Table of Contents |
In the 21st century we have better access to information than any time in human history, but “the information superhighway” that was promised in the 1990s soon proved to be an enormous traffic jam. Unfortunately, misinformation travels just as fast or faster than information.
"“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.”
-Jonathan Swift in The Examiner No. 14"
Among the most dangerous forms of misinformation is “fake news.” We will define fake news as fabricated news stories with no foundation in fact. This is distinct from mistakes in reporting, where the reporter tried and failed to report the facts accurately. “Fake news” suggests an intentional fabrication, either as parody, or as an intention to mislead. Fake news is often about political or social issues and intentionally provocative. It may spread malicious gossip about public figures, with the plausible deniability of being “a joke,” even if many people believe it.
With generative artificial intelligence, these stories might be accompanied by realistic-looking photographs, and as technology improves, real news stories will probably be more and more difficult to discern from the fake ones. “Seeing is believing,” can no longer be the rule, especially online.
So, which news do you trust as true, and which photographs are real? This requires applying critical thinking to the news you see.
Know your own vulnerabilities. As we learned in the last lesson, we all want some things to be true because they support our prior opinions, and want other things to be false, because they challenge our opinions. Whether or not a story corroborates or challenges our point of view shouldn’t weigh on whether we deem it true or false.
Vet the source. Is the person or publication spreading the information known to be reputable? One good way to begin vetting a source is to find out where it came from and determining if it is a legitimate news site. But be careful! Many fake news sites look like professional news stations to fool the audience. Others are simply graphics with a portion of a news stories, such as TV screens with logos of real stations but fake headlines. It usually does not take much to verify if a news site is real. Remember that even “mostly news” sites might have opinion writers or even humorists who distort the truth.
Verify any claims. Read carefully and thoroughly. Know that the actual content is not always what the headline suggests; the headlines are written to get links and views, not to inform readers. Also know that some stories might be true, but dated, and have a different meaning if read out of that context. Check for language that suggests that the article is meant to be funny, such as a wacky headline or names of people or places that are probably fabricated. Language may also be geared to trigger emotions, such as making you feel angry. See if other news sites are reporting the same story.
Err on the side of caution: you don’t have to decide if a story is true or false on the spot, you can suspend judgment and either find out later or dismiss the story as irrelevant to the bigger issues. That is, you are not choosing to believe it, but not calling it fake news, at least not yet. But it’s probably best not to share it, either!
The proliferation of fake news is complemented by emails, texts, calls, and other attempts to deceive people individually. This is usually done to get control of financial or other personal information.
Phishing refers to fraudulent emails or texts sent to large numbers of people in the hopes that a few will respond. These often involve money, like promising a big payout or telling a person they owe back taxes. Catfishing is a bad actor pretending to be romantically interested in someone, often through a completely fake identity. Spear fishing is targeting a particular person like someone with access to financial accounts or information.
All of these rely on social engineering, exploiting human psychology to trick people into making poor judgment because they believe something is urgent, or are enticed by promise of money or romance. Whatever the bait, the hook is almost always access to the recipient’s financial accounts or to steal their credentials to access other systems.
Describing all these scams are beyond the scope of the tutorial, but the same principles apply as they do to fake news.
Know your own vulnerabilities that are being exploited, such as the need to take quick action if you might be in trouble or the desire to have money and romance in your life.
Vet the source. Check the sender email carefully, but even if it looks legitimate, know that things like the sender address can be spoofed. Most email programs let you view the source or view the headers (complete information about how the email was routed) which will tell you more about its true origin, such as geographic location and servers that sent it.
Verify any claims. Read through the message carefully, at least if you’re worried it might be true. Look for hints that the email is fake or evidence that it is true. Do not follow any links or reply to the email; instead, close the email and use a known contact number or email address for the person or institution that the email purports to be from.
Err on the side of caution. Even more than news and fake news, it is easy to simply ignore emails from any unknown source that you are not expecting, since it’s highly unlikely that the sender won’t find a way to reach you if they have a legitimate reason to contact you.
Whether on social media or email, reading content on the Internet requires constant vigilance, more than you might use in ordinary conversations. But practicing the good habits of knowing your vulnerabilities, vetting the source, and verifying the information serve just as well to print publications, online journals, or in-person communication.
Dismissing one fake story is easy, but what if you find a hard-to-believe claim, and when you seek out verification, you find many corroborating sources, even entire websites dedicated to it? Unfortunately, there are now entire networks of misinformation, such as numerous podcasts, websites, and social media channels dedicated to a specific topic that is rooted in misinformation. These are usually not centered on a single falsehood, but on several falsehoods, misinterpreted or misrepresented facts, and logical fallacies.
