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

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.

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

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]


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:39PM (13 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:39PM (#634850) Journal

    That doesn't preclude the likelihood that some liberals at Oxford got together, and decided that "fake news is conservative".

    Letting aside your USian political spectrum is so skewed to the right that you may call all the Oxford guys even communist (when compared with your standard), my question is "Why would they do that"? Not like they stand to gain anything from it, they're not voting in US election, so why?

    Note: you know? you don't get to be an Oxford professor if you are irrational. Maybe you can afford that, they don't

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:54PM

    by NotSanguine (285) <reversethis-{grO ... a} {eniugnaStoN}> on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:54PM (#634858) Homepage Journal

    Don't mind Runaway. He gets a little testy when he doesn't get his regularly scheduled booty bump [tweaker.org].

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:58PM (9 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @12:58PM (#634862) Journal

    my question is "Why would they do that"?

    In other words, aside from the political bias, why would they do that? Let us also note that there is probably considerable funding in providing propaganda that shows one side of a US debate is "fake news".

    • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:02PM (4 children)

      by NotSanguine (285) <reversethis-{grO ... a} {eniugnaStoN}> on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:02PM (#634865) Homepage Journal

      In other words, aside from the political bias, why would they do that? Let us also note that there is probably considerable funding in providing propaganda that shows one side of a US debate is "fake news".

      You may be right. We're all waiting to hear back as to whether or not you can replicate the results.

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
      • (Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:26PM (3 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:26PM (#634888) Journal
        2 million Pounds [ox.ac.uk] over five years. I think that's reasonable for the request above.
        • (Score: 3, Touché) by NotSanguine on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:34PM (2 children)

          by NotSanguine (285) <reversethis-{grO ... a} {eniugnaStoN}> on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:34PM (#634896) Homepage Journal

          I made no assertions as to the invalidity of the results. You did.

          Either provide evidence to support those assertions or quit pretending you're doing anything other than hand waving and making unfounded claims.

          --
          No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
          • (Score: 2) by arulatas on Thursday February 08 2018, @07:59PM (1 child)

            by arulatas (3600) on Thursday February 08 2018, @07:59PM (#635162)

            I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
            George Bernard Shaw

            --
            ----- 10 turns around
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @10:44PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @10:44PM (#635261)

              George Bernard Shaw [youtube.com] would have gassed the pigs and you may as well be quoting Hitler or Stalin.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:14PM (2 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:14PM (#634874) Journal

      In other words, aside from the political bias, why would they do that?

      .uk TLD [wikipedia.org] Are you saying that not only Russians are trying to influence US elections, but the brits too?

      TFA is a study of propaganda using social media and uses US as a subject. The author political bias is absolutely inconsequential for US politics.
      But you may be right to worry, it may throw some rocks into the propaganda machines even if not intended as such.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:29PM (1 child)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:29PM (#634891) Journal
        European Union [ox.ac.uk] actually. They're the ones directly funding the organization in question. And such research can also be used to attack Brexit and other separatist outbreaks.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @02:21PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @02:21PM (#634926)

          Search for open mics in your area, I'm sure your comedy will improve if you persist enough.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @02:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @02:15PM (#634925)

      The butthurt is strong in this one. /Yoda

  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:30PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:30PM (#634893) Journal

    Why? For any number of reasons. Boredom is a possibility. A bunch of bored students sitting around, talking about the savages in the States, and their stupid elections. "Hey, let's see if all that fake news is put out by the right, or the far right, alright?" "Ha! Just as I suspected! America's right may put out fake news, but most of it is from the extreme right, or alt-right!"

    So, uhhhh - you tell us: Why did they do this study?

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:57PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:57PM (#634916) Journal

      So, uhhhh - you tell us: Why did they do this study?

      DRY [soylentnews.org]

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford