scholarly journals Information Literacy in a Fake/False News World: Why Does it Matter and How Does it Spread?

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina L. Niedringhaus
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Research Project ◽  
False News

Now that we have a better understanding of the history and context of fake news, I am going to discuss why fake news and combatting it matters and how the recent rise of fake news correlates with a change in how society views expertise. I will also share the recently released results of a huge research project examining how fake news spreads.

scholarly journals Information Literacy in a Fake/False News World: An Overview of the Characteristics of Fake News and its Historical Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Literacy Programs ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Legal Information ◽  
Information Professionals ◽  
False News

Prior to designing strategies and information literacy programs to combat the dissemination and proliferation of fake/false news, it is instructive for legal information professionals to understand the characteristics of fake news and the context of its historical development.

Identity concerns drive belief: The impact of partisan identity on the belief and dissemination of true and false news

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Pereira ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
System P ◽  
False News ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
The Impact

Political misinformation, often called “fake news”, represents a threat to our democracies because it impedes citizens from being appropriately informed. Evidence suggests that fake news spreads more rapidly than real news—especially when it contains political content. The present article tests three competing theoretical accounts that have been proposed to explain the rise and spread of political (fake) news: (1) the ideology hypothesis— people prefer news that bolsters their values and worldviews; (2) the confirmation bias hypothesis—people prefer news that fits their pre-existing stereotypical knowledge; and (3) the political identity hypothesis—people prefer news that allows their political in-group to fulfill certain social goals. We conducted three experiments in which American participants read news that concerned behaviors perpetrated by their political in-group or out-group and measured the extent to which they believed the news (Exp. 1, Exp. 2, Exp. 3), and were willing to share the news on social media (Exp. 2 and 3). Results revealed that Democrats and Republicans were both more likely to believe news about the value-upholding behavior of their in-group or the value-undermining behavior of their out-group, supporting a political identity hypothesis. However, although belief was positively correlated with willingness to share on social media in all conditions, we also found that Republicans were more likely to believe and want to share apolitical fake new. We discuss the implications for theoretical explanations of political beliefs and application of these concepts in in polarized political system.

Student Experiences with Digital Citizenship: A Comparative Cultural Study

Libri ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenna Kammer ◽  
Kodjo Atiso ◽  
Edward Mensah Borteye
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Study ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Citizenship ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Ethical Aspects

Abstract This comparative cultural study examines differences in digital citizenship between undergraduate information literacy students at two different, but similar, universities across the globe from each other. Under the notion that the internet and prevalence of mobile devices allow students to participate online as digital citizens in ways that were impossible before, we use mixed methods to compare the attitudes and experiences of undergraduate students at a university in the midwestern United States (U.S.), with a university on the southwestern coast of Ghana. We also examine the policies related to technology use at these schools. The findings indicate that Ghanaian students had higher levels of digital citizenship. Other findings suggest that network issues are a problem for students in both schools, especially for Ghana, and ethical aspects of internet use, like cyberbullying, hacking, and fake news, deter students from participating online as much as they would like.

scholarly journals Young Spanish Adults and Disinformation: Do They Identify and Spread Fake News and Are They Literate in It?

Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Aida María de Vicente de Vicente Domínguez ◽  
Ana Beriain Beriain Bañares ◽  
Javier Sierra Sierra Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
Spanish Population ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Know How ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Structured Questionnaire ◽  
Do So

The infodiet of young Spanish adults aged 18 to 25 was analysed to determine their attitude towards fake news. The objectives were: to establish whether they have received any training in fake news; to determine whether they know how to identify fake information; and to investigate whether they spread it. The study employed a descriptive quantitative method consisting of a survey of 500 representative interviews of the Spanish population aged between 18 and 25 through a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that they are aware of the importance of training, although generally they do not know of any course and when they do, they do not tend to enroll on one either due to lack of interest or time. These young adults feel that they know how to identify fake content and, moreover, that they know how to do so very well. However, they do not use the best tools. While they do not always verify information, they mainly suspect the credibility of information when it is meaningless. However, they do not tend to spread fake information. We conclude that media information literacy training (MILT) is necessary in educational centres that focuses on the main issues identified.

New Evidence of the Effect of Literacies in Reducing Disinformation and Fake News

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 300-333
Author(s):  
José Ricardo Ledur ◽  
Renato P. dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Fake News ◽  
9Th Grade ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Information Literacy Skills ◽  
The Media ◽  
False News ◽  
New Evidence

Context: The production of scientific knowledge is not clearly understood by most individuals. In the information age, society faces challenges generated by discrediting institutions, including science, the proliferation of false news, disinformation and the relativisation of truth. These are significant issues that the school cannot refrain from discussing if it wants to educate for citizenship. Objectives: To investigate how conceptions about science influence and are influenced by fake news conveyed by the media and the contribution of literacy to minimise the effects of misinformation. Design: The methodology used in this research used a mixed-methods approach through content analysis of students’ responses combined with descriptive statistical techniques. Environment and participants: The research was carried out with 32 students, divided into two groups, attending the 9th grade of an elementary public school in Bom Princípio/RS. Data collection and analysis: Two questionnaires were applied: one for the conceptions about science and another to identify fake news. Results: Most students have a limited view of science and find it difficult to identify fake news through verification criteria. A correlation between student perceptions and the identification of false news was observed. Conclusions: Knowledge about science possibly enhances students’ perception of doubtful information. It is crucial to develop mediatic and information literacy skills as they can positively impact the identification of fake news and reduce its shares.

