Date post: | 24-Jan-2018 |
Category: |
Education |
Upload: | david-lynn-painter |
View: | 32 times |
Download: | 0 times |
The Truth about Fake News
• Discussion Questions
• Post-Truth World
• News Coverage of Politics
• Fake News Case Study
Discussion Questions
1. Why is Fake News a salient contemporary topic?
2. What do Americans report about fake news in
surveys?
3. What was Pizzagate?
4. How has Pres. Trump used fake news claims to
attack the media?
5. Why were 2016 election polls wrong?
Discussion Questions
6. What are the differences among misinformation,
disinformation, and malinformation?
7. Describe and give an example of the 5 types of fake news.
8. Why was fake news an issue in the 2016 election campaign?
• What were some fake news stories?
• Who benefitted from fake news?
• What motivated producers of fake news?
9. Why has Pres. Trump attacked news media as fake?
Discussion Questions
11.Explain and describe the five factors contributing to the
spread of fake news.
12.How do Trump’s fake news attacks reinforce his base of
support and weaponize distrust?
13.Describe the tensions between the first amendment and
fake news (be sure to address):
• How does the First Amendment contribute to the spread of fake news?
• How does fake news threaten First Amendment freedoms?
Post-Truth World
• Post-truth: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016)
• Obama founded ISIS
• British voted to leave EU so savings would go to health care system March 1, 2009 Time cover
Causes of Post-truth Politics
1. Declining trust in
governments and
institutions
• Across western world, trust at
an all-time low
• Misleading information: from
dietary choices (studies
show…) to invasion of Iraq
Climate change deniers and
anti-vaxers (vaccine
conspiracy theories)
Causes of Post Truth Politics
2. Belief that there is no
objective reality or truth
• Perception is reality
• Grew out of 1960s cultural
movement
3. Humans are cognitive
misers
• Lack of critical thinking skills
• Lack of ideological constraint
Causes of Post-Truth Politics
4. Explosion of new media sources for information• Disruption to media ecosystems
• We rely on mediated information
• Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine: 1949-1987
• Eliminated traditional gatekeepers
• No trusted arbiters of facts
• Echo chambers, or homophiloussorting, through social networks
• Digital TV and radio = more channels fueling “magical thinking”
Causes of Post-Truth Politics
5. Fake News Entrepreneurs• Foreign Sources: Macedonian
Millennials in addition to other, mostly
eastern European and Asian sources
such as Russia
• Social Media Sources
• Political Talk, Editorial, and/or
Entertainment Shows, Movies, &
Websites
• Radio & TV shows, podcasts,
documentaries, websites, social media
Causes of Post-Truth Politics
6. Increasingly Polarized
Society
• Hatred of opposition more
than love for position
• Increasing role of primaries in
selecting party nominees for
all government positions
• Gerrymandering and
districting
• Partisan policy votes in
Congress
Causes of Post-Truth Politics
7. Fake news attacks reframe
media’s role
• From 4th Estate to Special
Interest
• Do the media have an agenda:
one more player on the Washington power scene
• “the media have now moved on
from Russia to cover
themselves”
• Skepticism vs cynicism?
“Real News” Coverage of Politics
Analyses of News Media
1. Content: topics, valence, frames
2. Bias: Negative, Commercial, Partisan
3. Effects: limited, but focus on:• Cognitive: learning:
issues/officials/candidates
• Affective: attitudes such as favorability of candidate/policy; information efficacy and voter enthusiasm
• Behavior: vote, protest, participate/engage
Aspects of Political News
• 1. Content of Coverage
• 2. Political Bias
• 3. Effects on Viewers
5 Characteristics of the Content of News Coverage
1. Personalization – (Candidate Image)
2. Drama and Conflict – horserace/strategy
3. Action—specific happening or event
4. Novelty and Deviance – the unusual
5. Link to On-going themes—scandals, good vs. evil,
cyclical themes
3 Types of Political News Coverage
1. Campaign Strategy: Horse Race Coverage, esp. POLLS, Game Frame
2. Candidate Images—background, images, conduct in office, in campaign
3. Policy Issues – specifics and details about policies and proposals/campaign promises
Types of Coverage (Percentages)
2004 2008 2012 2016Horse Race 42 48 51 46
Issues 33 28 30 25
Image 25 24 19 29
Cand. Sound Bite 8.4 8.2 7.8 6.2(in seconds)
Political News Biases:If It Bleeds, It Leads
1. Negative: most news is bad news or about bad decisions, loss, tragedy, gaffes, scandals
2. Commercial: news is largely for-profit, commercial enterprise dependent on readers or viewers for revenue
3. Political Bias in Campaign Coverage
Newspapers historically reflected the partisanship of their owners/publishers. Frequently editorialize.
TV originally perceived as neutral and objective.
Public airwaves gave TV and radio a special obligation to be objective.
Accusations of Bias
Surfaced particularly after the 1968 presidential campaign.
Vice-President Spiro Agnew made a series of speeches in
1969 that accused the media of bias. He particularly attacked
the broadcast media for:
1. Instant analysis of presidential speeches--president should have the right
to speak directly to the people.
2. Media's power to "select" allowed them to:
• elevate men to fame
• make certain issues salient
3. Media have a near monopoly.
4. Always emphasize the bad: "nattering nabobs of negativism"
Media Bias Research
• 1972 campaign was subjected to considerable analysis
looking for media bias.
• Early studies concluded there was not much political
bias, although some found that McGovern got more
favorable close-ups and smiling pictures/visuals than did
Nixon.
• A change began to emerge in research findings in 1988
and continuing through today
Tone of Coverage(percent of good press)
2004 2008 2012 2016
Dem Nom 53 62 41 29
GOP Nom 38 37 33 17
Negative Coverage of Presidential Candidates
Since 1980, Democrats
have gotten significantly
better (more positive) press
Particularly true in 2008
when Obama got 37%
positive press coverage
Most Candidates Get Negative Coverage
Overall, from 1980 to 2016, most candidates got negative coverage, including all Republican candidates.
Only Mondale in 1984, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, Kerry in 2004, and Obama in 2008 got positive press coverage.
WHAT ABOUT FOX?
• In "Special Report" news segments, the campaign coverage has been balanced
• 37% positive for GOP
• 24% positive for DEMs
• Also more balanced issue coverage
• 30% positive for GOP (networks 23%)
• 28% positive for DEMs (networks 41%)
Limited Effects Theories: News Media
1. Agenda-Setting: the agenda of issues covered by the news media will be the agenda of issues viewers believe are important
2. Framing (Second Level Agenda-Setting): Selecting a particular viewpoint and evidence to frame a story in terms of causes/effects, impact/significance, or interpretative angle
Practical Effects of News Coverage of Politics
1. Memory of News Coverage—higher for visual than for
verbal content
2. Memory is highest when the verbal and visual message
are congruent.
3. Memory for verbal information is worse before but better
after a highly emotional visual image.
4. Coverage of Terrorism may legitimize it or encourage it.
5. May distort viewer perceptions of candidates and of
issues.
Media Believability
Partisan Gap in Media Trust
Dems More Interested in National News
Internet Disrupted Media Ecosystem
• Printed page and TV screen no longer gatekeepers or agenda-setters
• The Truth is more difficult to define, to locate, or to find agreement upon
• Social media may polarize society & threaten democracy