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posted by mrpg on Wednesday March 13 2019, @12:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the ok dept.

'Momo' may be 'dead,' but experts say avoiding the next hoax is up to us

[...] So how did we get here? How did this apparent hoax, now just the latest fodder for internet memes, wind up causing panic among parents in countries from India to Colombia, from the UK to the United States, and from the Houses of Parliament to U.S. police agencies?

[...] Laura Hazard Owen, deputy editor of Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab, called the "Momo challenge" phenomenon "the most fascinating/unique fake news story I've covered in awhile." The problem, she said, was that most of the news stories warning people about "Momo" appeared to be based on hearsay. One local news station, she pointed out, "simply interviewed a 5-year-old," while others ran with anecdotes from parents who had heard from their child that they had heard from another child... you get the point.

[...] "Unless you can watch all media, TV and news, consciously, step back from it, get a little distance and ask yourself what's being said, you're going to be taken in," Dr. Mramor argued. "It's like when you're watching a scary movie and get sucked into the plot... be a conscious consumer," she said. "And if more people were, this would never have happened. We wouldn't even be talking about this story."


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 13 2019, @05:06PM (4 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 13 2019, @05:06PM (#813818) Journal

    I don't know what Momo is. Seriously. And I suspect it is not even worth a DDG.

    Does that make me stupid? Ignorant? Uninformed?

    Or smart or better things to do with my life, or something?

    I simply don't know.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @05:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @05:12PM (#813822)

    Probably one of these 14 movies: https://www.imdb.com/find?q=momo&s=tt&exact=true&ref_=fn_tt_ex [imdb.com]

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday March 13 2019, @05:41PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday March 13 2019, @05:41PM (#813835)

    Happy paradox : You have to take the time to learn why you shouldn't waste your time with this.

  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:28PM

    by sjames (2882) on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:28PM (#813855) Journal

    Honestly, I was expecting an article about Missouri's version of Bigfoot [wikipedia.org].

    Thinking about it, that legend is very slightly more credible than the one "the authorities" warned about since there are actual (possibly intoxicated) people who claim to have seen it in person.

  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday March 14 2019, @04:53PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday March 14 2019, @04:53PM (#814298) Journal

    It means you are not conversant with the data sources through which moral panics are transmitted. Overall verdict: More intelligent than average.

    --
    This sig for rent.