
How I Detect Fake News - chang2301
https://medium.com/@timoreilly/how-i-detect-fake-news-ebe455d9d4a7#.h8w5ta6rz
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codingdave
I find it odd that people are talking about algorithms to identify and respond
to fake news, instead of simply pushing for more education and critical
thought at an individual level.

In the example detailed in the article, I would think people would never even
get past the headline -- a heat map for crime waves would have variances at
the level of neighborhoods in large cities, and otherwise would look similar
to a population heat map. The maps clearly show county data just based on the
borders, not even getting into the placement of colors (seriously, northern
minnesota is a hot spot for crime?), so a cursory level of critical thought
applied to the headline should have caused people to reject it.

Encouraging people to just stop and think about the content they consume
should be the first step.

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vanderZwan
> _I find it odd that people are talking about algorithms to identify and
> respond to fake news, instead of simply pushing for more education and
> critical thought at an individual level._

While people should be critical, the situation we're dealing with is analogous
to megaphones becoming too cheap and a large group of people deciding to troll
the rest of the world. Telling everyone to use earplugs in general, and find
quiet rooms to have conversations with a small selection of saner people is
not the right solution here.

Besides, no problem was ever solved by saying "people should just be better"

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codingdave
Media has existed for a long time. Newspapers have put out bad news for a long
time. Politicians have been trolling us via TV for a long time. And some
people have fell for it over the years, but less so than today. It isn't the
volume of the content that matters, but how the audience receives it. So yes,
helping the audience to receive it better does make a difference, because that
personal filter on consumption of media is exactly what is missing.

I'm not claiming that just saying it on a discussion online suffices to make a
difference. You need to actually act in real life. I do so by talking about
what is going on in the media with my wife and kids, and encouraging them to
do the same with their friends. It might be small, but it is something. And
enough people making small changes DO solve problems.

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bobjordan
This is solid and helpful. Still yet, these days on Facebook it's hard to even
discern the real news from the obvious fakes, even after including these tips.
For example, yesterday came upon a picture of Tila Tequila doing a Sieg Heil
salute in a small crowd of otherwise well-dressed upscale looking types. I did
not recognize the source. So I thought a second - do I really need to spend
the time to figure out what the heck is going on in this picture? Frankly, I
encourage one of you enterprising programmers to make us a chrome or firefox
add-in that acts as a rating system that overlays "probability of fake" on
stories that look like they may be news.

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ZeroGravitas
I remember first becoming aware of "urban legends" maybe a couple of decades
ago. One of the interesting things about them, is that they give you some
insight into what people are scared of. They evolve and thrive over time by
hitting people's emotions in just the right way.

So the message I pick up from this "fake news" is the very real message that
some conservative view Democrat voters as criminals (based on them being non-
white?) Enough so that a fairly thin rumour alleging the same can go viral.

I'd be interested in a news article that farmed these things and reported back
what people are believing on Facebook.

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neom
Of course, this requires you to actually want to detect fake news.