scholarly journals Fake news, fast and slow: Deliberation reduces belief in false (but not true) news headlines

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bence Bago ◽  
David Gertler Rand ◽  
Gordon Pennycook
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Fake News ◽  
System 2 ◽  
False News ◽  
News Headlines ◽  
Classical Account

What role does deliberation play in susceptibility to political misinformation and “fake news”? The “Motivated System 2 Reasoning” account posits that deliberation causes people to fall for fake news because reasoning facilitates identity-protective cognition and is therefore used to rationalize content that is consistent with one’s political ideology. The classical account of reasoning instead posits that people ineffectively discern between true and false news headlines when they fail to deliberate (and instead rely on intuition). To distinguish between these competing accounts, we investigated the causal effect of reasoning on media truth discernment using a two-response paradigm. Participants (N= 1635 MTurkers) were presented with a series of headlines. For each, they were first asked to give an initial, intuitive response under time pressure and concurrent working memory load. They were then given an opportunity to re-think their response with no constraints, thereby permitting more deliberation. We also compared these responses to a (deliberative) one-response baseline condition where participants made a single choice with no constraints. Consistent with the classical account, we found that deliberation corrected intuitive mistakes: subjects believed false headlines (but not true headlines) more in initial responses than in either final responses or the unconstrained 1-response baseline. In contrast – and inconsistent with the Motivated System 2 Reasoning account – we found that political polarization was equivalent across responses. Our data suggest that, in the context of fake news, deliberation facilitates accurate belief formation and not partisan bias.

scholarly journals Research note: The scale of Facebook’s problem depends upon how ‘fake news’ is classified

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Research Note ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Scale Problem ◽  
Media Organizations ◽  
False News

Ushering in the contemporary ‘fake news’ crisis, Craig Silverman of Buzzfeed News reported that it outperformed mainstream news on Facebook in the three months prior to the 2016 US presidential elections. Here the report’s methods and findings are revisited for 2020. Examining Facebook user engagement of election-related stories, and applying Silverman’s classification of fake news, it was found that the problem has worsened, implying that the measures undertaken to date have not remedied the issue. If, however, one were to classify ‘fake news’ in a stricter fashion, as Facebook as well as certain media organizations do with the notion of ‘false news’, the scale of the problem shrinks. A smaller scale problem could imply a greater role for fact-checkers (rather than deferring to mass-scale content moderation), while a larger one could lead to the further politicisation of source adjudication, where labelling particular sources broadly as ‘fake’, ‘problematic’ and/or ‘junk’ results in backlash.

THE CONCEPT OF FAKE NEWS AND AND ITS DETECTION BY MEANS OF COMMUNICATIVE THEORY

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-39
Author(s):  
M. І. Hordiichuk
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Word Combination ◽  
Argumentative Strategy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
Communicative Theory ◽  
False News ◽  
Perlocutionary Effect ◽  
Modern Era

The article studies the concept of “fake news,” focusing on researching its etymology and the scope of its meaning. The meaning of the concept of “fake news” is studied based on the contrast with the word combination“false news”. The coinages “post-truth” and “fake news” have been recognized as the words of the year by different dictionaries in the recent years, which contributes to the image of the present-day media. Various definitions of fake news of different scholars were analyzed. It was found that fake news are relatively easy in making and spreading due to the advancement of modern technologies. However, they disrupt the faith of readers in media, which stands for the need for the detection of fake news in mass media. Consequently, the detection of fake news has been acknowledged as a crucial skill in the modern era. The paper analyzes the ways communicative theory can be used in the detection of fake news in the media. Four main strategies were identified, namely argumentative, appellative, evaluative, and the strategy of optimizing of perlocutionary effect. Each of the strategies is applied in various ways in fake news making with the use of appropriate tactics within their scope. The argumentative strategy operates with the tactics of manipulation and detalization. Tactics of ideologization, appeal to addressees’ needs and retrospection are used within the appellative strategy. Evaluative strategy includes the tactics of positioning, discrediting the opponent and distancing. And within the strategy of optimizing of perlocutionary effect the tactics of emotion evocation, mnemonization and visualization are identified. The paper provides a theoretical background to all of these strategies. Also, their practical application in the media was analyzed based on the examples taken from the independent fact-checking organization “StopFake”. It was found that all of them are frequently used in the hybrid war against Ukraine to disrupt its official government, treaties with European partners, and provoke chaos within the state.

Spiritualism and the Resurgence of Fake News

2020 ◽  
pp. 222-237
Author(s):  
Kristy A. Hesketh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The World ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
False News

This chapter explores the Spiritualist movement and its rapid growth due to the formation of mass media and compares these events with the current rise of fake news in the mass media. The technology of cheaper publications created a media platform that featured stories about Spiritualist mediums and communications with the spirit world. These articles were published in newspapers next to regular news creating a blurred line between real and hoax news stories. Laws were later created to address instances of fraud that occurred in the medium industry. Today, social media platforms provide a similar vessel for the spread of fake news. Online fake news is published alongside legitimate news reports leaving readers unable to differentiate between real and fake articles. Around the world countries are actioning initiatives to address the proliferation of false news to prevent the spread of misinformation. This chapter compares the parallels between these events, how hoaxes and fake news begin and spread, and examines the measures governments are taking to curb the growth of misinformation.

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