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The Truth, the whole Truth & nothing but the Truth. Right…

Media Literacy Various academics project that our media literacy level determines how we can access, evaluate and communicate messages using the internet.  Thoman and Jolls (2005: 190) emphasise an understanding of the role of media in society and essential skills of inquiry. Continue reading →

Assessing Reliability and Authenticity on the Web: Mainstream Media

Online news can take many forms, but I want to focus on the reliability of mainstream network media in their broadcasting and online platforms. The ‘decreasing objectivity’ of online platforms have made the web a polarisation machine. (Simpson, 2012) Politically, for instance, the right tend more towards the right; and the left towards the left. Continue reading →

Assessing Reliability and Authenticity on the Web: Mainstream Media

Online news can take many forms, but I want to focus on the reliability of mainstream network media in their broadcasting and online platforms. The ‘decreasing objectivity’ of online platforms have made the web a polarisation machine. (Simpson, 2012) Politically, for instance, the right tend more towards the right; and the left towards the left. Continue reading →

“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it”- Jonathan Swift

Reference for the Quote in the Title. An issue that needs addressing: A BuzzFeed News analysis found that in the last 3 months of the most recent US presidential campaign, the top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more engagement than the top stories from major news outlets. During this time, 20 false election stories from hoax sites generated 8,711,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook (BuzzFeed, 2016). Continue reading →

“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it”- Jonathan Swift

Reference for the Quote in the Title. An issue that needs addressing: A BuzzFeed News analysis found that in the last 3 months of the most recent US presidential campaign, the top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more engagement than the top stories from major news outlets. During this time, 20 false election stories from hoax sites generated 8,711,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook (BuzzFeed, 2016). Continue reading →

Thanks, Donald Trump

Thanks, Donald Trump. Because of you ‘fake news’ has become Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2017 (Hunt, 2017). Although not a new phenomenon, fake news has become a part of everyday life stemming from social media’s influence within Brexit and the recent US General Election (Dice, 2017). Below is an infographic created through Canva examining the public response to fake news: Source: Infographic created through Canva. Continue reading →

Thanks, Donald Trump

Thanks, Donald Trump. Because of you ‘fake news’ has become Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2017 (Hunt, 2017). Although not a new phenomenon, fake news has become a part of everyday life stemming from social media’s influence within Brexit and the recent US General Election (Dice, 2017). Below is an infographic created through Canva examining the public response to fake news: Source: Infographic created through Canva. Continue reading →

Thanks, Donald Trump

Thanks, Donald Trump. Because of you ‘fake news’ has become Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2017 (Hunt, 2017). Although not a new phenomenon, fake news has become a part of everyday life stemming from social media’s influence within Brexit and the recent US General Election (Dice, 2017). Below is an infographic created through Canva examining the public response to fake news: Source: Infographic created through Canva. Continue reading →

Thanks, Donald Trump

Thanks, Donald Trump. Because of you ‘fake news’ has become Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2017 (Hunt, 2017). Although not a new phenomenon, fake news has become a part of everyday life stemming from social media’s influence within Brexit and the recent US General Election (Dice, 2017). Below is an infographic created through Canva examining the public response to fake news: Source: Infographic created through Canva. Continue reading →

Web 2.0. The real reason fake news exists?

What is a fake news? Fake news has recently launched into public debate, partly due to alleged Russian intervention in foreign political processes (Peters, 2017). Oxford Dictionaries define this phenomenon as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. Fake news articles deliberately intend to mislead readers to promote an agenda or idea. Continue reading →

New Oxford Study – 88% of all statistics online are made up

A recent study from Columbia University reveals a frightening statistic; 59% of shared links online have never been opened (Gabielkov et al., 2016). The subsequent impact that an entirely fictitious title can have – such as this blog title – can, therefore, contribute largely to the fake news pandemic as this article(Dewey, 2016) alludes to. Continue reading →

Fact or Fiction…or Fake?!

Introduction I am beginning to wonder if this module is a sort of crystal ball, running parallel to my dissertation! Just as other topics did (Digital Divide and Digital Residency) fake news links very strongly to my work. It is a quite a complex phenomenon and I have therefore prepared this short video, providing some definitions and some examples. Continue reading →

Fact or Fiction…or Fake?!

Introduction I am beginning to wonder if this module is a sort of crystal ball, running parallel to my dissertation! Just as other topics did (Digital Divide and Digital Residency) fake news links very strongly to my work. It is a quite a complex phenomenon and I have therefore prepared this short video, providing some definitions and some examples. Continue reading →

Checkmate. (Check Your Sources, Mate) – Topic 2

Introduction We live in a world where information is available 24/7. Information can be obtained through learning networks, online and physical resources (FutureLearn, 2017). However, the challenge lies in constructing a consistent method for analysing authenticity of information. Continue reading →

Checkmate. (Check Your Sources, Mate) – Topic 2

Introduction We live in a world where information is available 24/7. Information can be obtained through learning networks, online and physical resources (FutureLearn, 2017). However, the challenge lies in constructing a consistent method for analysing authenticity of information. Continue reading →

Earn £20 by reading this post!

Did you believe me? Unfortunately, you won’t be getting £20, sorry to disappoint you, but there is definitely a lot of false information and identities online and this is just one example! NEWS People likes to receive news in different forms, the statistic below displays the main source of news for different age groups. It can be seen that online is the most popular source of news. Main source of news by age. (Newman et al. Continue reading →

Earn £20 by reading this post!

Did you believe me? Unfortunately, you won’t be getting £20, sorry to disappoint you, but there is definitely a lot of false information and identities online and this is just one example! NEWS People likes to receive news in different forms, the statistic below displays the main source of news for different age groups. It can be seen that online is the most popular source of news. Main source of news by age. (Newman et al. Continue reading →

Earn £20 by reading this post!

Did you believe me? Unfortunately, you won’t be getting £20, sorry to disappoint you, but there is definitely a lot of false information and identities online and this is just one example! NEWS People likes to receive news in different forms, the statistic below displays the main source of news for different age groups. It can be seen that online is the most popular source of news. Main source of news by age. (Newman et al. Continue reading →

Feedback from Topic 1

The standard of work for this topic was generally good and the use of visual elements, many self-produced, has improved too. Hoping to see more self-produced videos in the next topic though. It was great to see the use of H5P by Tom Davidson and Tom Rowledge - well done. General Comments It is important to research widely and deeply into the topic and then apply a critical mind to the question. Continue reading →

Popping the ‘Fake News’ Bubble – Topic 2

Fake news – although not a recent phenomenon – has become somewhat of an epidemic in the past few years due to social media usage. It’s recent impact on events such as the U.S. elections (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017) and Britain’s Brexit (Kucharski, 2016) has certainly created a heightened awareness around fake news. So, are we still able to use the internet as a learning tool? Click to view slideshow. Continue reading →