Companies Game Their Glassdoor Ratings
Glassdoor is a web site where workers write reviews of their employer and work environment. Not surprisingly, many companies are gaming the system, flooding it with 5-star reviews.
How language is twisted into propaganda messaging
The surprising observation that “medium confidence” in a scientific finding means we have no confidence at all and high confidence means we have only moderate evidence and medium consensus.
Der Spiegel star reporter and editor admits to having made up stories and facts
A “star” reporter and editor at Der Spiegel has admitted to fabricating his stories over a period of many years. He was the four time winner of Germany’s “Reporter of the Year” award and a two time winner of CNN’s Journalist of the Year. Yet the journalists who selected the winner never saw problems. Think of the role that such fake news plays in shaping public opinion, and its sharing on social media as part of propaganda campaigns.
Revisiting an old topic – almost every item on this propaganda poster was false
Revisiting the old Occupy Democrats propaganda poster from 2016, where nearly every item on the poster was an outright lie. I recently updated the “free childcare” section and added Parts 7 and 8 to this popular series. Seriously, it is the most searched for item on this blog!
This is genuine and not faked reporting – Anderson Cooper was intentionally showing the dangers of unseen drop offs in flood waters
This image does not show what people think it shows. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was moving around in the water to illustrate the dangers of unseen drop offs in flood waters. I’ve seen clips of the original that show this is what he was doing and this was not “fake news”. The original broadcast occurred after Hurricane Ike. This Internet meme illustrates how an instantaneous, moment in time still image loses all context – and can be readily repurposed into a propaganda message.
Update – “Average renter can’t afford their apartment”
A few months ago, a news item spread saying that the “average renter” or “minimum wage renter” cannot afford a one bedroom apartment. But that is not what the study actually said. The study picked a price point equal to the 40th percentile of rental unit price distributions. In general, those earning a single minimum wage income are usually not able to afford a one bedroom apartment at the 40th percentile. They can afford lower cost units in the market below…
Climate communications Update: Polar bears, social media, and how our emotional response may have helped a PR stunt
Update: National Geographic has retracted the claims made about a widely viewed photo of a starving polar bear. The photos and video were seen by an estimated 2.5 billion people and purported to show the effects of climate change. Nat Geo has retracted the claim and the photographer admits they were seeking a photo to be used for propaganda messaging. Details are in our now updated original post: Polar bears, social media, and how our emotional response may have helped…
Fake propaganda poster has almost everything wrong
The only part of this propaganda poster that is true is that FactCheck.org did write about Snopes in 2009 but rather than finding it to be a “liberal propaganda site” they said Snopes.com is solid and well documented”. See how easy it is to create a viral propaganda poster for social media sharing? Source: FACT CHECK: Was Snopes.com ‘BUSTED’ for Our CEO’s Ties to George Soros?
Fake photo re- purposed for propaganda message, once again
This is getting old – an old photo is re-purposed to pretend it represents something else in a Tweet on Twitter. The photo was taken from Getty Images, of a protest in Tahrir, Egypt in 2011. It appears in multiple locations online. Has nothing to do with Tommy Robinson or Trump or the UK. Note that the tweet has been liked nearly 10,000 times and shared 7,600 times. This is a very common technique used in social media propaganda messages…
We may be wrong but he is even “wronger”, or something :)
The adversarial relationship developed into a full-scale propaganda war between the Administration and the media. The way to respond to accusations of fictional news reporting is to double down on accuracy, objectivity and remaining calm. Unfortunately, the news industry continues to harm itself through self destructive behavior typical of middle school drama. This behavior is bewildering. [1] Some of the items described in the article were previously confirmed by me, although not necessarily mentioned on this blog. Based on my…