Introduction - American Library Association | Awards ...



FAKE NEWS VS. THE DEMOCRATIC SURROUNDWritten by Alan Bern, 2017 ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies IntroductionWhat follows are my recent explorations into the realms of fake news and alternative facts in this amazing period. I have followed some of my personal interests and bents, and, by no means, is this exhaustive in any way. I hope that others will be intrigued and appalled -- as I have been -- and add to, and argue with, the issues that I have raised and noted. It is also important to note that the American Library Association (ALA) Council continues to follow these issues, primarily through the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, and has recently updated its statement on disinformation: is fake news? Is it merely lying, or is it more about the method to the lying and the reasons for it? Lying is everywhere, but lying as a manipulation of reality by those with political power to fulfill their agenda is something else. First, fake news is nothing new at all: “What we are now calling fake news—misinformation that people fall for—is nothing new. Thousands of years ago, in the Republic, Plato offered up a hellish vision of people who mistake shadows cast on a wall for reality.” news/news-desk/solving-the-problem-of-fake-news. . “The long and brutal history of fake news” really took off around the time Gutenberg produced a printing press in Europe. 550 years after Gutenberg, we are now faced with a modern version of the problem: “It wasn’t until the rise of web-generated news that our era’s journalistic norms were seriously challenged, and fake news became a powerful force again. Digital news, you might say, has brought yellow journalism back to the fore. For one, algorithms that create news feeds and compilations have no regard for accuracy and objectivity.” And fake news can be created by a robot, sometimes without the robot’s makers even knowing that it is being created. If not robots, how about reporters: “But today, these popular role models [reporters] and societal links [of the press] are gone, and, with them, a trusted filter within civil society—the sort of filter that can say with authority to fellow local citizens that fake news is not only fake, it is also potentially deadly.” “The Long and Brutal History of Fake News: Bogus news has been around a lot longer than real news. And it’s left a lot of destruction behind. By?JACOB SOLL December 18, 2016”: “In some cases they [fake news reports] have had violent results: Earlier this month a man armed with an AR-15 fired a shot inside a Washington, D.C., restaurant, claiming to be investigating (fake) reports that Clinton aide John Podesta was heading up a child abuse ring there.” How is this fake news report different from yelling FIRE in a crowded theater? If it is different, then how different is it? And what about other fake news: is lying about where terrorists are coming from – or wholly created reports of ballot fraud or related issues – are they not similar to yelling fire in a crowded theater? And does fake news deserve free speech as many claim OR is there a line that has been crossed? For example, yelling fire in a crowded theater is generally NOT covered by free speech.And what is different in comparing our early 21st century period with the fake news of 20th century fascism and fascist tendencies. One key element is similar: “an absolute disregard for facts and a celebration of myth combined with a reversionary desire to return to an imagined state of greatness from the past.” Also similar is a celebration of heterosexual masculinity: e.g., Putin’s shirtlessness and Trump’s hands-size are similar to some of the images and myths used by Hitler and Mussolini, as are their charismatic leadership styles. It is also useful to compare the integration of the corporations and state by Trump with Mussolini’s efforts. And, of course, all three rely on deep structural racism. What about a technological fix? “Facebook tried to create a feature to highlight Trending Topics from around the site in people’s feeds. First, it had a team of humans edit the feature, but controversy erupted when some accused the platform of being biased against conservatives. So, Facebook then turned the job over to algorithms only to find that they could not discern real news from fake news.Cathy O’Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, pointed out that predictive analytics based on algorithms tend to punish the poor, using algorithmic hiring practices as an example.Well-intentioned algorithms can be sabotaged by bad actors. An internet slowdown swept the East Coast of the U.S. on Oct. 21, 2016, after hackers bombarded Dyn DNS, an internet traffic handler, with information that overloaded its circuits, ushering in a new era of internet attacks powered by internet-connected devices. This after internet security expert Bruce Schneier warned in September that “Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet.” And the abuse of Facebook’s News Feed algorithm and general promulgation of fake news online became controversial as the 2016 U.S. presidential election proceeded.” Buzzfeed News There is so much fake news that the press ends up having to decide when to publish what and how much and how long to check. Bottom line: “But the role of the press in a free society is not to polish up its image with the public but to publish stories that are out there, being talked about, and in some way shaping public discussion.” Mark Zuckerberg has been writing about Facebook’s issues with fake news for over a year, but recently has written a long, new statement (see excerpts from a description of his post below). On MSNBC’s 3-13-17 Morning Joe, Ramesh Srinivasan, Associate Professor, UCLA - Dept. of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts, and author of the very recent Whose Global Village?: Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World, was interviewed and made fascinating points about how Facebook might have affected our last presidential election. He also made the astonishing claim that in his studies he was able to determine that there are now more fake news stories on Facebook than there are news stories through our other regular media sources. This is astounding and – though some users may deny that it is a problem – it is a definite problem for all users of Facebook in determining what is fake news, especially younger users who may have never yet had an opportunity to learn digital literacy or critical thinking skills. Furthermore, some in power are now using Facebook to gather data about people’s interests and habits in order to send them just the sort of fake news that fits, a sort of niche political marketing.A few excerpts from recode’s description of Mark Zuckerberg’s post:?? “Not surprisingly, given the intense focus on it of late by politicians and also other tech companies, Zuckerberg also discussed Facebook’s struggle with what he called "fake news" and?"filter bubbles," defending social media for providing "more diverse viewpoints than traditional media ever has."…"In the last year, the complexity of the issues we've seen has outstripped our existing processes for governing the community," he wrote. "We've seen this in misclassifying hate speech in political debates in both directions — taking down accounts and content that should be left up and leaving up content that was hateful and should be taken down."