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The conversation surrounding misinformation, fake news, and fact-checking is constantly evolving. As changing technology changes the way we take in information, new cultural and ethical considerations arise. Here is a collection of recent readings, podcasts, and other media we’ve highlighted from around the web that address the latest issues in fact-checking.
What We’re Reading:
- From Fast Company: Want to solve the misinformation crisis? We already have a proven solution at our fingertips
Media scholars are skeptical of both the government and tech companies' abilities to regulate misinformation. Where to turn? This writer finds a surprising model in Wikipedia, whose fact-checking system is more reliable than we thought.
- From Marketwatch: Weary of #fakenews, more Americans are getting their COVID-related news from peer reviewed medical journals
Article views from major medical journals went up 557% in 2020. Researchers report that the readership for COVID-19 related articles was unprecedented.
- From Cognition: Controlling the narrative: Euphemistic language affects judgments of actions while avoiding perceptions of dishonesty
A new linguistic study examines how agreeable vs. disagreeable terms impact the way an audience evaluates and reacts to information. Examples of terms include “meat processing plant” vs. “slaughterhouse” and “revitalization” vs. “gentrification.”
Researchers are investigating the impact of America’s “infodemic” on Canadian social media users.
The BBC fact-checks the new Netflix documentary, “Seaspiracy” and finds numerous instances of misinformation about the fishing industry.
What We’re Listening To:
- From Deeply Human: Lying
Reporter Dessa Darling describes how lying is a developmental milestone for toddlers, how small fibs can desensitize us to more consequential lies, and why we shouldn’t consider honesty to be a character trait.
- From WNYC: Needed: A New Way to Cover Mass Shootings
An editor from the Columbia Journalism Review discusses distributing a satirical paper that shows a fill-in-the-blank template of a front-page story that features details from a selection of mass shootings. Each story is identical except for the victim's names and locations.
