Items
topic_interest is exactly
fake news
-
2022-06-09
Sharing source-backed information can help reduce COVID-19 misinformation online
This is a news story from Penn State University by Jessica Hallman. A recent study has shown that user corrections given back and forth on social media has helped reduce the spread of misinformation. Through sharing source-backed information, people were able to pick out fake news easier. -
2021-06-25
Pandata falsehoods putting children at risk
The attached link is to an anti-covid vaxx website, specifically about not vaccinating children. The first thing you see is a list of 10 reasons not to vaccinate children, followed by a video. The main message is vaccines for children are not safe. (Which I would personally like to point out is false.) They are pushing the idea that vaccines are coercive and dangerous. The video is titled “What about the kids?”, and the page it’s listed on is titled “All Risk Zero Benefit.” First, we can look at the title of both of these to see tactics of persuasion. “What about the kids?” Exactly, what about them? This creates an emotional appeal to listen to the message, surely everyone would care about kids, and surely you want the best for them? “All Risk Zero Benefit”, a short title, to the point, definitive word choice. There is no room for argument with “zero benefit”. The video itself flashes between different news outlets and interviews with ‘experts’, Doctors. There is the continued tactic of “The other doctors don’t want you to know this”, or “The government is trying to control you”. This is truly stupid and disgusting. If you watch the video, all the clips are from either Fox ‘news’, The Epoch Times, or from something called Brees Media. Fox and Epoch are both conservative right-wing outlets. I looked into Brees Media, as I hadn’t heard of it before. It is a former BBC employee who now created a company that teaches people how to create media content. She (Anna Brees, the owner) has several tweets and Instagram posts that push this anti-vaxx mentality. People tend to trust BBC, at least more so than other news sources, so by continuing to use the Ex-BBC in her bios on everything it begins to create a buy-in for people. -
2021-02-19
Absurdist (pandemic) humor
Sometimes I feel as though the people grifting off of the pandemic and people willingly sharing misleading information for political reasons just do not care about the harm being caused. It is also strange because many people seem to enjoy, like Squidward here, being a bearer of “fake news”. -
2021-06-05
Someone else on the internet told me different!
This is what I imagine people doing when they turn off NPR’s latest COVID vaccines update before heading to the feed store to buy Ivermectin for COVID treatment. -
2021-08-11
If it isn't one thing its another
I have never realized how different my friends on social media are. Growing up in Los Angeles I have many friends who are all politically and socially like-minded. My husband joined the military and then my social media was flooded with the opposite from my "liberal" friends. The differences of opinions never bothered me and hardly ever showed themselves until Trump became president. It's funny how Trump ignited a flame in so many people. Today with politics fueling everything I still see that clear distinction between my friend groups. The saddest part about the pandemic is seeing how science has been "canceled" and political views have somehow replaced common sense. Because so many Democrats are urging people to get vaccinated it seems like Republicans must refuse. I see posts like the one pictured all the time. There's always a reason to refuse common sense. First, it was because COVID wasn't real, then it was because their right to contract covid was being infringed on. I heard some say robots were being implanted, that the government was running experiments on willing democrats. When the death rate continued to rise, they said the numbers were made up. Today it seems like most covid deniers are claiming that if COVID was real essential workers would not be required to be protected against it. I will never understand their reasoning. -
2021-01-28
Fake News
This is a poem about how it's hard to know where your news is coming from, and what to believe. -
2020-12-13
HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 85
Fake news from 50 former U.S. intel officers;