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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: 1, Flamebait) by frojack on Thursday February 08 2018, @09:13PM (12 children)
You're the clown who said:
Stop trying to make it about something I said.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday February 08 2018, @10:35PM (11 children)
Yes, I said that because it's true. Your silly deflection does not apply. Crooked politicians don't just magically occupy the office for 20 years or more. It takes votes. And those votes have to be bought, not with cash, but a mere promise, and illusion of future prosperity through austerity.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 09 2018, @01:42AM (2 children)
> It takes votes. And those votes have to be bought, not with cash, but a mere promise
Uh, isn't that how this whole "democracy" thing works? Politicians make promises, people vote for them based on those promises. Crooked or not, the process is exactly the same.
You're not speaking against corruption or whatever, you're speaking against the very idea of democracy :/
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 09 2018, @05:10PM
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday February 09 2018, @06:11PM
No, I'm saying democracy is only as good as its participants. Like everything else, garbage in-garbage out. People who complain about their (re)elected representatives are being very silly. Maybe they are blinded and confused by the clarity of the count. I certainly cannot share their feelings in light of the very process at their disposal that that can change things overnight should the desire ever arise.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 09 2018, @08:58AM (7 children)
You had me to this point. Austerity hasn't been a notable component of such promises or the subsequent spending.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday February 09 2018, @01:29PM (6 children)
Austerity has been part of the agenda since Nixon. Your other politicians might call it "reform" of some kind, which could explain the confusion, but it is austerity.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 09 2018, @04:09PM (5 children)
Sorry, that's not austerity. Austerity is a recent buzzword for policies forcibly imposed on the economically more dysfunctional countries of Europe such as Greece and Cyprus. And fiscal conservatism has been a thing much longer than Nixon.
I would classify this whole mess of issues as voting for promises rather than actions. Promises are very cheap to deliver.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday February 09 2018, @04:57PM (4 children)
I would classify this whole mess of issues as voting for promises
Yes, voters sell their votes for a promise, and they are told to reduce their expectations so the same promise can be made for reelection.
"fiscal conservatism" and "austerity" may differ by degree, but not in principle. One just makes the other appear more palatable. What happened in Greece and Cyprus was outright theft of government assets by the banks, pretty much what other "free trade" agreements are doing to the rest of the world.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 09 2018, @05:31PM (3 children)
Ok, what is supposed to be the problem with that? Sounds like the expectations are made more realistic in that case.
And if it had gone the other way, it would have been theft of bank assets by those governments. Those governments have been borrowing money for a long time in bad faith and the banks had been lending in a similar bad faith. The best solution would have been for both sides to take a haircut. Have those countries go into austerity but with a portion of the loans forgiven at the expense of the banks.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday February 09 2018, @05:43PM (2 children)
Ok, what is supposed to be the problem with that?
I am merely pointing out why corrupt politicians keep their jobs. It is the voters who keep them there for their own personal reasons, yet try to pass blame when things go wrong. That is the objective reality that was sarcastically being 'denied' that I was commenting on, and some people seem to have some doubts, and I am asking why they would deny some of the most obvious things about nature.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 09 2018, @06:19PM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday February 09 2018, @06:49PM
Well, you're right. In absolute terms, "corruption" is a poor choice of words, taken from a non-neutral viewpoint. Maybe I sent a mixed message. I am really targeting the people who complain about politicians and the "system" in general. It is no more "corrupt" than they are.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..