When the Grandchildren Eat Granny, And Other Sordid Tales
Back when people in the Medieval Period wanted to get their children to sleep comfortably, parents would tell stories about horrible goblins and flying dragons that ate children who disobeyed.
The thinking was that the fear of dying would prompt obedience, and well-mannered children.
Well, in a tech age like the one we live in, being well-mannered is a nearly impossible task.
Now, the fear is that you might be the last one to spread the great video clip or viral blog post, like this Jimmy Kimmel twerking video, which, after over 17 million (17 MILLION!) views, has finally been debunked.
It’s so easy with social platforms to spread the first amazing thing that we read or see, that it’s now pretty clear that this perception invades the way we see news.
We will share anything that looks interesting, and often news sources, in a rush to share that “truth” and appear relevant, will put something out that later needs to be corrected, often by the same consumers of the news that made the rumor popular.
But not before a half million Twitter handles spread it like a butt fire in a twerking video. FAIL.
To curb the omini-present threat of disinformation, the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong is teaching an online course in news literacy to anyone interested in getting a better grasp on how to deconstruct and defuse inaccuracy in news.
You can sign up for the free course called Making Sense of News here, and select the “audit course” track.
Even though smartphones made us all publishers, it’s not really true that smartphones have made us all smart news consumers. The rush to publish has actually created a “snake eating its tail” environment, where the news actually monitors social traffic, picks up on “viral” videos and links, and then shares them as if they are news.
This spreads the false news even further, until some smart social news consumer debunks the myth on something like Snopes.com.
Look at some of these examples of headlines spread by mainstream media — often prompted by consumer virality — that later turned out to be patently false.
The Grimm Brothers would have made a mint on that Grandparents cannibalism story!
The editors at China Daily even circulated the Kim Jong-un Sexiest Man Alive plaudit, until they learned it was published in a satirical paper.
I have my theories why this happens. And it hinges quite a bit on why social works. I’d rather not get too deep into the why and wherefores of social posting. But suffice it to say that in massive networks of people, the ego rush of posting is the primary driver.
In a social world geared around popularity with likes, favorites, and social collateral and search engine ranking derived from how MANY, rather than HOW QUALIFIED, people are intuitively driven to share whatever will draw attention to their profiles.
This is why you often see the best content in private networks that never see the public glare of likes, hits, faves and retweets.
This is why apps like Slack and Meerkat are so successful; where content is either hidden from a massive network (Slack) or where video streaming (Meerkat) promotes at least the perception that you are witnessing something authentic and verified.
But still, be careful. When Vine came out in 2013, people applauded teh ability to finally get moving images on what was before network platforms for text and static images.
Even that medium has been gamed, as these excellent Vine compilation shows us.
For more news literacy and a six week course on how we can consume real media thoughtfully and intelligently, sign up for the Making Sense of News MOOC. It starts May 19
