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Neither of them would be considered "Media Outlets" since they don't employ reporters or an editorial board. You are overreacting because it's not Google or Fac

by BFatts 9y ago

Neither of them would be considered "Media Outlets" since they don't employ reporters or an editorial board. You are overreacting because it's not Google or Facebook pushing bad content on you - it's you choosing to believe it at face value. And by "you" I mean "the collective you" - everyone has a responsibility to determine if the information they've received is correct or not. If you cannot verify it - don't believe it. If there aren't multiple sources claiming the same thing, it's probably an opinion. To "fix" this, we either need to reduce the allowed error rate, or enforce a disclaimer which states something like "This information is collected automatically by a program. No human reviews this, so please do your own research."

dasil003 9y ago
It's a multi-faceted problem to be sure, people need to take responsibility for themselves, and I think the trend over time is for people to become more sophisticated about truthiness. The problem is that we are right in the thick of a publishing revolution where the traditional signals about the quality of information are out the window, and the flow of information is so much broader and more diversified, leading to an explosion of confirmation bias and worldview silos. Google and Facebook are right at the center of this, and making the problem worse with AMP and video-jacking, and personalizing feeds to optimize purely for engagement. Using old terminology like "media outlet" does nothing to address the problem, all it does is frame the issue in a way that supports the narrative that these companies are mere aggregators that can bear no responsibility for the information they are disseminating. Well, frankly, that's bullshit. You have to look at the actual effects in order to make any kind of reasonable judgement on the situation. Google and Facebook are a huge contributor to the fake news problem, and despite how difficult and maybe intractable the problem is, they are also uniquely positioned to be able to make a difference. They deserve to be held to a higher standard, and regardless of their protests, they at least have the resources to try harder.

by BFatts 9y ago

dasil003 9y ago

It's a multi-faceted problem to be sure, people need to take responsibility for themselves, and I think the trend over time is for people to become more sophisticated about truthiness. The problem is that we are right in the thick of a publishing revolution where the traditional signals about the quality of information are out the window, and the flow of information is so much broader and more diversified, leading to an explosion of confirmation bias and worldview silos. Google and Facebook are right at the center of this, and making the problem worse with AMP and video-jacking, and personalizing feeds to optimize purely for engagement. Using old terminology like "media outlet" does nothing to address the problem, all it does is frame the issue in a way that supports the narrative that these companies are mere aggregators that can bear no responsibility for the information they are disseminating. Well, frankly, that's bullshit. You have to look at the actual effects in order to make any kind of reasonable judgement on the situation. Google and Facebook are a huge contributor to the fake news problem, and despite how difficult and maybe intractable the problem is, they are also uniquely positioned to be able to make a difference. They deserve to be held to a higher standard, and regardless of their protests, they at least have the resources to try harder.