TRiO Workshop -- Fake News

Power:  

• State actors:  some countries actually maintain "troll factories" of workers whose job is to create misleading or untrue internet content designed to damage their political enemies.
  • Russia in the U.S. 2016 election
  • China uses "50-centers" to create propaganda for their own people 
  • Great Britain created a fake news radio broadcast for the Germans in WWII
• Corporations:  some companies may put out false or misleading information about their competitors to gain market advantage
• Politicians:  like corporations, politicians sometimes use fake news to smear their opponents
  • "Birther" controversy around Barack Obama
  • Thomas Jefferson accused George Washington of wanting to be king of the United States.

Money:

• Bad actors may try to sell you a solution to a fake problem
• "Clickbait:" outrageous headlines to lure people to open a website
• Your attention is valuable:  websites charge advertisers based on the number of people who view the site

Information:

• Lists of information about people are bought and sold
• Sites may ask for your name, email, phone number or other personal information
• Sites may collect information about you without your knowledge
• Worst case scenario: the site may infect your computer with a virus or install spyware

Fake News:  a catch-all term to describe media stories that intentionally mislead readers into believing false information. Today, the term frequently has a political connotation.

Conspiracy theories:  explanation of a set of events that involves powerful people with dubious motives controlling the events for their own purposes.

Hoax:  an attempt to trick others into believing something happened or is true that is false, and often ridiculous.  

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