Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by progo on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:13PM

    by progo (6356) on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:13PM (#813849) Homepage

    So, this Fox piece which is clearly a paid promotion for BuzzFeed, is using a BuzzFeed fake news story to convince you to follow BozzFeed.

    Brilliant.