The great thing about the Internet is that everyone who can access a computer can have access and exercise the right of free speech.
The worst thing about the Internet is that everyone who can access a computer can have access and exercise the right of free speech.
Everyone who teaches knows the pitfalls of Google: students doing research will grab the first ten hits and those will be their research sources.
Worse yet, the ignorant and the malicious are equally able to initiate and propagate false news.
Now a professor, who was himself victimized, has started a website intended to identify and deflate phony news, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Hoaxy is the brainchild of Filippo Menczer of Indiana University, who uses key words to help users track how fake news stories spread across the social networks.
I tried it out with "New Air Force One will cost four billion." I selected "Recent" over "Relevant" and got a long list of stories, most of them --- though not all --- on point. The most recent story was dated December 8th: "Donald Trump Says He Will Personally Negotiate Price of Air Force One Price with Boeing." I was told there are 37 Tweets and 209 Facebook posts... not a lot, really. A related December 5th story, by contrast, boasted nearly 3,000 Facebook posts. Neither was at the top of the list, which was dominated by a a September story, "How the US Became ISIS's Air Force," which seems to miss the mark.
So maybe there's room for improvement?
Anyway, I'm not entirely sure how helpful Hoaxy will be. Will it really help identify false news stories? And if, so will use it. Probably not our students... but it's a start.
No comments:
Post a Comment