Fake News Is Bad News

Fake News Is Bad News
Author: Ján Višňovský
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2021-09-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1839624213

We live in the era of the digital revolution characterized by easy access to obtaining, processing and disseminating information on a global scale. The emergence of these global digital spaces has transformed the world of communication. This shift in our understanding of what we should be informed about, when and how, manifests itself not only within mature liberal democracies, which grant their citizens and the media constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and rights associated with obtaining information, but also within developing countries with different types of political establishments. Moreover, many media producers, especially journalists and persons claiming to be journalists, abuse their crucial mission and, instead, foster a set of serious communication phenomena that threaten basic human rights and freedoms, weaken them or decelerate their development. The publication is focused on the ways fake news, disinformation, misinformation and hateful statements are spread across society, predominantly within the online environment. Its main ambition is to offer an interdisciplinary body of scholarly knowledge on fake news, disinformation and propaganda in relation to today’s journalism, social development, political situation and cultural affairs happening all around the world.

Network Propaganda

Network Propaganda
Author: Yochai Benkler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2018-09-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190923644

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Is social media destroying democracy? Are Russian propaganda or "Fake news" entrepreneurs on Facebook undermining our sense of a shared reality? A conventional wisdom has emerged since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 that new technologies and their manipulation by foreign actors played a decisive role in his victory and are responsible for the sense of a "post-truth" moment in which disinformation and propaganda thrives. Network Propaganda challenges that received wisdom through the most comprehensive study yet published on media coverage of American presidential politics from the start of the election cycle in April 2015 to the one year anniversary of the Trump presidency. Analysing millions of news stories together with Twitter and Facebook shares, broadcast television and YouTube, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture of contemporary American political communications. Through data analysis and detailed qualitative case studies of coverage of immigration, Clinton scandals, and the Trump Russia investigation, the book finds that the right-wing media ecosystem operates fundamentally differently than the rest of the media environment. The authors argue that longstanding institutional, political, and cultural patterns in American politics interacted with technological change since the 1970s to create a propaganda feedback loop in American conservative media. This dynamic has marginalized centre-right media and politicians, radicalized the right wing ecosystem, and rendered it susceptible to propaganda efforts, foreign and domestic. For readers outside the United States, the book offers a new perspective and methods for diagnosing the sources of, and potential solutions for, the perceived global crisis of democratic politics.

Hoax

Hoax
Author: Brian Stelter
Publisher: Atria/One Signal Publishers
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1982142448

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An NPR Best Book of the Year “A thorough and damning exploration of the incestuous relationship between Trump and his favorite channel.” —The New York Times “A Rosetta Stone for stuff about this presidency that doesn’t otherwise make sense to normal humans.” —Rachel Maddow, MSNBC “Stelter’s critique goes beyond salacious tidbits about extramarital affairs (though there are plenty of those) to expose a collusion that threatens the pillars of our democracy.” —The Washington Post The urgent and untold story of the collusion between Fox News and Donald Trump from the New York Times bestselling author of Top of the Morning. While other leaders were marshaling resources to combat the greatest pandemic in modern history, President Donald Trump was watching TV. Trump watches over six hours of Fox News a day, a habit his staff refers to as “executive time.” In January 2020, when Fox News began to downplay COVID-19, the President was quick to agree. In March, as the deadly virus spiraled out of control, Sean Hannity mocked “coronavirus hysteria” as a “new hoax” from the left. Millions of Americans took Hannity and Trump's words as truth—until some of them started to get sick. In Hoax, CNN anchor and chief media correspondent Brian Stelter tells the twisted story of the relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News. From the moment Trump glided down the golden escalator to announce his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election to his acquittal on two articles of impeachment in early 2020, Fox hosts spread his lies and smeared his enemies. Over the course of two years, Stelter spoke with over 250 current and former Fox insiders in an effort to understand the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch's multibillion-dollar media empire. Some of the confessions are alarming. “We don't really believe all this stuff,” a producer says. “We just tell other people to believe it.” At the center of the story lies Sean Hannity, a college dropout who, following the death of Fox News mastermind Roger Ailes, reigns supreme at the network that pays him $30 million a year. Stelter describes the raging tensions inside Fox between the Trump loyalists and the few remaining journalists. He reveals why former chief news anchor Shep Smith resigned in disgust in 2019; why a former anchor said “if I stay here I’ll get cancer;” and how Trump has exploited the leadership vacuum at the top to effectively seize control of the network. Including never before reported details, Hoax exposes the media personalities who, though morally bankrupt, profit outrageously by promoting the President’s propaganda and radicalizing the American right. It is a book for anyone who reads the news and wonders: How did this happen?

The Philosophy of Information Quality

The Philosophy of Information Quality
Author: Luciano Floridi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2014-08-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319071211

This work fulfills the need for a conceptual and technical framework to improve understanding of Information Quality (IQ) and Information Quality standards. The meaning and practical implementation of IQ are addressed, as it is relevant to any field where there is a need to handle data and issues such as accessibility, accuracy, completeness, currency, integrity, reliability, timeliness, usability, the role of metrics and so forth are all a part of Information Quality. In order to support the cross-fertilization of theory and practice, the latest research is presented in this book. The perspectives of experts from beyond the origins of IQ in computer science are included: library and information science practitioners and academics, philosophers of information, of engineering and technology, and of science are all contributors to this volume. The chapters in this volume are based on the work of a collaborative research project involving the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Google and led by Professor Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford. This work will be of interest to anyone handling data, including those from commercial, public, governmental and academic organizations. The expert editors’ contributions introduce issues of interest to scientists, database curators and philosophers, even though the issues may be disguised in the language and examples common to a different discipline.

