Infodemia: ways to recognize and counter information influences during a pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetiana Hnida ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Psychological Service ◽  
News Literacy ◽  
Heads Of State ◽  
Media Responsibility ◽  
Social Pedagogues

Since the beginning of the pandemic, humanity has faced an additional threat, namely the spread of unnecessary, unreliable and harmful information, which is called infodemia. It has become one of the greatest challenges of our time therefore the heads of state, world organizations and owners of social media have stepped up to fight it. In our opinion, pedagogical workers, in particular employees of the psychological service of the education system, should join the educational and preventive work. Every user of social networks becomes a newsmaker with only an account and access to the Internet. And because students are active users of social media, the share of their participation in the dissemination and creation of false information is significant. This publication proposes a system of starting practical psychologists and social educators of educational institutions in the relevant refresher courses, which will allow them to conduct quality practical work with students and their parents. The content of training should take into account the components of the nutrient medium for information viruses, the fight against pandemic fakes, the system of forming sensational news, the features of hate speech, the formation of news literacy and others. It is also necessary to train specialists, and later each student, to recognize false, partially reliable and manipulative information. Since the main spreader of information viruses is humans, training should apply to everyone. Keywords. Infodemia, pandemic, information viruses, fake news, fake account, stress, fear, panic, manipulation, isolation, social media, marking information, factcheking, media education, course for practice psychologists and social pedagogues, practice lessons with students, information immunity, clickbait, discrimination, newsmaker, critical thinking, protection from hidden influences, media responsibility, media culture

Tweeting Grenfell: Discourse and networks in critical constructions of British Muslim social boundaries on social media

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Downing ◽  
Richard Dron
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Fake News ◽  
International Space ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Methodological Approaches

The Grenfell fire has yet to be analysed to understand the event’s implications in relation to construction of social boundaries for British Muslims. In this current research, two methodological approaches are applied to gain understandings of social boundary construction on twitter: thematic analysis of the content of tweets and social network analysis (SNA) of how messages are diffused and contested. Twitter is shown to be an important platform in spreading positive narratives about Muslims during the fire, enabling individuals to spontaneously contest fake news and hate narratives. Social media acts counter to established knowledge, demonstrating that it is not, per se, a conduit for fake news and hate speech. Furthermore, it demonstrates how twitter offers Muslims an international space to voice and articulate themselves where they can be influential in debates that effect Muslim diasporas in other national contexts.

Poland

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gorwa
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Social Media Marketing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Marketing Firms ◽  
Digital Politics

This chapter provides the first overview of political bots, fake accounts, and other false amplifiers in Poland. Based on extensive interviews with political campaign managers, journalists, activists, employees of social media marketing firms, and civil society groups, the chapter outlines the emergence of Polish digital politics, covering the energetic and hyper-partisan “troll wars,” the interaction of hate speech with modern platform algorithms, and the recent effects of “fake news” and various sources of apparent Russian disinformation. The chapter then explores the production and management of artificial identities on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks—an industry confirmed to be active in Poland—and assesses how they can be deployed for both political and commercial purposes. Overall, the chapter provides evidence for a rich array of digital tools that are increasingly being used by various actors to exert influence over Polish politics and public life.

scholarly journals A review of the fake news ecosystem in India and the need for the News Literacy project

2019 ◽  
pp. 23-29
Author(s):  
Kanchan Kaur
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Corporate Ownership ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
News Literacy ◽  
The Right

