Fake News: How to Spot It and How to Avoid It, 0520 COBJ, Vol. 49, No. 5 Pg. 10
| Author | BY MADELINE COHEN |
| Position | Vol. 49, 5 [Page 10] |
DEPARTMENT LEGAL RESEARCH CORNER
BY MADELINE COHEN
A lie can travel half-way around the world before the truth gets its boots on." This quote is said to be attributed to Mark Twain, although there's no written or oral record of that fact. The quote and its potentially false attribution are a reminder that news travels fast (and can easily go viral) but is not always accurate. We are a society of information consumers, now more than ever. However, information overload can make it more difficult to make decisions and to differentiate the real from the fake. This is also true for the consumption of news.
In the past, when most people relied on print newspapers for their news, the expectation was that a reader would get the news from the day before. Now, the expectation is instant delivery of the news through online newspapers, news oudets, and social media sites. This goes hand-in-hand with the reader's desire to reinforce his or her existing beliefs and disregard those that are contradictory.
Digital news consumption is high, especially among millennials, who rely heavily on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for their news.1 According to a Pew Research survey, 68% of adults report getting at least some of their news from social media.2However, 57% assume that the news they receive will be "largely inaccurate."3Inaccurate news is not just an inconvenience but can also damage organizations that rely on it. In a law firm environment, reliance on bad data or false facts can lead to the loss of a client, a case, or a good reputation.
What is Fake News?
Fake news is essentially the dissemination of news stories that are not true, either because they are fabricated or because they are not verifiably accurate.4 Upon closer examination, fake news is not just false stories, but belongs to a larger universe of misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is usually created by accident, with no intent to deceive. Conversely, disinformation is created to intentionally deceive, mislead, or force allegiance to a particular agenda or cause. Both misinformation and disinformation obscure the truth and can be easily shared and spread thanks to social media networks.5
According to Claire Wardle of FirstDraffNews. com, there are seven types of misinformation and disinformation: fabricated content, imposter content, misleading content, manipulated content, false context, false connection, and satire or parody.6 Fabricated content is totally false and intended to do harm through deception. Imposter content makes readers believe that it is from a verifiable or credible source, but it is not. Imposter content is often in video form because it's easy to splice together snippets of truthful videos to create something false. Misleading and manipulated content take credible content and change it to deliberately deceive and mislead. Once upon a time, it might have been known as false advertising. False context forces readers to take credible information out of context so that the details become unclear. False connection is what drives "clickbait" on websites because it plays on readers' curiosity. Finally, content that is satirical or a parody is meant to be humorous but can easily be misinterpreted as serious. There is often no good way to verify the content of a satirical news site, making it difficult to tell if a story is real or fake.[7]
How Did We Get Here?
The creation and existence of fake news is certainly a problem, but that problem grows exponentially when readers share news or information that is false or misleading. What motivates people to share news or information, both fake and real? According to Jeff Sonderman, digital media fellow at the Poynter Institute, there are five primary motivations for sharing content:
■ altruism—bringing valuable and entertaining content to others;
■ self-definition—sharing to define ourselves to others;
■ empathy—sharing to strengthen our relationships;
■ connectedness—sharing to get credit for being a good sharer; and
■ evangelism—sharing to spread information about something we believe in.8
In a society of sharers, how do we keep from being part of the proliferation of fake news? We need to slow down the intake of information and give concentrated thought to whether the information we are receiving is true, false, or somewhere in between. According to The Verge, a multimedia project started in...
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