Spiritualism and the Resurgence of Fake News

2020 ◽  
pp. 222-237
Author(s):  
Kristy A. Hesketh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The World ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
False News

This chapter explores the Spiritualist movement and its rapid growth due to the formation of mass media and compares these events with the current rise of fake news in the mass media. The technology of cheaper publications created a media platform that featured stories about Spiritualist mediums and communications with the spirit world. These articles were published in newspapers next to regular news creating a blurred line between real and hoax news stories. Laws were later created to address instances of fraud that occurred in the medium industry. Today, social media platforms provide a similar vessel for the spread of fake news. Online fake news is published alongside legitimate news reports leaving readers unable to differentiate between real and fake articles. Around the world countries are actioning initiatives to address the proliferation of false news to prevent the spread of misinformation. This chapter compares the parallels between these events, how hoaxes and fake news begin and spread, and examines the measures governments are taking to curb the growth of misinformation.

scholarly journals Intentional or inadvertent fake news sharing? Fact-checking warnings and users’ interaction with social media content

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu ◽  
Patricia Delponti ◽  
Carmen Rodríguez-Wangüemert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
False News ◽  
News Sharing

The main social media platforms have been implementing strategies to minimize fake news dissemination. These include identifying, labeling, and penalizing –via news feed ranking algorithms– fake publications. Part of the rationale behind this approach is that the negative effects of fake content arise only when social media users are deceived. Once debunked, fake posts and news stories should therefore become harmless. Unfortunately, the literature shows that the effects of misinformation are more complex and tend to persist and even backfire after correction. Furthermore, we still do not know much about how social media users evaluate content that has been fact-checked and flagged as false. More worryingly, previous findings suggest that some people may intentionally share made up news on social media, although their motivations are not fully explained. To better understand users’ interaction with social media content identified or recognized as false, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data from five focus groups and a sub-national online survey (N = 350). Findings suggest that the label of ‘false news’ plays a role –although not necessarily central– in social media users’ evaluation of the content and their decision (not) to share it. Some participants showed distrust in fact-checkers and lack of knowledge about the fact-checking process. We also found that fake news sharing is a two-dimensional phenomenon that includes intentional and unintentional behaviors. We discuss some of the reasons why some of social media users may choose to distribute fake news content intentionally.

scholarly journals Level of Acceptance of News Stories on Social Media Platforms Among Youth in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-225
Author(s):  
Festus Prosper Olise ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
States Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
And Gender

This study investigates the level of acceptance of news stories on social media platforms among youth in Nigeria following the assumption that the proliferation of news stories on social media promotes the circulation of both factual and fake news. The sample consisted of 600 youth; however, 583 validly participated in the study. The participants were equitably selected in six States in Nigeria that represented the six geo-political zones of the country. The multi-stage sampling technique was employed to evenly select the youth from the major cities/towns in the States. Data generated were analysed and presented through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 20 software. Results show that the youth accepted entertainment news stories more than any other type of news stories on social media platforms. The majority of the youth considered Twitter as the most acceptable social media platform for receiving news stories in Nigeria. Findings also revealed that despite their love to read news stories on social media platforms, the youth’s level of acceptance of it was low. Furthermore, the age and gender of the youth were found to directly influence their level of acceptance of news stories on social media platforms. The study concluded that the multi-dimensional inter-play that characterised the low level of acceptance of news stories on social media platforms among the youth in Nigeria does not portend ominous signs. Keywords: Acceptance, mainstream media, news stories, social media platforms, youth.

Platform Politics: The Emergence of Alternative Social Media in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Prashanth Bhat
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Bharatiya Janata Party ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Widespread Dissemination

Widespread dissemination of hate speech on corporate social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube has necessitated technological companies to moderate content on their platforms. At the receiving end of these content moderation efforts are supporters of right-wing populist parties, who have gained notoriety for harassing journalists, spreading disinformation, and vilifying liberal activists. In recent months, several prominent right-wing figures across the world were removed from social media - a phenomenon also known as ‘deplatforming’- for violating platform policies. Prominent among such right-wing groups are online supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, who have begun accusing corporate social media of pursuing a ‘liberal agenda’ and ‘curtailing free speech.’ In response to deplatforming, the BJP-led Government of India has aggressively promoted and embraced Koo, an indigenously developed social media platform. This commentary examines the implications of this alternative social platform for the online communicative environment in the Indian public sphere.

