Circular Reporting
On February 17th, my Digital Writing for Social Action class discussed the topic of false news and how to invest the news source. Part of the in-class discussion was watching the TedTalk “how false news can spread” by Noah Tavlin. A quote is introduced at the beginning of the video stating that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Mark Twain supposedly said the quote, ironically proving the message’s point. It’s interesting to reflect that people do not know if this quote is said by such a prominent figure because you would think there would be ways to confirm this since he was a central figure.
Furthermore, the video introduced the phenomenon of circular reporting. Prior to watching the video, I did not know such a concept existed. Circular reporting is where a publication can publish an article that prompts another to republish the same article and cite the first publication as the source. This phenomenon seems like a vicious cycle to get out of, mainly because we are surrounded by the same publications. It is very easy to keep tabs on the most popular mainstream news sources because it is convenient for people; it takes more effort o find an outside source or fact-check the information provided to you. Also, people believe most of the information given to them by these publications because these news outlets have built themselves a reputation and seem credible.
