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A story in The Conversation may be of interest to Soylentils:
"Fake news" is the buzzword of 2017. Barely a day goes by without a headline about president Donald Trump lambasting media "bias", or the spread of "alternative facts".
Many articles on the subject suggest that social media sites should do more to educate the public about misinformation, or that readers should think more critically about the sources of news stories before sharing them. But there are fundamental problems with this. First, there isn't a clear definition of what "fake news" really is. And second, it overlooks important aspects of people's psychological makeup.
"Fake news" can be classified in a number of ways and represented as a series of concentric circles. First, in the centre of the concentric model, we have actual fake news. These are the stories that we commonly see shared on sites such as News Thump and The Onion. These satirical stories are written for comedic purposes and are put together to entertain.
Next, we have propaganda articles. Typically, these pieces do not actually contain any real news value. They may, for example, detail an individual's past behaviour and suggest that that it reflects something about their current intentions. Alternatively, these pieces may contain some kernel of truth, but this may be twisted in such a way that it totally misleads audiences and misrepresents a story's true news value.
These propaganda articles take numerous forms. The Huffington Post, for example, included a caveat about Donald Trump's alleged bigotry whenever mentioning him in a story before the US election last November, while British readers will likely recall the Daily Mail's much-maligned attacks on former Labour leader Ed Miliband's late father in 2013, calling him a "man who hated Britain".
Finally, and occupying the outermost ring of the model, there are the stories that are technically true, but reflect the subtle editorial biases of the organisation publishing them. This reporting is commonplace within the mainstream media, through selective storytelling and politically-driven editorials. Whether this is reflected in the left-wing bias of The Guardian or the right-wing approach of the Murdoch media empire, this practice is less malicious and more a political interpretation of events.
There once was a precise word for the term "fake news" is trying to describe. Oh yes, it's "propaganda."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 01 2017, @04:37PM (1 child)
Two meg DSL, for almost $100/month. That is intermittent service, likely to go out if there is lightning within 100 miles. Terrible buffer bloat, among other problems. If I'm to believe our European friends, there isn't a place in western Europe that gets such shoddy, slow service, and certainly not at that price.
My eldest son gave up years ago on gaming. The least demanding role playing games require better service than we get. Imagine shooting at a target in game, and maybe 20 seconds later, you see the results of your shot. Of course, if the game lagged that much, you probably missed. You'll seldom wait that long to see that you hit the target!
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Friday June 02 2017, @10:12AM
Took some campaigning with local gov, but here in rural UK I have the sweet sweet FTTP.
300 down, 150 up. £70 a month which includes a landline too.
However, you will find plenty of rural areas in the UK which are currently not well serviced and 2mb DSL would be a luxury.
We also have that issue in central London, something to do with the lines being aluminum rather then copper, so the DSL is pretty woeful, 2mb if your lucky.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956