"This book provides an overview of fake news detection, both through a variety of tutorial-style survey articles that capture advancements in the field from various facets and in a somewhat unique direction through expert perspectives from various disciplines. The approach is based on the idea that
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advancing the frontier on data science approaches for fake news is an interdisciplinary effort, and that perspectives from domain experts are crucial to shape the next generation of methods and tools." (Publisher description)
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"YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world, and its algorithm drives 70% of watch time on the platform—an estimated 700 million hours every single day. For years, that recommendation algorithm has helped spread health misinformation, political disinformation, hateful diatribes, and o
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ther regrettable content to people around the globe. YouTube’s enormous influence means these films reach a huge audience, having a deep impact on countless lives, from radicalization to polarization [...] 37,380 YouTube users stepped up as YouTube watch dogs, volunteering data about the regrettable experiences they have on YouTube for Mozilla researchers to carefully analyze. As a result, Mozilla gained insight into a pool of YouTube's tightly-held data in the largest-ever crowdsourced investigation into YouTube's algorithm. Collectively, these volunteers flagged 3,362 regrettable videos, coming from 91 countries, between July 2020 and May 2021. This report highlights what we learned from our RegretsReporter research. Specifically, we uncovered three main findings: 1. YouTube Regrets are disparate and disturbing. Our volunteers reported everything from Covid fear-mongering to political misinformation to wildly inappropriate "children's" cartoons. The most frequent Regret categories are misinformation, violent or graphic content, hate speech, and spam/scams. 2. The algorithm is the problem. 71% of all Regret reports came from videos recommended to our volunteers by YouTube's automatic recommendation system. Further, recommended videos were 40% more likely to be reported by our volunteers than videos that they searched for. And in several cases, YouTube recommended videos that actually violate their own Community Guidelines and/or were unrelated to previous videos watched. 3. Non-English speakers are hit the hardest. The rate of YouTube Regrets is 60% higher in countries that do not have English as a primary language (with Brazil, Germany and France being particularly high), and pandemic-related Regrets were especially prevalent in non-English languages." (Executive summary)
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"In this book, Philip Seib, one of the world's leading experts on media and war, offers a probing analysis of the role of information in warfare from the Second World War to the present day and beyond. He focuses on some of the thorniest issues on the contemporary agenda: When untruthful and inflamm
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atory information poisons a nation's political processes and weakens its social fabric, what kind of response is appropriate? How can media literacy help citizens defend themselves against information warfare? Should militaries place greater emphasis on crippling their adversaries with information rather than kinetic force? Well-written and wide-ranging, Information at War suggests answers to key questions with which governments, journalists, and the public must grapple during the years ahead." (Back cover)
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"As media environments and communication practices evolve over time, so do theoretical concepts. This book analyzes some of the most well-known and fiercely discussed concepts of the digital age from a historical perspective, showing how many of them have pre-digital roots and how they have changed
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and still are constantly changing in the digital era. Written by leading authors in media and communication studies, the chapters historicize 16 concepts that have become central in the digital media literature, focusing on three main areas. The first part, Technologies and Connections, historicises concepts like network, media convergence, multimedia, interactivity and artificial intelligence. The second one is related to Agency and Politics and explores global governance, datafication, fake news, echo chambers, digital media activism. The last one, Users and Practices, is finally devoted to telepresence, digital loneliness, amateurism, user generated content, fandom and authenticity. The book aims to shed light on how concepts emerge and are co-shaped, circulated, used and reappropriated in different contexts." (Publisher description)
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"As for internet use, the percentage of the population with access to internet rose to 89% in 2019 from 48% in 2015. Access to a mobile phone and internet in Jordan has become a matter of choice rather than affordability or accessibility. The Syrian refugee crisis explains the overshooting in mobile
