Ahead of the midterm elections, false and divisive messages on social media — once the specialty of Russian-linked operatives — are now increasingly being created and spread by Americans.
As the Ukraine war grinds on, the Kremlin has created increasingly complex fabrications online to discredit Ukraine’s leader and undercut aid. Some have a Hollywood-style plot twist.
AI is making it easy for anyone to create propaganda outlets, producing content that can be hard to differentiate from real news.
If just one journalist from a local news source is not trusted, audiences are overwhelmingly less likely to use the source overall. That is one of several takeaways from a groundbreaking fact-finding research project the Radio Television Digital News Association conducted with Magid. According to the study, 60% of local news viewers are in “strong agreement” that one journalist can compel people to tune out. But that was one of several factors that have a big impact on trust in local news.
CNN’s Oliver Darcy discusses a University of Utah and Washington University study that shows 3 in 4 Americans overestimate their ability to discern between real and fake news.
NAB, E.W. Scripps, IT consultancy Fincons Group and the News Literacy Project will demonstrate how local TV newsrooms can use NextGen TV’s dynamic, interactive capability to combat fake news. An eight-minute demo on April 21 during the virtual session will be followed by an interactive Q&A.
False news is on the rise. We can fight the spread with a simple exercise: Slow down and be skeptical.
Exclusives
President Trump called 60 Minutes’ interview with whistleblower Rick Bright fake news, called CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell a third place anchor, and said the show was trying to demean the country to benefit the radical left. In a 60 Minutes interview Sunday night hosted by O’Donnell, Bright, formerly a top scientist with the Department of Health and Human Services, said the Trump Administration’s COVID-19 response had been slow, prioritized politics over science, pushed the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine, and ultimately cost lives.
Brands lose about $235 million annually from unknowingly running ads alongside fake news, and in the upcoming 2020 presidential election $200 million will be spent on boosting, advertising and deploying fake news, according to a study that analyzes the direct economic cost from fake news.
The nature of the news misinformation problem may be changing. As consumers become more skeptical about the national news they encounter online, impostor local sites that promote ideological agendas are becoming more common. These sites exploit the relatively high trust Americans express in local news outlets — a potential vulnerability in Americans’ defenses against untrustworthy information.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark’s donation to First Draft was announced Thursday. The group said it is making free training available to newsrooms and will conduct 14 “simulations” of news events to show how reporters can recognize and stop the flow of bad information.
Media outlets can no longer just assume their audience will automatically trust their work. By emphasizing your ethics, guidelines and due diligence, you can re-establish that relationship. Make the case that you help them get outside of their bubble to consider other perspectives.
Many Americans say the creation and spread of made-up news and information is causing significant harm to the nation and needs to be stopped, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. They blame political leaders and activists far more than journalists for the problem. But they believe it is primarily the responsibility of journalists to fix it.
COMMENTARY
Trump Knows ‘Fake News’ Claims Are Untrue
Margaret Sullivan: It’s as simple as this: Trump doesn’t believe that the news about him is fake. No matter how many times he says it. He merely objects to the fact that it doesn’t reflect well on him. But negative doesn’t mean untrue. It doesn’t even mean unfair. And at his core, Trump knows this.
New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger asked the president to curb his anti-press rhetoric. Trump replied with a request for “a great story, just one” from The Times.
In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.
After raising $6 million, the start-up NewsGuard, co-founded by Steve Brill, has signed Microsoft as its first major client. The main goal: to combat the spread of false stories on the internet.
DMA 36: MILWAUKEE
WISN Reporter Addresses Fake News In Goodbye Memo
The madness of the 1968 Democratic National Convention pushed conservatives’ distrust of ‘the establishment’ into overdrive.
In an email from the Republican National Committee over her name and picture, the First Lady says that Democrats and the “opposition media” are trying to discredit her husband with “fake accusations,” spreading their “fake news” and making it seem that he does not have voter support.
The Newseum in Washington DC, a monument to journalism and the First Amendment, has removed from its gift shop shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Fake News,” saying stocking the items was a “mistake.”
On Sunday, the president reiterated his claim that “fake news” outlets are “the enemy of the people” and called journalists “very dangerous and sick” in some of his most inflammatory comments about the press.
It said Monday it will make “authoritative” news sources more prominent, especially in the wake of breaking news events when misinformation can spread quickly. The goal is to counter the fake videos that can proliferate immediately after shootings, natural disasters and other major happenings.
COMMENTARY BY MARGARET SULLIVAN
‘Fake News’ Has Lost Meaning. Is Truth Next?
President Trump started a trend: calling unfavorable news coverage fake. Foreign leaders — especially dictators and authoritarian regimes — have followed suit.
It should come as no surprise — although it is quite disturbing — that a new poll finds 77% of Americans believe responsible journalists report “fake news” at least occasionally. Thirty-one percent believe we report “fake news” regularly.
Twitter bots are not to blame — people seem to respond more strongly to false information.
Facebook will expand its “breaking news” label that’s being tested in the U.S. to more than 50 additional publishers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Australia. If the expansion is successful, Facebook says it may add more publishers.
Media entrepreneur Steven Brill thinks there’s something missing from all the efforts to separate fake news from the real kind: Some smart and discerning humans. Faced with the waves of mis- and disinformation lapping up on social media, Brill is proposing to apply some reader-beware labels to Internet news sources. His idea: ratings, as determined by teams of independent journalists, that would enable readers to understand where their news — or “news” — is coming from.
Eliminating conspiracy videos in the wake of the Parkland shooting is like a game of content moderation whack-a-mole.
COMMENTARY BY TOM WHEELER
A Suggestion On How To Monitor Fake News
The government should require social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to use an open application programming interface. This would make it possible for third parties to build software to monitor and report on the effects of social media algorithms. To be clear, the proposal is not to force companies to open up their algorithms — just the results of the algorithms.
