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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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Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

• Re:Just for fun Re:Just for fun (Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:14PM (5 children)

  by TheRaven (270) on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:14PM (#634876) Journal

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

  First, they're not saying that "fake news is conservative", they saying that when fake news is released conservatives are more likely to repeat it.

  --
  sudo mod me up

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Informative=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
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• Re:Just for fun Re:Just for fun (Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:35PM (4 children)

  by khallow (3766) on Thursday February 08 2018, @01:35PM (#634900) Journal

  First, they're not saying that "fake news is conservative", they saying that when fake news is released conservatives are more likely to repeat it.

  Which if it were true, would be an interesting bit of weaseling since the majority of "fake news" outlets that they list are alt-right. From what I've read, it doesn't appear that they actually make that claim.

  Parent

  • Re:Just for fun Re:Just for fun (Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday February 08 2018, @04:48PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday February 08 2018, @04:48PM (#635005) Homepage

    It appears you've not read the article. Or even its abstract. The whole thing is framed in terms of the *sharing*:
      "we find that the distribution of such content is unevenly spread",
      "... shares the widest range"
      "... circulates more"
      "... share the widest range"
      "... circulate more"
      "... share a wider range"
    And that's just the one-paragraph abstract.
    
    The "..." aren't important to refute your bizarre claim, but in case you're interested in the content of the study at all, rather than just spouting off from a position of ignorance, the Conservatives are the ones distribute the(ir) fake news more widely and more often.

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

    Parent

    • Re:Just for fun (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @06:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @06:53PM (#635117)

      I think he's kind of showing himself to be the poster child for what the paper is about.

      Parent

  • Re:Just for fun Re:Just for fun (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @07:17PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @07:17PM (#635133)

    Which if it were true, would be an interesting bit of weaseling since the majority of "fake news" outlets that they list are alt-right.

    Wow! Amazing! Why is that, do you think? Researchers go looking for "fake news", and they find it in Brietbarf and the Washington (Moonie) Times? And so they list all these far right news sources because they contain false news and right-wing nut-jobs share this false news from the false news source to other right-wing nut-jobs? Shocking! Thanks for pointing this out, khallow! I will share this with all my peeps on Gab!

    Parent

    • Re:Just for fun (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @10:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 08 2018, @10:20PM (#635239)

      And this... [gop.com] this too [theintercept.com]

      Parent