In India, in the last year alone, over 30 people have died due to child kidnapping rumors spread on social media, specifically WhatsApp. India’s access to the internet shot up in the recent years with the entry of Reliance Jio which made data plans affordable and therefore accessible. WhatsApp has been the most frequently downloaded application. As the country gears up for an important election, the spread of disinformation has accelerated. The right-wing ruling party has claimed that it has over 3 million people in its WhatsApp groups. A recent study by BBC has shown that in the country, most of the disinformation has been spread by the right wing. Call it propaganda, disinformation or plain fake news, false or wrong information has become a part of the political process in India. Moreover, the Indian media no longer seem to be standing up to the government; in the last few years, it has generally toed the government line. The reasons are many, including corporate ownership, regressive laws, and a complete bypass of the media by the powers. The Prime Minister has spoken only to a few selected media houses and has never been asked any tough questions in his five-year tenure. Furthermore, the media has been completely sidelined by this government by it going to the public, directly through social media. All of this has produced a very turgid and messy information situation. With the government also interfering in education, it has become all the more difficult for most educators to introduce critical thinking courses in the country, even though various efforts have been made by Google News Initiative, Facebook and BBC Schools to introduce tools to debunk false information.

The role of Ulama (Islamic religious leaders) in countering anti-vaccination rhetoric in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Nurlaela Arief ◽  
Siti Karlinah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Media Monitoring

Abstract Indonesia has been facing a serious threat from fake news and hate speech which is wildly disseminated through social media. As the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, health issues and their link to religion are one of the most discussed topics on social media in this country. The aim of this study is to introduce a strategy to counterbalance fake news on vaccine issues. This research employed a mixed-method approach that used content of analysis data obtained from social media monitoring. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants from various sectors related to vaccine issues. Monitoring of six female Facebook users in anti-vaccine groups revealed that the top five topics discussed in Indonesia were halal certification, conspiracy, adverse effects, adjuvants, and vaccine substitution. This research recommends a communication strategy to counterbalance fake news on the vaccine, employing both medical professionals and trusted, influential members of the religious community to educate the public. They should have a strong background in medical issues and understand Islamic perspectives. The involvement of Ulama (Islamic religious leaders) is important and needed to explain that vaccines do not violate religious law.

Alternative truths and delegitimization pragmatic strategies around the 2018 Italian elections

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-320
Author(s):  
Benedetta Baldi ◽  
Ludovico Franco ◽  
Leonardo M. Savoia
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Communicative Context ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies ◽  
Alternative Reading ◽  
Rhetorical Tools

Abstract In this paper we aim at analysing, from a pragmatic viewpoint, the rhetoric of delegitimization of the opponent in new media insofar as it triggers individual, uncontrolled and deep-rooted forms of communications. The communicative context is that of the political controversies and the propaganda around the Italian elections of March 2018. Accusations of fake news, hate speech and other delegitimizing rhetorical tools occur within the messages distributed on social media by politicians. We are specifically interested in illustrating and examining the disposition/standpoint of public social actors, of politicians in particular, toward the (delegitimizing) effects of the spreading of foul language, hate speech and fake news as instruments for re-shaping reality and introducing an alternative reading of facts.

scholarly journals LITERASI DIGITAL SEBAGAI UPAYA MENANGKAL HOAKS DI ERA DISRUPSI

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Naimatus Tsaniyah ◽  
Kannisa Ayu Juliana
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Very High

One of the big problems facing this nation is the spread of hoaxes or fake news. This was triggered partly because of the strengthening of the post truth phenomenon and the ease of disseminating information through social media and conversation applications such as WhatsApp. This study intends to describe the use of digital literacy to counteract hoaxes in the era of disruption. This era was marked by information flooding, rapid and deep-seated changes, and the use of very high internet-based technology. The literature review is used as this research method. The conclusion of this study is that hoaxes can be resisted by developing massive digital literacy skills. Digital literacy skills include eight essential elements: cultural (understanding context), cognitive (expanding mind), constructive (creating positive things), communicative (capable of communicating and networking), confident (confident and responsible), creative (doing new things), critical (critically addressing content), civic (supporting the realization of civil society). The development and strengthening of digital literacy can be done especially in schools, campuses, and other educational institutions.

