A simple research study demonstrated how FB’s algorithm readily amplify extremist political viewpoints on the left and right. The root cause is that FB optimizes for time spent engaged with FB – and does not optimize for what you may wish to see. The result is FB optimizes to keep you perpetually outraged.
Ooops – 9/11 news story retracted after discovering almost all of the article was fake or wrong. Ouch.
Academic research confirms the media’s obsession with “missing white women” (specifically, young, blonde, blue eyed women). When someone goes missing, coverage is extreme for missing young white women, drops significantly for missing women of color, and is almost non-existent for men, with coverage of missing white men receiving the least amount of press.
The algorithms lead to an increase in angry people and divisiveness, leading to a world of angry people, according to the Wall Street Journal.
CNN’s Brian Stelter says that TV anchors were the national leaders on 9/11. Unbelievable.
The media has concluded that the Sturgis SD motorcycle event was a superspreader event. At this point, however, it was not. Meanwhile, the media has ignored other large events. So why the focus on Sturgis?
Science communications is performed precisely as a propaganda function: “The first is what science communicators call “the deficit model,” which assumes the public is deficient in their understanding of science and need scientists as the learned elites to help the benighted masses.” and “The second limitation is that the goal of health communication is not to inform others, but to change their behavior.”
Snopes has just destroyed its own reputation. Their co-founder was plagiarizing dozens of articles from elsewhere, plus writing fake columns and article on the site under a pseudonym. I may no longer link to Snopes except to note that Snopes is now officially an Internet misinformation service.
Facebook censors posts referencing the garden tool known as a “hoe”.
Reporters are idiots. They fall for this story every year, year after year. And not one bothers to question the advocacy group’s press release. Not one.