Kind: captions
Language: en
we are bombarded with clickbait whether
it's that quick fix for an ailment or
that
one simple trick that's going to make
your computer your phone run faster
it's that piece of information that
sensational headline that's designed to
get you to click it
and it takes you often to another web
page but what really becomes dangerous
and has the potential to impact our
politics
health decisions even how we view other
people is when clickbait is used to
spread misinformation
everything from immigration to climate
change to policy proposals like the
green new deal
have suffered from clickbait articles
written about them in recent years one
of the most common refrains in politics
has been a surge of misinformation
around election season
so-called fake news can have real-world
consequences
in 2016 is when many of us first hear
this term
fake news used as intentional
disinformation about politicians and
their issues
can you state category you are fake news
one analysis looked at more than 30
million social media posts
before the election that had linked to
external sites that analysis found that
10 percent more than 3 million of these
went directly
to fake news sites and another 15
went to sites that had highly biased
news coverage
that's nearly 7.5 million individual
posts that could be reshared and
retweeted but what was the source
of all of this fake news in 2016
a major producer of this content is
macedonia or
north macedonia that's not to say they
were the only country making fake news
but
they made a ton of it and a lot of it
came from a single town
called the less home to fewer than 50
residents you see according to reporting
a group of macedonian teenagers in and
around velez
actually played an outsized role in
crafting the narrative about donald
trump and hillary clinton
by creating all of these fake news sites
in the years that followed 2016
analysis from u.s intelligence and also
reuters and the organized crime and
corruption reporting project
all found linkages between russian
intelligence and political news sites in
the country of macedonia
but regardless of the impetus of the
misinformation machine one thing was
certain
once the ball was rolling residents in
the town saw this as a way to make some
quick money
and they did every time somebody goes to
one of these news sites it loads up ads
on the page
and automated advertising engines like
google's adsense
pay for the views or referrals to other
sites sometimes the money from a single
visitor could be less than a penny
during peak season this rate rose as
high as
14 per 1000 views
and these sites were generating hundreds
of millions
of views however it was the 2016
election that threw things into
hyperdrive
hundreds of fake news sites were created
around politics
so fast forward in response to the
public pressure against these so-called
fake news sites
sites like facebook tightened up on this
information blocking multiple pages from
velez and also restricting political ad
sales to foreign entities
twitter now even alerts people when
they're sharing something without
actually reading an article it's all an
attempt to slow down misinformation but
clickbait is still around and it's here
to stay
as a producer it takes a lot of work to
discern what is reality
from what is information being presented
to us just to sell clicks
i've got my own foolproof method but
before that i wanted to speak to arun
wrath host of gbh is all things
considered to see how he
verifies information when you create
content what's your kind of driving
vision or how do you start to approach
your hypothesis when you're crafting a
story
being in in public broadcasting you know
it really is thinking about listener
service ideally that's what we're
supposed to do right if you're getting
lots of clicks
that means that you're reaching lots of
people and that's what we really want to
do
but that's the trick is is balancing
that with getting people's attention
with with things that are that are real
right i've identified a simple
three-step process to identify whether
information is real
or if it's cap yeah
[Music]
all right so cap is pretty simple the c
stands for
check the source okay is the author of
this information apparent
who's posting it and how is it being
presented to you is the platform a
trustworthy source for this type of
content
if not then yeah maybe it's cap i'd
never even
heard that phrase before but that's the
first thing i i think you know when i
see something that looks
wow that looks amazing um the source is
the first thing that i think about
my kids who are now very attuned to uh
to media that's something that i've
ended up drilling into them
over and over again aruna is right for
example medical information that you
might find on instagram
ask yourself is instagram really the
only place i can find this information
and are there credible sources elsewhere
that can corroborate it
part two of the cap test a stands for
analyze
analyze the evidence what evidence is
being used to justify the claims
actually being made if you see an
article saying a new study says
look at that actual study and see how it
compares to how it's being presented or
framed
in the article you might find that
they're very different
and maybe even reach out to the expert
who published that story to get their
point of view
something that i've told a lot of
producers starting out
even if you don't want to get into
investigative journalism you'd be
surprised by
how many people will answer your
questions
who you think wouldn't respond to you if
you just like you know call them and ask
them
it starts off with picking up the phone
and calling people and that makes a lot
of sense that the experts can dissect a
lot of science information quickly
take this example in 2014 a rash of
misinformation headlines claimed that
farts could potentially cure your cancer
these are based off of a report about a
new compound that
delivered small bits of hydrogen sulfide
to aid mitochondria the powerhouse of
the cell
but nowhere did this say that you should
smell your farts
to prevent cancer the headlines on the
other hand
also be aware that science is a process
that continuously involves
researching and finding new information
to verify a claim
you have to be attentive to developments
that occur over time to make sure you
still have the most recent and accurate
evidence
back to cap p stands for process the
purpose
pay attention to content that contains
very hyperbolic language to get a point
across
misinformation often depends on using
language that elicits outrage or fear to
directly appeal to our emotions
if this is the case with the article or
video you're reviewing then it likely
doesn't meet
all of the criteria to be taken at face
value in fact
it may be in conclusion it all comes
down to the motivations of the creator
of the content that you're reviewing
they could be economic
as in the case of north macedonian
teenagers or they could be political
articles about a candidate or a party so
whether you're
a creator of content or just reading
through the headlines keep your thinking
caps on
and just remember to watch out for cats