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phone penetration in Jordan during the 2010s. During the past decade, the Jordanian telecommunications industry has transformed from duopoly to oligopoly. Jordan’s three major telecommunications companies together worked to protect their positions in the Jordanian telecoms market. The market saw constant growth and a rapid introduction of new media technologies. Due to these technological advancements, the country has become known in the region as an increasingly influential tech hub [...] In the public sphere, Jordan has experienced an unstable legal and regulatory landscape for the media. The government constantly revises its audiovisual media and publications laws. This places those media networks with a proximity to the state at an advantage, since they have deeper insight into the expectations of the state. Independent media, on the other hand, suffers from the successive governments’ meddling in the foundational laws of the media industry. The work of journalists has been often obstructed by the blocking of hundreds of websites for failing to comply with one or another rendition of the publications law. Many journalists found their employers losing investors and/or funding after the state issued a registration requirement for websites publishing content out of Jordan. Due to strong public pressure, this requirement in the publications law was later revised. Jordan’s journalism sphere had a more difficult decade than the technology field. Restrictions on internet access and high taxes on independent media (compared with tax-exemption status for some media agencies that are close to the government) hurt several media organizations. Stagnation and decline in consumption of print media added to the woes. Jordanian newspapers are enjoying higher readership than ever but also the lowest revenues per reader in history. This is due to declining subscription rates. Jordanian journalists were stunned in the first half of the 2010s to see Jordan’s daily newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm end print circulation and shut down operations completely a few years later. Subscriptions to daily newspapers declined by 50% compared to their 2000s levels." (Pages 4-5)
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"Con la vista fija en una mejor calidad en la percepción misma de la información, así como en el desarrollo de competencias ciudadanas para disminuir la vulnerabilidad a la manipulación y contrarrestar el secuestro mismo de la libertad de consciencia, surge el Observatorio Venezolano de Fake New
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s, en julio de 2019. Este proyecto de Medianálisis ha defendido el conocimiento como vía para intentar frenar la desinformación y generar un salto cualitativo en nuestra comunicación para la democracia. En esta obra, se compila una selección de trabajos en profundidad desarrollados en un lapso de dos años, difundidos en nuestro sitio web, fakenews.cotejo.info. Contiene reflexiones, análisis y estudios sobre el fenómeno de los contenidos falseados, convirtiéndose en el primero del país que compila ideas sobre esta materia, desarrolladas por expertos venezolanos de diversas disciplinas, entre estas Comunicación Social, Sociología, Psicología Social y Derecho. Hemos querido poner en un solo ejemplar una aproximación colectiva que aborda la conceptualización del problema, sus efectos perniciosos en la conformación de opinión pública y en la democracia, las explicaciones sobre su viralización, los comportamientos societales que le dan forma, las implicaciones sobre la credibilidad de los medios de comunicación, el proceso de confusión que pretenden los laboratorios de propaganda política, entre otras aristas." (Introducción, página 7-8)
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"Este libro digital descargable de la Fundación Gabo es una macro-relatoría, un esfuerzo por sintetizar y difundir el conocimiento emanado de una serie de actividades -talleres, clases magistrales, charlas- que llevamos a cabo en el marco del Festival Gabo 2020, el cual tuvo como uno de sus temas
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centrales la reflexión y debate sobre el papel del periodismo ante la desinformación organizada. Para diseñar ese programa capitalizamos el seguimiento al tema por varios años desde nuestros talleres de periodismo, iniciativas de promoción de la ciudadanía digital como ‘Convivencias en Red’, la agenda de contenidos y actividades que desarrollamos ante la pandemia global de la covid-19, y de manera especial el programa de ética periodística, con componentes como el quiz de noticias falsas, el grupo de Facebook ‘Esta noticia es falsa’ y alrededor de 2.000 preguntas respondidas en el Consultorio Ético en línea. Los valiosos aportes recogidos en este libro nos aclaran aún más el camino y nos animan a profundizar nuestro compromiso con los periodistas y la ciudadanía en general para promover la comprensión, la toma de conciencia y nuevos enfoques de actuación eficaz frente a la desinformación." (Introducción)
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"This companion brings together various concepts used to analyse dimensions of media disinformation and populism. The companion is theoretically and methodologically comprehensive and features various historical and critical approaches providing a full and incisive understanding of media, misinforma
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tion and populism. It is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary consisting of contributions from scholars analysing aspects of misinformation, disinformation and populism across countries, political systems and media systems. A global, comparative approach to the study of misinformation and populism is important in identifying common elements and particular characteristics, and these individual essays cover a wide range of topics and themes, with contributions from both leading and young scholars. The distinctiveness of the companion is its encompassing of a variety of subject areas: Political Communication, Journalism, Law, Sociology, Cultural studies, International Politics, and International Relations." (Publisher description)
