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Fake News Sharing in US is a Right-Wing Thing, Says Study
A study by researchers at Oxford University concluded that sharing fake and junk news is much more prevalent amongst Trump supporters and other people with hard right-wing tendencies.
The study, from the university's "computational propaganda project", looked at the most significant sources of "junk news" shared in the three months leading up to Donald Trump's first State of the Union address this January, and tried to find out who was sharing them and why.
"On Twitter, a network of Trump supporters consumes the largest volume of junk news, and junk news is the largest proportion of news links they share," the researchers concluded. On Facebook, the skew was even greater. There, "extreme hard right pages – distinct from Republican pages – share more junk news than all the other audiences put together.
Polarization, Partisanship and Junk News Consumption over Social Media in the US
What kinds of social media users read junk news? We examine the distribution of the most significant sources of junk news in the three months before President Donald Trump's first State of the Union Address. Drawing on a list of sources that consistently publish political news and information that is extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news and other forms of junk news, we find that the distribution of such content is unevenly spread across the ideological spectrum. We demonstrate that (1) on Twitter, a network of Trump supporters shares the widest range of known junk news sources and circulates more junk news than all the other groups put together; (2) on Facebook, extreme hard right pages—distinct from Republican pages—share the widest range of known junk news sources and circulate more junk news than all the other audiences put together; (3) on average, the audiences for junk news on Twitter share a wider range of known junk news sources than audiences on Facebook's public pages.
http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/polarization-partisanship-and-junk-news/
[Ed. note: page is loading very slowly; try a direct link to the actual report (pdf). --martyb]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 09 2018, @05:46PM
The biggest thing I heard about from Liberal voters when Obama was running and in Office was how great "Obamacare" would be. It was going to give everyone health insurance and would reduce costs! Very soon after "Obamacare" went it effect, magically we had a significant bump Up in cost of health insurance. I also didn't hear much touting of how awesome "Obamacare" was from them, either.
You can say, No one offers Me money to vote, but you would be wrong. The Politicans Promise, better wages, hand-outs to the needy, etc. Yes, I support helping those in need. No, I don't think we should make it so that the Only way to get by for some people is to have more children, so they can get that extra money. You know, so they can spend it on needed things like Cigarettes and Beer.
Sure, you're not literally paid money by some shady guy in an alley for your vote. That doesn't mean politicians haven't been buying votes.
The most interesting example I can think of is Davy Crockett. When he was running against someone, he would talk first, then invite everyone out to the bar, before the other guy could speak. Quite nearly, literally, buying their votes. Apparently, this wasn't a novelty in the era, either. https://johncashon.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/davy-crockett-and-the-coon-skin-trick/comment-page-1/ [wordpress.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"