<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/10/17/multiple-new-studies-again-suggest-the-internet-is-not-creating-an-infodemic-cable-news-on-the-other-hand/>
"Early on in the pandemic, the World Health Organization warned that the world
was facing an “infodemic,” a mass outbreak of false and misleading information.
While the WHO did not coin the term, it certainly made it popular, and
contributed to the idea that it was the internet that was the leading cause of
this infodemic. Today, it seems set in stone that the internet is the main
vector for the spread of false information, and this is leading to all sorts of
regulatory pushes by people all around the globe who think that the internet is
to blame for all the bad stuff that is happening.
However, as we’ve noted over the years, the data… rarely seems to back up these
claims. In 2019, we wrote about the book,
Network Propaganda, written by
Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts, which presents a ton of evidence
that lies about the 2016 election would go viral not because of the internet,
but because of Fox News pushing them. In 2020 (pre-election), they released
some follow-up research concerning disinformation about mail-in ballots and
again found that the spread of misinformation was “elite-driven, mass-media
led” and that social media “played only a secondary role.”
But maybe you question their methodology (though, you should read the details,
because it’s pretty comprehensive and thorough). Nirit Weiss-Blatt points us to
an article by journalists-turned-academics Nick Mathews and Mark Coddington,
highlighting a bundle of recent research that again suggests little evidence of
an online “infodemic,” but at least some evidence of Fox News being the real
main venue for spreading disinformation.
They point to a few different studies, with the first one showing that most
people actually turned to trustworthy sources of news during the pandemic,
rather than less trustworthy sources."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
