Fake news blurred the line between official and media definers

Evidence

A few years after Fazio’s study, colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) confirmed that previous exposure to a whole range of fake news can indeed increase its truth-value, even when the stories are flagged as ‘contested’ by fact-checkers. Their experiments included a wide range of outlandish headlines in the context of the 2016 US presidential election, including ‘BLM Thug Protests President Trump with Selfie … Accidentally Shoots Himself in the Face’, and ‘Mike Pence: Gay Conversion Therapy Saved My Marriage’. These statements were rated as more accurate after repeated exposure, regardless of an individual’s political affiliation. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 70 (#expands, via linked claim)

However, all of these studies still run the risk of severely underestimating the problem. According to a national survey from Pew, in December 2016, 32 per cent of Americans said they often encountered political fake news online; 51 per cent said they often see inaccurate news; and 23 per cent self-report having shared fake news. In Europe, 68 per cent of those surveyed report seeing fake news on a weekly basis. Something doesn’t add up. Either people’s memories are suspect, or the models are way off. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 525 (#complicates, via linked claim)

As part of the survey, the researchers asked people whether they remembered hearing about or seeing a set of fifteen articles in the months leading up to the US election and whether they believed that the articles were true or fake (some of the fake articles were placebos made up by the researchers themselves). What they found was peculiar: people reported having seen the placebo and fake articles at about an equal rate (14 versus 15 per cent). Assuming that the rate at which people remember the placebos is a good estimate of false recall, the differential (+ 1 per cent) must be the true exposure rate. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 518 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Post-truth politics in the US has reinforced European distrust of media institutions — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 38; Weaponizing the term fake news lets leaders dismiss verified reporting — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 220; Drama-driven media coverage of bogus claims breeds lasting public harm — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 167 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-reported fake news exposure is mostly false memory rather than real contact #complicates (0.95) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 518
• Fact-check warnings fail to stop repeated fake headlines gaining perceived truth #expands (0.95) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 70
• Self-reported fake news exposure greatly exceeds model-based estimates #complicates (0.95) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 525
• Media face a double-bind between credibility and elite backlash over dissenting voices #complicates (0.95) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 875