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"This handbook and additional dossiers, freely available at the Digital Resistance project homepage (www.digi-res.eu), provide all the information teachers need to conduct a short module on the topic of “fake news” in the classroom or other settings with a group of students aged between 14 and 2
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0 years. The methodology suggested in this handbook can easily be adapted by other actors in the educational sector working in different learning contexts. It begins by providing background knowledge about the topic of fake news and digital competences, followed by guiding steps on how to work on this topic with students in a short module. The learning methodology used is based on enquiry-based learning, so students can be supported to conduct a small-scale research project on a self-chosen topic connected to fake news. Information on this can be found in Chapter 3 of this handbook. In Chapter 5, the concept of peer-to-peer learning is used to set up learning processes between students attending the short module." (Executive summary, page 5)
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"This study examines disinformation and propaganda in war in the age of information particularly through social media. It analyzes Twitter's posts of the Afghan government and the Taliban, from January to March 2018. For understanding disinformation, 952 tweets of both parties were crosschecked with
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four national media outlets and a civilian protection advocacy group; and to recognize how the belligerents tried to present and propagate, their contents were analyzed to identify terms that dominate their outbound information. The study found discrepancy in information disseminated by the warring parties and mainstream media. Terrorism and Jihad were dominant frames of government and the Taliban, respectively. The findings could contribute to a greater body of literature regarding propaganda in operationalization of social media in the conflict zone." (Abstract)
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"Several studies analysed in this paper show that messenger services facilitate and exacerbate the spread of disinformation. Any solution must make allowances for the complexity with which information spreads. The case studies show that a lack of trust in government is a key factor in the proliferat
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ion of disinformation, as is an increase in nationalism and its epiphenomena, including racism, sexism and anti-semitism. Additionally, a general loss of trust in journalism poses a problem. The infodemic surrounding the novel coronavirus highlights the urgency of the topic. A nuanced and comprehensive discourse on disinformation is crucial, and it is no longer adequate to discuss disinformation as a problem predominantly concerning social media platforms and politics. Addressing the issue can only be achieved by a society as a whole: we need broad social discourse and cannot outsource the solution to social media companies alone. This paper includes six recommendations designed to provide guidelines for political decisions and as a basis for further discourse." (Executive summary, page 4)
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"As we can see, disinformation can be spread by ordinary responsible individuals with good intentions as well as by, dare I say, entire bot nations consisting of millions of active bot accounts that reach all possible audiences of any age, gender, and interests. And for any audiences that haven't be
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en reached yet, Google and Facebook services provide updates on the nation's browsing patterns that inspire more disinformation stories to trigger emotional response from Ukrainians or subvert the society as a whole. The situation gets worse when, instead of creating a clear and transparent information policy and fighting disinformation, government officials, public officers, civil servants, and decision-makers inadvertently become disinformation generators, and politicians spread false and speculative information. Political engagement of the Ukrainian society and continuous efforts to engage audiences in politics and divert their attention by fear mongering are embraced by bot armies that, either for money or interest, feed disinformation even to the people with basic critical thinking skills. The line between true and fake information becomes diluted as verification requires additional time and special skills." (Conclusion)
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"Research indicates that the reach of fake news websites is limited to small parts of the population. On the other hand, data demonstrate that large proportions of the public know about notable fake news stories and believe them. These findings imply the possibility that most people hear about fake
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news stories not from fake news websites but through their coverage in mainstream news outlets. Thus far, only limited attention has been directed to the role of mainstream media in the dissemination of disinformation. To remedy this, this article synthesizes the literature pertaining to understand the role mainstream media play in the dissemination of fake news, the reasons for such coverage and its influences on the audience." (Abstract)