scholarly journals Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316801984855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hunt Allcott ◽  
Matthew Gentzkow ◽  
Chuan Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Relative Magnitude ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Fake News ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Websites ◽  
Social Media Platforms

In recent years, there has been widespread concern that misinformation on social media is damaging societies and democratic institutions. In response, social media platforms have announced actions to limit the spread of false content. We measure trends in the diffusion of content from 569 fake news websites and 9540 fake news stories on Facebook and Twitter between January 2015 and July 2018. User interactions with false content rose steadily on both Facebook and Twitter through the end of 2016. Since then, however, interactions with false content have fallen sharply on Facebook while continuing to rise on Twitter, with the ratio of Facebook engagements to Twitter shares decreasing by 60%. In comparison, interactions with other news, business, or culture sites have followed similar trends on both platforms. Our results suggest that the relative magnitude of the misinformation problem on Facebook has declined since its peak.

scholarly journals The battle to end fake news: A qualitative content analysis of Facebook announcements on how it combats disinformation

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petros Iosifidis ◽  
Nicholas Nicoli
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Culture Media ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms

The recent spread of online disinformation has been profound and has played a central role in the growth of populist sentiments around the world. Facilitating its progression has been politically and economically motivated culprits who have ostensibly taken advantage of the digital freedoms available to them. At the heart of these freedoms lie social media organisations that only a few years earlier techno-optimists were identifying as catalysts of an enhanced digital democracy. In order to curtail the erosion of information, policy reform will no doubt be essential. The UK's Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Disinformation and ‘fake news’ Report and Cairncross Review, and the European Commission's Report on Disinformation are three recent examples seeking to investigate how precisely such reform policy might be implemented. Just as important is how social media organisations take on more responsibility and apply self-regulating mechanisms that stifle disinformation across their platforms (something the aforementioned reports identify). Doing so will go a long way in restoring legitimacy in these significant institutions. Facebook (which includes Instagram and Whatsapp), is the largest social media organisation in the world and must primarily bear the burden of this responsibility. The purpose of this article is to offer a descriptive account of Facebook's public announcements regarding how it tackles disinformation and fake news. Based on a qualitative content analysis covering the period November 16th 2016–March 4th 2019, this article will set out some groundwork on how to hold social media platforms more accountable for how they handle disinformation.

scholarly journals The State of Social Media in Canada 2017

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoliy Gruzd ◽  
Jenna Jacobson ◽  
Philip Mai ◽  
Elizabeth Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
P 16 ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Media Platform

Today, billions of people around the world are turning to social media to socialize, conduct business, keep up with the news, as well as discover, discuss, and share information. The significance of this global adoption of a relatively new communication and information technology cannot be overlooked. As a country, Canada has one of the most connected populations in the world. For many Canadians, social media is now a part of their daily routine. Our survey results show that an overwhelming majority of online Canadian adults (94%) have an account on at least one social media platform. This makes it critical for policy makers, researchers, and others to have a better grasp of what social media platforms Canadians are using to connect and converse with one another. This report provides a snapshot of the social media usage trends and patterns amongst online Canadian adults based on an online survey of 1,500 participants (see Methods on p. 16 for more details).

#Cleftlip/Palate: What Is the World Talking About?

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 1093-1099
Author(s):  
Alexandra S. Hudson ◽  
Alexander D. Morzycki ◽  
Regan Guilfoyle
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Cleft Lip And Palate ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Cleft Lip Palate ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Published Research

Objective: Studies have begun analyzing how the world converses on social media platforms about medical/surgical topics. This study’s objective was to examine how cleft lip and palate, two of the most common birth defects in the world, are discussed on the social media platform Twitter. No study to date has analyzed this topic. Methods: Tweets were identified using any of the following: cleft, cleft lip, cleft palate, #cleft, #cleftlip, #cleftpalate. Eight months between 2017 and 2018 were analyzed. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was the tweet subject matter. Secondary outcomes were author characteristics, tweet engagement, multimedia, and tweet accuracy Results: A total of 1222 tweets were included. #Cleft was the most common hashtag (71%), and it was significantly associated with more retweets ( P = .03). Twenty-seven countries tweeted, with the United States (34%) and India (27%) producing the most. Charities (36%), hospitals (14%), and physicians (13%) were the most common authors. Over three-quarters of tweets were self-promotional. The top content included charity information (22%) and patients’ cleft stories (14%). Tweets about patient safety/care and surgical service trips generated the most engagement. The accuracy of educational tweets was 38% low accuracy and 1% inaccurate. One hundred forty-nine tweets (12%) discussed a published research article, but 41 tweets did not share a link. Conclusions: Charities dominate the cleft lip/palate “Twitterverse.” Most tweets were self-promotional, and over a third of educational tweets were low accuracy. As the cleft social media community continues to grow, we recommend using the hashtag #cleft to reach a wider audience.

