for financial gain.
3. This example of fake news was shared much more than when the creator posted a new tweet explaining his first tweet was false information.
Causes:
Lack of fact checking.
People are willing to believe what they read online.
Effects:
Something that was untrue was largely regarded as fact.
Perspectives:
Mr. Tucker: “I’m also a very busy businessman and I don’t have time to fact-check everything that I put out there, especially when I don’t think it’s going out there for wide consumption.”
Questions: Could I do this too? What would be interesting to others if I wanted to make my own fake news?
Claim:
Without effective fact checking and careful reading, fake news can go viral, many people will believe it, and that can influence opinions.

]]> 2016-12-14 02:50:20 UTC https://padlet.com/david_freitag/nv32hjrk26c8/wish/143515113 Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds david_freitag https://padlet.com/david_freitag/nv32hjrk26c8/wish/143515419 http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503129818/study-finds-students-have-dismaying-inability-to-tell-fake-news-from-real

Facts:
1."More than 80 percent of middle schoolers believed that 'sponsored content' was a real news story."
2. "Most high school students accept photographs as presented, without verifying them."
3. "Many high school students couldn't tell a real and fake news source apart on Facebook."
4. "Most college students didn't suspect potential bias in a tweet from an activist group."
5. "Most Stanford students couldn't identify the difference between a mainstream and fringe source."

Causes:
Wineburg told NPR on Tuesday that the study demonstrates that U.S. classrooms haven't caught up to the way information is influencing kids daily.

"What we see is a rash of fake news going on that people pass on without thinking," he said. "And we really can't blame young people because we've never taught them to do otherwise."

Effects:
Students--even smart ones--are being tricked into believing things that are simply not true. You need to make decisions based on what you think is true and false.

Perspectives:
"The solution, they write, is to teach students — or, really, all Internet users — to read like fact checkers."

Questions: How are we going to teach the people who are already out of school? I'm assuming they struggle with this too.

Claim:
Without better education on how to read critically and identify fake news, the next generation will be tricked by fake news.
]]> 2016-12-14 02:56:10 UTC https://padlet.com/david_freitag/nv32hjrk26c8/wish/143515419 We Don’t Have a Fake News Problem—We Are the Fake News Problem david_freitag https://padlet.com/david_freitag/nv32hjrk26c8/wish/143515743 http://observer.com/2016/11/we-dont-have-a-fake-news-problem-we-are-the-fake-news-problem/

Facts:
1. Some of the most influential journalists who have lived have written what we might now call fake news (ex. Walter Winchell).
2. Fake news is not a new problem
3. The current media economy incentivizes the creation of fake news.

Causes:
"The point is that fake news is hardly new. In fact, fake news is probably closer to the actual heritage of journalism than truth-telling is."

Fake news has always existed.
The current media economy is driving the production and spread of fake news AND perpetuating the continuation of this structure.

Effects:
"Our media environment is one in which nobody pays for anything and all are aghast that the quality of the product has precipitously declined. No one subscribes to anything, and then we’re shocked that most of what seems to “find us” is extreme, divisive or exaggerated. Even this column, which I have the luxury of knowing will be read by a large number of email subscribers, will be partly shaped around an “angle” and a headline that will induce it to be shared on social media."

Perspectives:
"Everyone from President Obama to Angela Merkel to CNN’s Brian Stelter has painted it as an epidemic of deceit, and wants you to believe that a breed of bad actors is corrupting our media system."
BUT
"Fake news isn’t something new that’s being done to us. We are doing it to ourselves. Just as we’ve always done it to ourselves—the only change is the scale, the speed and the sanctimony."

Questions: Why are we talking about fake news so much now if it's been around forever? Is it just the "scale, the speed, and the sanctimony?"

Claim:
"For readers, that means evaluating your own habits. Consuming less, paying for more, resisting the urge to share—this creates incentives for better information and less fake news."

My claim:
In order to combat fake news, readers will need to evaluate their own consumption habits to incentivize media creators to create 
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