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"Digitale Kanäle wie Youtube, Facebook oder Instagram, Künstliche Intelligenz, Fake-News-Vorwürfe und zunehmend fragmentierte Publikumsinteressen haben das Format Nachricht ebenso verändert wie das journalistische Handwerk und die Nachrichtenrezeption. Was bedeutet dieser grundlegende Wandel fü
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r Medienschaffende, Redaktionen, Sender und Verlage? Wie verändern Daten und Algorithmen journalistisches Arbeiten im Newsroom und mit welchen neuen Angeboten und Darstellungsformen wird experimentiert? Und was tun Redaktionen gegen Vertrauensverluste, Desinformation und Hass-Kommentare? Expertinnen und Experten aus Wissenschaft und Praxis analysieren in diesem Band den Wandel des Nachrichtenjournalismus." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This report briefly examines the phenomenon of fake news in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Anglophone West Africa. It specifically addresses the following areas: fake news trends; how the phenomenon has impacted the work of the media and the fight against the pandemic; measures taken so fa
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r (by government, media, development partners, others) to address the spread of the phenomenon; and recommendations on the way forward." (Page 1)
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"This article offers a scholarly review of the literature and research on journalism education and fake news from an international and a local (Croatian) perspective. The purpose of this paper is to examine the connection between the education for journalists as a scholarly and academic discipline (
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as well as a teaching practice) and the issues caused by fake news in the digital age of mass media. Based on a comprehensive critical conceptual analysis of the body of knowledge available on the subject, it was determined that there is a diverse discussion about the status of journalism education regarding fake news. In that context, fake news has so far been internationally researched from several angles – curriculum content, journalism students, journalism and media studies, journalism practice, media audience, etc. When addressing the issue of education of journalists and fake news, three streams can be singled out. The first and most voluminous one refers to the systematic formal or additional education regarding media and information literacy. The next one refers to various changes related to the higher education system for the education of journalists, but without any concrete propositions for system reconstruction or upgrading. The last one advocates providing additional professional education to employed journalists. From the local perspective, even though only two articles suggest journalism education as a solution for the problems caused by fake news, based on thorough research it can be concluded that fake news and journalism education are not yet topics of interest among communication scholars in Croatia." (Abstract)
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"In this systematic literature review, a study of the factors involved in the spreading of fake news, have been provided. In this review, the root causes of the spreading of fake news are identified to reduce the encouraging of such false information. To combat the spreading of fake news on social m
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edia, the reasons behind the spreading of fake news must first be identified. Therefore, this literature review takes an early initiative to identify the possible reasons behind the spreading of fake news. The purpose of this literature review is to identify why individuals tend to share false information and to possibly help in detecting fake news before it spreads." (Abstract)
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"This introduction to the special issue “Beyond Fake News: The Politics of Disinformation” contains four main sections. In the first, we discuss the major sociopolitical factors that have allowed disinformation to flourish in recent years. Second, we review the very short history of disinformati
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on research, devoting particular attention to two of its more extensively studied conceptual relatives: propaganda and isinformation. Third, we preview the seven articles in this issue, which we divide into two types: studies of disinformation content and of disinformation reception. We conclude by advancing a few suggestions for future disinformation research." (Abstract)
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"Fake news has trumped up attention across cultures from the United States Elections to the Arab Spring. While political marketers have long used the language of fear and persuasion in their messaging, social media has intensified its impact. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence
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of demographics and culture on the spread of fake news via social media. Based on a quantitative study, it finds that culture has the most significant impact on the spread of fake news. Results shows that age and not gender or education has a greater influence on the acceptance of fake news in particular cultures." (Abstract)
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