63 OVER THE TOP Trust in Media
manipulate. Venezuela was 87% and 63% respectively, Lebanon 83% and 79%, while Tunisia registered 83% and 80%. This is alongside a median of 68% of respondents who said they see articles on social media that seem obviously false or untrue. A notable percentage of those polled said social media has increased the ability for ordinary people in their country to have a meaningful voice in the political process (60% in Kenya, 61% in Mexico and 60% in Lebanon), while at the same time saying there was a risk of social media being manipulated by politicians (67% in Kenya, 67% in Mexico and 69% in Lebanon). The report underlined this apparent paradox: “In many instances, individuals who are most attuned to the potential benefits technology can bring to the political domain are also the ones most anxious about the possible harms.” The report also stated: “For instance, in ten of the 11 countries surveyed, the view that technology has made people more informed is correlated with the view that technology has made people easier to manipulate with rumours and false information.” This might account for the extreme numbers in the Nordic cases, which are countries with a long-term, high degree of sophistication with connected technology. They know what they are getting themselves into when they step into the online information sphere and they have a trusted national media that they can fall back on if they lose their way. Some research from Pew last year seems to confirm this (journalism. org/2018/06/18/distinguishing-between- factual-and-opinion-statements-in-the- news). Pew tested Americans on how well they were able to tell factual statements from opinion statements in news media. Surprisingly, the study found that “those who place high levels of trust in the news media are better able than others to accurately identify news-related statements as factual or opinion.” The report added: “Almost 4/10 Americans who have a lot of trust in the information from national news
organisations (39%) correctly identified all five factual statements, compared with 18% of those who have not much or no trust.” INTERNET RESEARCH Two now-famous reports, The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency , compiled for the US government by New Knowledge, and The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018 by the Computational Propaganda Research Project at the University of Oxford, have meticulously outlined how internet communication has become a battle space, and how social media especially is a tool for manipulating opinion on a massive scale. Organisations like Oxfords’ Internet Research Institute and the US-based Data & Society also conduct ongoing analysis of the social impact of connected media. But the public, through painful experience, is only coming to grips with how complex the internet is as a news source. When we open up YouTube or Twitter, we are entering a war zone where algorithms and
the organisations, institutions, business or governments that oversee them are competing for our attention and for access to how we are going to view the world. And as people come to terms with that, they are able to arm themselves better to ward off attacks – whether those come in the form of neighbourhood trolls or swarms of bots or well-funded think tanks. We have all gotten practised at comparing news sources with each other, seeing which ones seem to mesh with the facts, which ones seem consistent, which ones seem well-sourced and investigated. But we are also checking for which news sources make us feel better, which ones confirm our world views – news as entertainment or simply ‘content’. Having to compare multiple sources to determine what we believe is the truth should make us like researchers, scientists, or librarians – people with a good grasp on the organisation of factuality. But it seems to have made us less and less trusting and more panicky about being lied to. We’re like paranoid lovers continuously rifling through our partner’s stuff, looking for the evidence that we’re sure is there, and if it’s not there, that’s not proof of innocence, that’s just proof that they’re good liars. It makes us an easy target for the Iagos of the world. Having access to an infinite number of news sources may not make you better informed. It may just make you crazy. It’s not quantity that’s going to solve the global crisis of factuality, it’s quality.
WE ARE ENTERING A BATTLE SPACEWHERE ALGORITHMS ARE COMPETING FOROUR ATTENTION AND FOR ACCESS TO HOWWE ARE GOING TO VIEW THEWORLD
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