EXAMPLE
The anti-vaccine movement began in the 1990s based on one faulty study linking vaccines to autism. Since then, an entire network of anti-vaccine websites and sources have developed with a mixture of flat-out misinformation and misrepresented or misunderstood information.Many of these take the form of pseudoscience, which we’ll define as a belief system that uses the language of science but not the methodology of science. That is, testing may be highly skewed to get the results the researcher wants, if it is done at all. Pseudoscience may be more speculation than evidence, such as pondering what extraterrestrials may have done to influence humanity in ancient times, without questioning the premise that they did. The main way pseudoscience thrives is that it plays to our biases, particularly confirmation bias.
EXAMPLE
A person who believes in astrology will always find confirmation of the vaguely worded predictions in their horoscope.Many forms of pseudoscience are relatively harmless and may be fun for the participants as long as they don't empty their bank account to give to a con artist. Some notable exceptions are:
Medical pseudoscience that recommends useless, even harmful, remedies or discourages people from getting the treatments they need.
Climate change denial, which influences political decisions that can curb or hasten the effects of climate change on humanity.
Racial pseudoscience, rooted in the early 20th Century misunderstandings of evolution, and which still might be used to give justification for racism and racist social policy.
Similar to pseudoscience are conspiracy theories, which are elaborate and usually poorly supported theories about powerful and secretive groups that “really” control things and have evil intentions. Like pseudoscience, there may be a mixture of flat-out falsehoods along with accurate, but misrepresented or misinterpreted facts. Conspiracy theories can also be harmful in that they lead to distrust and even violent actions.
EXAMPLE
One of the most famous and established conspiracy theories is that president John F. Kennedy was not killed by a lone assassin on November 22, 1963, but that it was part of an elaborate plot that involved various actors in the U.S. and abroad.EXAMPLE
A man in Buffalo, NY killed several people to fight back against “Replacement Theory.” Other spree killers have been active on conspiracy theory websites and message boards.Galileo Galilei was an astronomer in the late 16th and early 17th Century who argued that the earth revolved around the sun. He was condemned and imprisoned by the Catholic Church, with support from other astronomers working from the established theory that the sun revolved around the earth. Galileo has since been vindicated.
Tuskegee was the site of an infamous study by the U.S. department of health during the Depression era on the effects of syphilis. They studied the deleterious effects of the disease on Black men in Alabama in exchange for treatment, but they did not actually provide any treatment.
Stories like these remind us that not all “far out” theories, whether bold scientific theories or suspicions about the best intentions of government agencies, should be dismissed out of hand. At the same time, they are used as false allegories to support other claims when they do not.
So how do you know which is which? Remember the same strategies we use to judge fake news or email hoaxes but know that one step is more complicated.
Know your own vulnerabilities. As with other forms of misinformation, pseudoscience and conspiracy theories play to your human tendencies to bias. Pseudoscience might promise a cheaper and less invasive remedy to disease, a scheme to get rich, or a way to know your own future. Something too good to be true usually isn’t! A conspiracy theory might prove that your problems are “not your fault,” and let you live the fantasy of being a lone crusader against injustice, a habit sometimes called “main character syndrome.”
Vet your sources. Galileo and other examples of scientists rejected in their time, and were later vindicated, always have a background as an established expert in a field, and their divergence from convention is rooted in their research and testing. Similarly, a conspiracy theory may be rooted in firsthand knowledge and experience. You can ask yourself if the source is not widely accepted in the field if they have access to the information to support their claims.
Verify any claims. As noted above, this may be more difficult since a false theory may have many supporters and a chance to establish a network of websites, books, even journal articles that “prove” the theory. However, you might look instead for criticism of the claims. Are they dismissed out of hand, because they are unorthodox, or do experts delineate the specific flaws in the unconventional theory? If it is a conspiracy theory, can you find research on the topic from groups outside of government?
Err on the side of caution. For every Galileo, there are a thousand or ten thousand scientists who are wrong. For every Tuskegee, there are at least a dozen conspiracy theories with no foundation in fact. As with other claims you see, you do not have to immediately decide it is false, but may decide there is too little evidence to accept it as true.
Source: THIS TUTORIAL WAS AUTHORED BY SOPHIA LEARNING. PLEASE SEE OUR TERMS OF USE.