Fake or real news? Understanding the gratifications and personality traits of individuals sharing fake news on social media platforms

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brinda Sampat ◽  
Sahil Raj
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
News Sharing

Purpose“Fake news” or misinformation sharing using social media sites into public discourse or politics has increased dramatically, over the last few years, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic causing concern. However, this phenomenon is inadequately researched. This study examines fake news sharing with the lens of stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, uses and gratification theory (UGT) and big five personality traits (BFPT) theory to understand the motivations for sharing fake news and the personality traits that do so. The stimuli in the model comprise gratifications (pass time, entertainment, socialization, information sharing and information seeking) and personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness and neuroticism). The feeling of authenticating or instantly sharing news is the organism leading to sharing fake news, which forms the response in the study.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual model was tested by the data collected from a sample of 221 social media users in India. The data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling to determine the effects of UGT and personality traits on fake news sharing. The moderating role of the platform WhatsApp or Facebook was studied.Findings The results suggest that pass time, information sharing and socialization gratifications lead to instant sharing news on social media platforms. Individuals who exhibit extraversion, neuroticism and openness share news on social media platforms instantly. In contrast, agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits lead to authentication news before sharing on the social media platform.Originality/value This study contributes to social media literature by identifying the user gratifications and personality traits that lead to sharing fake news on social media platforms. Furthermore, the study also sheds light on the moderating influence of the choice of the social media platform for fake news sharing.

scholarly journals The Negative Impact of Social Media during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-507
Author(s):  
Astha Kumari
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
World Information

It has been observed that social media platforms have had both a positive and negative effect on how India has dealt with the COVID 19 pandemic. As the coronavirus took over the world, many took to social media to learn about how the virus spreads and what it is. Although this helped inform everyone on how to take precautions against this deadly virus, a lot of the information that users were reading was not verified or fact-checked and labeled as "fake news". In the modern world, information is spread very quickly through a variety of social media platforms. Because of this, there was widespread panic even before the COVID-19 virus had even reached India. Many citizens bought an excessive surplus of supplies such as masks, hand sanitizers, and food, which ultimately led to a shortage of these supplies for the 1.3 billion people in this country. The shortage of supplies along with the lockdown process which severely impacted the economy has led to an increase in price to the majority of essential products such as food, hand sanitizers, masks, etc. The most affected were the average day workers. Social media has caused widespread panic and hogging of essential supplies along with false facts of the virus itself, however, there are some things that we have benefited from due to social media. For example, social media has shown us the importance of social distancing and activities that we can do to keep our mental health in check while under lockdown. In short, I believe social media should be regulated and kept under watch by the government in certain aspects when it comes to spreading information about pandemics like covid19. If regulated properly we can avoid mass panic and anarchy and will be able to survive this pandemic as one.

scholarly journals Combating Fake News, Misinformation, and Machine Learning Generated Fakes: Insight's from the Islamic Ethical Tradition

ICR Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-212
Author(s):  
Talat Zubair ◽  
Amana Raquib ◽  
Junaid Qadir
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Islamic Ethics ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Filter Bubbles

The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide Web has impacted individuals as well as societies, spreading misinformation and disinformation. This trend—along with rapid developments in the field of machine learning, particularly with the emergence of techniques such as deep learning that can be used to generate data—has grave political, social, ethical, security, and privacy implications for society. This paper discusses the technologies that have led to the rise of problems such as fake news articles, filter bubbles, social media bots, and deep-fake videos, and their implications, while providing insights from the Islamic ethical tradition that can aid in mitigating them. We view these technologies and artifacts through the Islamic lens, concluding that they violate the commandment of spreading truth and countering falsehood. We present a set of guidelines, with reference to Qur‘anic and Prophetic teachings and the practices of the early Muslim scholars, on countering deception, putting forward ideas on developing these technologies while keeping Islamic ethics in perspective.

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