Reflection: The Truth about the Fake.

Source: Kua Siew Min

I hope you’ve enjoyed my summary video above, test yourself with the puzzle below before we move into my reflection on this topic!

Answers are at the bottom of this article
Source: Kua Siew Min

-REFLECTION-

Ying Zhen’s post had a statement which I found rather alarming. “In a poll of 1600 Singapore Residents, it is reported that 75% of respondents come across fake news occasionally with only half of the respondents confident of recognizing fake news.”

Clearly, a lot has to be done to raise awareness about Media Literacy. I also commented on Shanelle’s post asking her what recommendations she would give the government if she could.
Taking into consideration what she said during our discussion, I believe that we can consider the following ideas!

1. Incorporate the lessons on Media Literacy into school systems or community centre programmes.

2. Come up with short videos to be played on Television or as advertisement videos.

This includes tightening the law. Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam announced that there will be new laws to tackle the spread of fake news.

Moving on, we’ve talked a lot about how users should responsible readers. But actually, the people producing and spreading the fake news are equally responsible. Shanelle’s post brought up a good point on that. She touched on how news reporters and news providers (Facebook, Twitter, and Google) can do their part to prevent fake news from getting out to the mass audience. The following is the progress of this matter.

Source: Kua Siew Min
Content in Source: TechRadar

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially scoffed at the idea the social network was responsible for the dissemination of fake news that ultimately swayed the US election. But later in recent months, he agreed that Facebook has a duty to play in ensuring that it is not a platform where information just flow through.

Source: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Post

Ultimately the spread of fake news is everyone’s responsibility. I believe with time and technology, we can slowly prevent this spread and make the internet a more conducive environment to learn and grow.

(302 words)

Answers to puzzle:

1.Comment
2. About (space) Us
3. Domain
4. Source

References: 

• Previous post

University of Southampton 2017. (2017, Nov 16). Media Literacy. Retrieved from FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/3/steps/263021

Channel News Asia. (2017, Jun 19). New laws on fake news to be introduced next year: Shanmugam. Retrieved from Channel News Asia: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-laws-on-fake-news-to-be-introduced-next-year-shanmugam-8958048

Tech Radar (2017, May 25) Fighting fake news: how Google, Facebook and others are trying to stop it. Retrieved from Tech Radar: http://www.techradar.com/news/fighting-fake-news-how-google-facebook-and-more-are-working-to-stop-it

Topic 2: Evaluating Information Quality

Hi there! Notice how we always talk about all the “pros” of technology, we sometimes seem to have forgotten about the “cons” of it! Like what people always say, “There are two sides to a coin”.

In the past, we only have a few places where we get our information from. Let’s take getting information from the “News” as an example. We used to wait for the TV broadcast at the same time every night or wait for the newspapers from that few news outlets to be delivered to us. But now, we have the internet. Anyone can set up a site, post and share news around! So how do we tell if an information is real or fake?

Source: Kua Siew Min
Source Content: NPR.ORG  and TED-ED

 

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An example of how a different domain can determine fake or real news. Refer to point 1 of the infographic. Source: The Straits Times 

Well, knowing how to tell if a piece of information is real or fake is never enough! We also have to realise how some information may actually be given to us.

Introducing the “filter bubble”.

It is the intellectual isolation that can occur when websites make use of algorithms to assume the information a user would want to see and then give that information.  These filters can come from former click behaviour or browsing history.

Source: Kua Siew Min
Source Content: guides.library

I have been looking through the Sephora site quite often recently and am an avid follower of the listed YouTube channels in my infographic. Of course, these are “harmless” ways the algorithms were used on me. There can be more serious cases, like the type of news that is being “shared” with me.

It is apparent that a large proportion of adults get their news from social media and hence we must be aware of the news that is circulating there. Source: Pew Research Center

For example, different news sites can either lean to “conservative” or “liberal” views.

An image showing that Fox News’s consumers are more towards a conservative nature. Source: Business Insider

An image showing that the New Yorker’s consumers are more towards a liberal nature. Source: Business Insider

Normally, the news outlets will produce articles based on what their consumers feed on! So from these images, I have gathered that we have to be aware of the type of news that we are reading.

I hope I have shared some valuable insights with you, until next time, cheers!

(299 Words excluding references and captions)

References 

NationalPublicRadio (2016) Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts – Wynne Davis [online] Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/12/05/503581220/fake-or-real-how-to-self-check-the-news-and-get-the-facts [Accessed 15 Nov 2017]

TEDED (2017) How to tell fake news from real news – Laura McClure [online] Available at: https://blog.ed.ted.com/2017/01/12/how-to-tell-fake-news-from-real-news/ [Accessed 15 Nov 2017]

TheStraitsTimes (2017) The ST Guide To… spotting fake news – Tham Yuen C [online] Available at: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/the-st-guide-to-spotting-fake-news [Accessed 15 Nov 2017]

UniversityofillinoisLibrary (2017) Ways of the Web: Filter Bubbles and the Deep Web: How to Burst Your Filter Bubble! – University of Illinois [online] Available at: http://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=348478&p=2347795 [Accessed 15 Nov 2017]

JournalismOrg (2016) News Use Across Social Media Platforms (2016) Jeffery Gottfried and Elisa Shearer, Pew Research Centre [online] Available at: http://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/ [Accessed 15 Nov 2017]

BusinessInsider (2014) Here’s How Liberal Or Conservative Major News Sources Really Are – Pamela Engel [online] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-your-preferred-news-outlet-says-about-your-political-ideology-2014-10/?IR=T&r=SG [Accessed 15 Nov 2017]

FutureLearn. (2017). Media Literacy – Learning in the Network Age – University of Southampton. [online] Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/3/steps/263021 [Accessed 15 Nov 2017].