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Fake News Sharing in US is a Right-Wing Thing, Says Oxford University Study

posted by martyb on Thursday February 08 2018, @11:20AM   
from the it's-a-right-wing-thing dept.

Fake News Sharing in US is a Right-Wing Thing, Says Study

NewNic writes:

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.

From the Guardian:

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

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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]

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• Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:07PM (7 children)

  by stormwyrm (717) on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:07PM (#634870) Journal

  While Goebbels may not have said such a thing outright, it does seem that such sentiments were indeed expressed by the Nazis:

  Nazi theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as ‘the truth’ exists. There is, for instance, no such thing as ‘Science’. There is only ‘German Science’, ‘Jewish Science’, etc. The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ — well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five — well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs — and after our experiences of the last few years that is not a frivolous statement. — George Orwell, Looking Back on the Spanish War [orwell.ru]

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  Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.

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• Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday February 08 2018, @04:10PM (6 children)

  by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday February 08 2018, @04:10PM (#634974) Homepage

  QI S15 E13 "Omnishambles" a week or so back had an interesting example of some real English fake news from nearly 100 years back. (**igger warning: feminists might be **iggered by what they year. (I Bowdlerise **igger, as I know some are **iggered by the word **igger)) As a fan of the program, I encourage you to just find and watch the whole episode (the "XL" version contains some less-controlled moments that are left out of the shorter version of the program), such that you too might become hooked.

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  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

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  • Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 08 2018, @08:27PM (3 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday February 08 2018, @08:27PM (#635174) Journal

    It seems to me it's mostly the right that gets, well, triggered easily. I mean, hell, look at them trying to undermine our entire secular nation-state's basis in order not to have their feelings hurt by seeing people who think/believe/love/whatever differently than they do actually living their lives. They project a helluva lot too. I don't know anything even close to the John Birch society on the left.

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    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...

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      Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @11:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @11:38PM (#635282)

      I don't know anything even close to the John Birch society on the left.

      If you were to conveniently overlook every single left wing advocacy and protest group then you would have a point.

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      Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @12:39AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @12:39AM (#635315)

      Hmm, while I agree that conservatives are more easily upset in general there are quite a few liberal groups pushing agendas. Care to elaborate a little more? How is PETA not a liberal version of John Birch?

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    • Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday February 09 2018, @06:03AM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Friday February 09 2018, @06:03AM (#635405) Journal

      Well the Center-Right (aka Democrats) are doing their darndest to start a new cold war with the potential for global thermonuclear destruction with Russsia, so let's not give the Right all the credit.

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  • Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @01:59AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @01:59AM (#635352)

    > (I Bowdlerise **igger, as I know some are **iggered by the word **igger)

    It might have been on purpose, but you should still probably "bowdlerize" some letters in the middle instead :)

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    • Re:Surely it depends on what you define as fake ne (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 09 2018, @08:55AM

      by khallow (3766) on Friday February 09 2018, @08:55AM (#635451) Journal

      I bet he hodls bitcoins.

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