The Catholic Case for Trump

The Catholic Case for Trump
Author: Austin Ruse
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2020-08-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 168451097X

In his compelling new book, The Catholic Case for Trump, Austin Ruse cuts through leftist lies aimed at squashing the Catholic vote and offers his audience – broken down into three categories of Liberal, Faithful, and Generic Catholics – a guide as to why all Catholics should not only vote for President Trump, but do so enthusiastically with confidence that he is the only moral choice. This book examines more than a dozen issues and makes the case that a Faithful Catholic can find not just a reason, but a Catholic reason, to vote for Trump. This is a must-read book for all Catholic voters.

Foxocracy

Foxocracy
Author: Tobin Smith
Publisher: Diversion Books
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2019-10-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1635766621

From a 14-year Fox News contributor, guest anchor, and two-time New York Times bestselling author comes an unprecedented insider's account of the Fox News playbook––the production secrets and manipulation strategies Fox News uses to influence viewers, divide families, weaponize the daily discourse of news and public opinion, and addict a core audience on right-wing rage and fear. Fox News did not start America's culture war––but they did have the manipulative and destructive genius to exploit it for billions of dollars. For the first time, a Fox News veteran exposes and diagrams the toxic strategies and tactics within the Fox News playbook that liberal and progressive candidates will be fighting against in 2020 and beyond. It is the very same playbook that Fox News used to move twelve percent of Independents to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 to produce Republican wins in the previous Democrat strongholds of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Author Tobin Smith takes readers behind the scenes of the actual production of the "fair and balanced" opinion panel segments that feed a ravenous audience. How are these productions rigged so that right-wing pundits always win? What techniques does Fox News use in manipulating its viewers' tribal instincts: to addict them; to activate a hatred toward partisan enemies; and to hook them on ego-gratifying feelings of intellectual and cultural superiority? Foxocracy is filled with never-revealed conversations with Fox News executives––including the late Roger Ailes––and opinion programming producers. It breaks down the real and often heartbreaking collateral damage among friends and family caused by the waging of an endless culture war. And it brings incendiary proof from an insider and on-air talent of Fox News's predatory audience manipulation psychology and production tactics. And perhaps even more frightening, this book reveals how that playbook is now being insidiously upgraded for maximum effect––white tribal-identity activation––on all forms of social media and means of content delivery.

The Social Psychology of Gullibility

The Social Psychology of Gullibility
Author: Joseph P Forgas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 522
Release: 2019-04-03
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0429515626

Gullibility, whether we like it or not, is a fundamental characteristic of human beings. In The Social Psychology of Gullibility, Forgas and Baumeister explore what we know about the causes, functions, and consequences of gullibility, and the social psychological processes that promote or inhibit it. With contributions from leading international researchers, the book reveals what social and cognitive psychology contribute to our understanding of how human judgments and decisions can be distorted and undermined. The chapters discuss the nature and functions of gullibility, the role of cognitive processes in gullibility, the influence of emotion and motivation on gullibility, and social and cultural aspects of gullibility. Underpinned by a wealth of empirical research, contributors explore captivating issues such as the psychology of conspiracy theories, the role of political gullibility, gullibility in science, the role of the internet in fostering gullibility, and the failures of reasoning that contribute to human credulity. Gullibility has become a dominant topic of interest in public discourse. The Social Psychology of Gullibility is essential reading for researchers, social science students, professionals and practitioners and all those interested in understanding human credulity and the role of gullibility in contemporary public affairs.

Disinformation and Fake News

Disinformation and Fake News
Author: Shashi Jayakumar
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2020-10-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811558760

This book is a collection of chapters penned by practitioners from around the world on the impact that disinformation and fake news has had in both the online and social sphere. While much has been said about individual disinformation campaigns in specific countries, this book offers a panoramic view of how these campaigns are conducted, who they target, and how they are spread. By bringing together research on specific countries and international data mined from questionnaires and online studies, the understanding of the term 'fake news' is greatly expanded and the issues we face are brought to light. The book includes contributions by experts such as Jean-Baptiste Vilmer (Macron Leaks), and includes case studies from Asia, such as Singapore and Myanmar, written in an accessible manner for the general interested reader, practitioners and policymakers in the field.

Second-Hand Knowledge

Second-Hand Knowledge
Author: Patrick Wilson
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1983-08-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

The author uses social epistemology to develop the cognitive authority theory. The fundamental concept of cognitive authority is that people construct knowledge in two different ways: based on their first-hand experience or on what they have learned second-hand from others. What people learn first-hand depends on the stock of ideas they bring to the interpretation and understanding of their encounters with the world. People primarily depend on others for ideas as well as for information outside the range of direct experience. Much of what they think of the world is what they have gained second-hand. All that people know of the world beyond the narrow range of their own lives is what others have told them. However, people do not count all hearsay as equally reliable; only those who are deemed to “know what they are talking about” become cognitive authorities. --