Rob Harding sent this question and thought. I'd appreciate examples if you can think of some!
Thank you for this. Good reminders - especially on the pause-before-sharing mindset.
One question for you, regarding a topic of concern that I believe is missing:
What are your thoughts on addressing situations where a true story or statement gets labeled as “fake news” and, as a result of the wrongful labeling, the truth gets dismissed, rejected, or ignored because the incorrect “fake news” label spreads like wildfire moreso than the truth?
I see this kind of thing happening - to various degrees - regularly and it’s disturbing. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, what exactly the true story or statement is — my concern is that the dividing lines between real things happening and actual fake news are as blurry as ever, which I believe is one layer of an explanation for why society has become so dysfunctional and (increasingly) chaotic.
I welcome your thoughts. I’m genuinely struggling through thinking about this, including thinking through possible solutions and where we will go from here.
With X now algorithmically downgrading links, it's an admission Musk simply doesn't care about factuality anymore. Neither does Facebook. But I selected Laurence Tribe as my example of a node of misinformation in order to (hopefully) convince liberals they were as susceptible to confirmation bias on social media as anyone else.
Hope you are well, and thanks very much for sending this along.
I'd say don't "share" anything without adding something of your own. Say why you are sharing. What's the policy implication?
Totally concur! So much of the process of innovation is about one perspective adding an element to another.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I just don't get my news from X or FB. I deleted my X accounts last summer and use FB to track friends and family.
Right tool for the right job. I'm still reliant on X (used actively and consciously) as a journalist and connecter for sure but totally get other perspectives. https://revkin.substack.com/p/dont-tell-anybody-but-beneath-the?utm_source=publication-search
Rob Harding sent this question and thought. I'd appreciate examples if you can think of some!
Thank you for this. Good reminders - especially on the pause-before-sharing mindset.
One question for you, regarding a topic of concern that I believe is missing:
What are your thoughts on addressing situations where a true story or statement gets labeled as “fake news” and, as a result of the wrongful labeling, the truth gets dismissed, rejected, or ignored because the incorrect “fake news” label spreads like wildfire moreso than the truth?
I see this kind of thing happening - to various degrees - regularly and it’s disturbing. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, what exactly the true story or statement is — my concern is that the dividing lines between real things happening and actual fake news are as blurry as ever, which I believe is one layer of an explanation for why society has become so dysfunctional and (increasingly) chaotic.
I welcome your thoughts. I’m genuinely struggling through thinking about this, including thinking through possible solutions and where we will go from here.
I got this fantastic reply from journalism/communication professor Michael Socolow at U. of Maine:
It's not "new" but it holds up - my simple 3-step way for users to help stop the spread of misinformation, published in New York Times in March, 2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/opinion/facebook-spreading-ideas.html
With X now algorithmically downgrading links, it's an admission Musk simply doesn't care about factuality anymore. Neither does Facebook. But I selected Laurence Tribe as my example of a node of misinformation in order to (hopefully) convince liberals they were as susceptible to confirmation bias on social media as anyone else.
Hope you are well, and thanks very much for sending this along.
All the best,
MjS
Calling Bullshit is a great resource. I didn’t know it was still out there.
Here’s hoping it remains active and useful for a long time to come.