
Fake news: 6 popular stories but false circulating on social media this week, debunked – The News Journal
Fake news: 6 popular stories but false circulating on social media this week, debunked – The News Journal
OPINION: Fake news in America: its past, present and hopefully dim future – Tommie Media
Fake news? How to spot a deep fake – WJXT News4JAX
What did Trump’s fake news cost? – Bucks County Courier Times
Fake news: 6 popular stories but false circulating on social media this week, debunked – The News Journal
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
CLAIM: President Joe Biden swore on a “Masonic/Illuminati” Bible during his inauguration last week.
THE FACTS: Following Biden’s inauguration, false social media posts spread about the Bible he used to take his oath of office. Some social media users falsely suggested that the several-inches thick Bible, a Biden family heirloom, was “Masonic” or associated with an Illuminati conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists suggest the Illuminati, a purported secret society, wants world domination. Freemasons, a fraternal organization, have been the subject of conspiracy theories since the group was founded over 300 years ago. Some founding fathers were even part of the group. “Sooo has anyone else realized this yet or???? Masonic/Illuminati Bible that Biden swore on yesterday…” wrote one Facebook user along with a photo of Biden’s hand on the Bible. The false post had 19,000 shares.
But in fact, Biden was sworn in on a
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Scientists develop method to detect fake news – EurekAlert
Social media is increasingly used to spread fake news. The same problem can be found on the capital market – criminals spread fake news about companies in order to manipulate share prices. Researchers at the Universities of Göttingen and Frankfurt and the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana have developed an approach that can recognise such fake news, even when the news contents are repeatedly adapted. The results of the study were published in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.
In order to detect false information – often fictitious data that presents a company in a positive light – the scientists used machine learning methods and created classification models that can be applied to identify suspicious messages based on their content and certain linguistic characteristics. “Here we look at other aspects of the text that makes up the message, such as the comprehensibility of the language and the mood that the text conveys,” says Professor Jan Muntermann from the University of Göttingen.
The approach is already known in principle from its use by spam filters, for example. However, the key problem with the current methods is that to avoid being recognised, fraudsters continuously adapt the content and avoid certain words that are used to identify the fake news. This is where the researchers’ new approach comes in: to identify fake news despite such strategies to evade detection, they combine models recently developed by the researchers in such a way that high detection rates and robustness come together. So
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Letters: Trump ‘fake news’ claims undermined credibility in U.S. institutions – The Advocate
During the last four years, we have heard the term “fake news” many times from President Donald Trump and his supporters. It was often applied to any opposition or criticism of Trump’s policies and behavior.
This was an easy way to avoid answering criticism since it did not require dealing directly with the issues. The effect of this approach on his followers was to breed distrust of anyone or anything that opposed Trump’s statements or policies.
This idea of “fake news” said in effect that all opposition was corrupt, was lying and deliberately deceiving the public. It said that you couldn’t trust news reports, politicians with contrary opinions or anyone that was opposed to Trump’s views. I believe that this has contributed significantly to the disbelief by many Trump supporters that he lost the election.
The distrust of experts and scientists promulgated by Trump contributed to the seriousness of the pandemic. It also
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Gnarly Trombone: The ‘Fake News’ is everywhere – Greeley Tribune
No Fake News here!
Yeah, right.
Maybe it’s ALL Fake News here …
Anyway, we all know what Fake News is. It’s the information you get that isn’t true, but it sounds so absurd, you think it’s true.
Some of you do.
The problem is, Fake News is everywhere.
For example, go stand in the line at the supermarket. No, the Fake News is not coming from the customers or the store workers. It’s coming from the scandalous newspapers you can read because they’re on a stand next to the checkout line.
For example, the National Enquirer is well known to be the King (or Queen or President) of Fake News. So, for the first time in my old life, I bought one. Secretly. I paid cash, so they can’t trace the National Enquirer to me.
Anyway, I read today that you can SWEAR YOURSELF INTO SHAPE!
That’s what it said in this week’s Enquirer. That if you swear out loud while playing basketball, you can perform better, run faster, score more points. (Maybe that’s because the person who’s guarding you is surprised to hear you cussing so much.)
Anyway, the National Enquirer is not the only Fake News source.
There are some TV networks that seem to specialize in Fake News.
And, there’s always Facebook.
Some people don’t take a newspaper, so they just believe everything they read on Facebook. It’s their only source of news, so it has to be true. (I didn’t say these are smart people.)
We can’t blame Facebook, exactly. It’s the writers who send in Fake
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True story: Either we kill fake news, or it kills us – Innovate Long Island – Innovate Long Island
Like millions of Americans, I paused my normal routine Jan. 20 to watch the swearing-in of President Joe Biden. And like so many Americans, I was struck by the unusual circumstances surrounding the event.
The absence of crowds. The preponderance of facemasks. The manual disinfecting of the lectern between speakers. And of course, the throngs of National Guard soldiers – a stark reminder that only two weeks prior, those same U.S. Capitol steps were the site of a domestic terrorist attack, sure to live on as one of the saddest days in our nation’s history.
The inaugurations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were rooted in over two centuries of tradition – but completely unique to this moment in history.
One part of the event seemed at least comfortably familiar (and no, I’m not talking about the Bernie memes). Joe Biden’s inaugural speech was befitting a politician that built his successful presidential campaign on a promise to return to “normalcy.”