scholarly journals Trends in the Regulation of Hate Speech and Fake News: A Threat to Free Speech?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 140
Author(s):  
Suleiman Usman Santuraki
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Success Story ◽  
International Crisis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Ict Revolution ◽  
Legal Consequences

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution heralding the emergence and dominance of social media has always been viewed as a turning point in free speech and communication. Indeed, the social media ordinarily represents the freedom of all people to speech and information. But then, there is also the side of the social media that has been often ignored; that it serves as platform for all and sundry to express themselves with little, if any regulation or legal consequences. This as a result has led to global explosion of hate speech and fake news. Hate speech normally lead to tension and holds in it, the potential for national or even international crisis of untold proportions. It also has the likelihood to scare people away from expressing themselves for fear of hate-filled responses and becoming a source of fake news. Using doctrinal as well as comparative methodologies, this paper appraises the trend between states of passing laws or proposing laws to regulate hate speech and fake news; it also appraises the contents of such laws from different countries with the aim of identifying how they may be used to suppress free speech under the guise of regulating hate speech and fake news. It argues that the alarming trend of hate speech and fake news presented an opportunity for leaders across the globe to curb free speech. The paper concludes that the advancement in ICT helped in a great deal to advance free speech; it may as well, because of the spread of hate speech and fake news, lead to a reverse of that success story.

scholarly journals A Fine-Tuned BERT-Based Transfer Learning Approach for Text Classification

2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Rukhma Qasim ◽  
Waqas Haider Bangyal ◽  
Mohammed A. Alqarni ◽  
Abdulwahab Ali Almazroi
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Text Classification ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Classification Problem ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Targeted Marketing

Text Classification problem has been thoroughly studied in information retrieval problems and data mining tasks. It is beneficial in multiple tasks including medical diagnose health and care department, targeted marketing, entertainment industry, and group filtering processes. A recent innovation in both data mining and natural language processing gained the attention of researchers from all over the world to develop automated systems for text classification. NLP allows categorizing documents containing different texts. A huge amount of data is generated on social media sites through social media users. Three datasets have been used for experimental purposes including the COVID-19 fake news dataset, COVID-19 English tweet dataset, and extremist-non-extremist dataset which contain news blogs, posts, and tweets related to coronavirus and hate speech. Transfer learning approaches do not experiment on COVID-19 fake news and extremist-non-extremist datasets. Therefore, the proposed work applied transfer learning classification models on both these datasets to check the performance of transfer learning models. Models are trained and evaluated on the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Heat maps are also generated for every model. In the end, future directions are proposed.

scholarly journals Journalism Students and Information Consumption in the Era of Fake News

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 338-350
Author(s):  
Santiago Tejedor ◽  
Marta Portalés-Oliva ◽  
Ricardo Carniel-Bugs ◽  
Laura Cervi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
High Quality Information ◽  
Journalism Students ◽  
Multimedia Journalism ◽  
News Literacy ◽  
Technological Platforms

Technological platforms, such as social media, are disrupting traditional journalism, as a result the access to high-quality information by citizens is facing important challenges, among which, disinformation and the spread of fake news are the most relevant one. This study approaches how journalism students perceive and assess this phenomenon. The descriptive and exploratory research is based on a hybrid methodology: Two matrix surveys of students and a focus group of professors (n = 6), experts in Multimedia Journalism. The first survey (n = 252), focused on students’ perception of fake news, the second (n = 300) aims at finding out the type of content they had received during the recent confinement caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Results show that most of the students prefer online media as a primary source of information instead of social media. Students consider that politics is the main topic of fake news, which, according to the respondents, are mainly distributed by adult users through social networks. The vast majority believe that fake news are created for political interests and a quarter of the sample considers that there is a strong ideological component behind disinformation strategies. Nonetheless, the study also reveals that students do not trust in their ability to distinguish between truthful and false information. For this reason, this research concludes, among other aspects, that the promotion of initiatives and research to promote media literacy and news literacy are decisive in the training of university students.

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