Sock puppet: An online user posing as another person-often a real person-usually to express their own views anonymously. Poe’s law: Taken from a comment made by an online forum participant, Nathan Poe, the idea that it is nearly impossible to distinguish between an extremist view and a parody of it without clear evidence of the author’s purpose. Motivated reasoning: The tendency to process new information in such a way that it will fit with previously held beliefs. Illusion of comprehension: A cognitive bias that occurs when people mistake familiarity or awareness for understanding. Information diet: The kinds and quantity of information that a person consumes on a regular basis. Homophily: The tendency to form connections with people who are similar to oneself. Heuristic: A cognitive shortcut, rule or method that helps people solve problems in less time than it would take to think the problem all the way through.

Group polarization: A group’s tendency to make more extreme decisions than its individual members would typically be inclined to make. Write a short explanation or example of how this term relates to the 'fake news' phenomenon.Īpophenia: The tendency to perceive meaningful connections in unrelated things seeing patterns where none exist.Īstroturfing: The practice of concealing the financial stakeholders promoting a message or an organization so that it seems to come from and be supported by grassroots entities.īelief perseverance: The tendency to continue believing something even after learning that the foundation of the belief is false.Ĭonfirmation bias: The tendency to process new information as confirmation of the beliefs one already holds.Ĭognitive bias: A mental-processing error (e.g., in reasoning, interpreting or remembering) that often results from clinging to preferences and beliefs in spite of contrary evidence.Ĭomputational propaganda: The manipulation of information and communication technologies to influence attitudes, thinking processes and behavior.Ĭounterknowledge: Inaccurate information that is presented as fact and is believed by a critical mass of people.ĭisinformation: False information that is disseminated to the media or other entities with the purpose of deceiving.ĭunning-Kruger effect: A cognitive bias that leads people of limited skills or knowledge to mistakenly believe their abilities are greater than they actually are.įilter bubble: The limited perspective that can result from personalized search algorithms.Yellow Journalism - term used to describe sensational headlines intended to sell newspapers Unethical journalistic practices - inventing sources, for instance Spin - selective telling of facts, using tone to project bias, using language to elicit a responseĬontainer - this refers to the publication title, web site name, news media outlet name, name of the organization sponsoring an article or piece of information. Perspective - Point of view, standpoint, how someone interprets the facts Post-truth - 'Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.' Oxford Dictionariesīias - prejudice, unfounded skewing of information 'Language, statistical figures, graphics, and other forms of presentation intended to persuade by impressing and overwhelming a reader or listener with a blatant disregard for truth and logical coherence.' (Carl Bergstrom )

Other people broaden the definition to include deliberate spread of misinformation to persuade someone. Fake news will not help you make money or make the world a better place, but real news can.īorrowed with permission from Indiana University East.įake news - Some people define 'fake news' as news that is created to make money. If you are planning on voting in an election, you want to read as much good information on a candidate so you can vote for the person who best represents your ideas and beliefs. If you want to buy stock in a company, you want to read accurate articles about that company so you can invest wisely. These sites are heavily visited and their lies are dangerous. Purveyors of fake and misleading medical advice like and help perpetuate myths like HIV and AIDS aren't related, or that vaccines cause autism.

Fake news can hurt you, and a lot of other people.

If your arguments are built on bad information, it will be much more difficult for people to believe you in the future. You have every right to be insulted when you read fake news, because you are in essence being treated like an idiot. You are smart enough to make up your own mind - as long as you have the real facts in front of you. Why should you care about whether or not your news is real or fake?

Bias by headline examples