President Biden’s speech struck a familiar balance of optimism and pragmatism, celebration and portents to the challenges ahead. A few lines, however, stood out – and I’ve been thinking a lot about what they mean for our industry and our responsibility as communication professionals.
David Chauvin: Fake punt.
The president
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Totally Not Fake News: The Force Behind It All – Battle Red Blog
PANDEMONIUM – Amid the sprawling fields of rocky terrain, with few distinguishing landmarks or features, there sits a massive stone complex, equivalent to the great fortresses of old. The exact features are tough to make out due to the haze, smoke and the interplay of fiery light and excessive darkness. It is here that we at Totally Not Fake News came to speak to the apparent power behind all the pratfalls that keep bedeviling the Texans as of late.
“Funny that you used that word,” noted our host, Lucifer. “I don’t know if I would quite say that, but ok, I get the literary turn of phrase.” Despite our protests that we hadn’t even thought of our writing, Lucifer chuckled “Don’t worry, it will be ok. I won’t sue for libel just because you went with the unintentional pun.”
The effects misinformation & ‘fake news’ can have on you psychologically – KSNT News
MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) – Your phone rings with a notification. You immediately grab it, consuming more information.
This repeatedly occurs throughout our day, constantly causing us to ask ourselves, “Is this true?”
“That becomes taxing itself because you are playing the security, the filter, for yourself, and then you get tired and eventually you start to pull back or become exhausted with informational overload,” said Tony Kubina, licensed clinical psychotherapist for Ascension Via Christi in Manhattan.
Discovering if this post, article, email or other source is truly fact or fiction can be difficult. According to a 2019 study from Ipsos, 86% of online users admitted to falling for fake news.
Cubina recommended being critical of all the information you see, thinking ‘Am I or the source of the information biased in any way?’ or ‘Is this moreso opinion compared to fact?’
“If you look at that information less skeptically it means you’re really, really prone to having that misinformation kind of sink in and end up simply affirming something that may not be true,” said Dr. Michael Young, head of Kansas State University’s Department of Psychological Sciences.
If you continue to do this, Young said false information can lead to real consequences, such as on your career, physical or mental health, or loved ones and our country as a whole.
“It’s not just our personal wellbeing but it affects our relationships with others when I start believing things that are different from you,” Young said. “Then I start thinking that
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How misinformation & fake news affects immigrant communities – WXYZ
(WXYZ) — We think of misinformation of social media often as something for or against a political party, but sometimes, it’s much more.
This week is News Literacy Week, and our entire company is taking a look at how fake news affects people and how you can spot misinformation.
In minority communities, misinformation can cause families to keep their kids from schools and parents going to work.
“We’re trying to provide the information community members should have,” Activist Moises Moreno said.
Moreno is on a mission to keep the immigrant community well informed. He said the first say Trump got elected in 2016, rumors in the community circulated online claiming mass immigration arrests.
Morena said it was that moment when pro-immigrant organizations created a rapid response network to educate immigrants with accurate information.
“If and when ICE is spotted in the community, there is a process which we verify there is a responsible and direct response. To make sure the information we have is valid,” he said.
He also helps weed out rumors. Recently, some residents reported alleged ICE vehicles parked in their neighborhood. They thought they were there to conduct a raid. In reality, they were just there to have lunch.
The fear prompted misinformation online, warning people not to go to work because of possible immigration raids, leaving immigrant workers on edge.
“I felt like I could not leave my house. Overall if I could pick one word—destabilizing,” Paola Zamora
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Fake News? Can you believe what you see? – WWLTV.com
A recent study by the Pew Research Center found 43% of American adults got their political news from internet-based sources, 18% from social media.
NEW ORLEANS — Remember when our choices for news boiled down to tv, newspapers or radio? The internet changed all of that. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found 43% of American adults got their political news from internet-based sources, 18% from social media. That number will likely grow. The Pew Research study also found that the people who rely mostly on social media for the news were less likely to pay attention to news about the pandemic.
“Younger people including my students who are 18, get their news from Tik Tok. They get their news from whatever social
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How to identify fake news online in the age of social media – ABC Action News
TAMPA, Fla. — There are a lot of ways to inform yourself of the news of the day. More people are getting their information online, but not everything you read is accurate.
ABC Action News in-depth reporter Anthony Hill is digging deeper to find out how to know if the information you’re taking in is from a reputable source and ways you can weed out the noise.
In 2021, there is so much information online and nowadays more people are consuming their news from online sources. Whether that be on their tablets, laptops, or cell phones, we are more connected than we’ve ever been before.
The democratization and liberty of information online have made sharing and consuming content easier than ever, but there’s one problem. There’s a lot of fake news floating around online.
“The majority of the people actually believe that they can well identify fake news,” said Helen Lee Bouygues, president of the Reboot Foundation, which tries to teach critical thinking in the age of rapidly growing technology and social media.
Lee Bouygues says the first step is having an awareness of how susceptible we are to misinformation and disinformation. She says when you look up news and information on search engines, the algorithm will usually take you to previous sites you’ve visited before.
“So, it’s efficient, but it may not necessarily give you the most accurate information depending on where you’ve been I previous sites,” Bouygues said.
She
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