…“There is a lot more Zuckerberg wrote — 6,000 words is super-long, but you can read it all here. But it is clear that he sees that Facebook’s typical hands-off, we-are-just-a-platform-and-have-no-responsibility-here tone has to change.Consider his use of a quote by Abraham Lincoln to state the very obvious — that this is one screwy world these days and it requires a lot more than just tech to make it better. According to Zuckerberg, channeling one of our greatest presidents who presided in a world of strife, this requires community and cooperation, as well as action:"We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'can any of us imagine better?' but, 'can we all do better?' The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, act anew."Stormy present indeed.”Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wrote a 6,000-word letter addressing fake news and saving the world: The tech leader wants the social network to help fix everything from polarization to terrorist attacks to how we live together. Even if fake news is protected by the First Amendment’s right of free speech, fake news can cause, often predictable, harm in a number of different ways. The primary point is that fake news is purposeful – what I call “lying” – and needs to be questioned, as much by librarians as by educators and the media. Like the media, we librarians can firmly ask questions about sources and source reliability; but it does not seem out of line to also question motivation.Like other educators, librarians could also offer critical-thinking based classes and workshops on determining what is fake news and what is not.Librarians could have paper and digital displays about fake news and alternative facts. “The fight against fake news is putting librarians on the front line – and they say they’re ready. As fake news and complex immigration orders have inundated the public sphere, libraries are opening their doors and fact-checking skills to people of all backgrounds seeking information.”? “Librarian offers tips for identifying ‘fake news’ Using her expertise in digital literacy, Julien [Heidi Julien, Professor and Chair of the Department of Library and Information Studies, University at Buffalo] recommends using the “CRAP” test to decide whether what you’re reading or hearing passes the “smell test”:Ask how Current the information is. Is it recent? When was the website last updated?Ask whether the information is Reliable. What is included and what has been left out? Is the information opinion or are there verifiable facts, data or references used to back it up? Is the information presented in a balanced way, including more than a single point of view?Ask whether the information is Authoritative. Who created the information? What are the credentials of that creator? Who published or sponsored the information, and are they reputable? What interest or perspective is being represented by the creators or publishers of the information? Are there advertisements on the website that suggest who’s paying to produce the information?Ask what Purpose or point of view is being promoted by the information. Is it fact or opinion? Is it biased? Is it trying to sell you something?Asking these questions of any information source will help you discern whether you can rely on it or whether you should beware.” buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2017/01/julien-fake-news.html ***The Huffington Post***Besides our information literacy and programming design skills, do libraries and librarians have other things to offer in combatting fake news?Perhaps the last century is instructive. In responding to – and fighting – fascism, artists, philosophers, architects, and others imagined empowering the individual beyond merely giving them a collective response to fascist ideology since that was still a mass response:“At the start of World War II, the democratic surround [photographic exhibits such as those organized by Herbert Bayer and Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York] presented a powerful alternative to mass media and totalitarian society. But it also represented a turn toward the managerial mode of control that haunts our culture today…As we log on to our computers and finger our cell phones, we each find our way through a landscape of images and sounds, and we practice the modes of interaction on which the Committee for National Morale once suggested democracy depends. But we do so in terms that have been set for us by distant experts…Today, many continue to welcome such management, albeit on behalf of new freedoms…What has disappeared is the deeply democratic vision that animated the turn toward mediated environments in the first place, and that sustained it across the 1950s and 1960s…The ideal of a radically liberal, artistic, and egalitarian society once lived where we might least have expected it to: in the media, at the heart of America’s leading intellectual, artistic, and political institutions.” Can it live there again? Fred Turner has written The Democratic Surround (2013) with the hope that new generations can recapture this truly democratic practice and possibility. How can libraries suggest and support such democratic participation?***Mission of The News Literacy Project, supported by Facebook: “The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a nonpartisan national education nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. NLP provides these students with the essential skills they need to become smart, active consumers of news and information and engaged, informed citizens.” ***How does fake news affect our younger (under 14) library patrons? The answer is not yet clear, but we have hints from work done with high school students and with millennials within and outside college. Much has changed with information over the recent past. Access has increased so much and has become so quick while the amount of information online has literally exploded that there is an information glut; however, partly due to the glut, evaluation has become more of a challenge for all of us, and younger people are no exception. Speed is a huge issue: evaluation takes time, and people must slow down to do proper evaluation. Also, tools like social media are great for communication and information dispersal, but they can be very difficult to evaluate; that is, many will forward information through social media without knowing much about what they are forwarding. Evaluation is necessary even if one trusts the person who has sent it. This is a concept that needs to be discussed and taught in schools. Plus, many of the fake news sites have made it more difficult to determine that they are fake. Alternative facts are posited as an alternative when they are simply made up.Given shrinking budgets, especially for school libraries, it is a challenge for school (and public) librarians to teach these information literacy skills. If a librarian has not graduated recently, it may be necessary to take an information literacy course now in order to be able to teach these skills.Perhaps some of the ideas that are useful to helping seniors weed out fake news could also be used with younger patrons: programming (including workshops and classes) and one-on-one training either at the desk or at a nearby computer. Optimists hope that students will ask for help with fake news. Even without a request, help can be offered. ***My main deduction from all this: librarians, among others, should keep very close contact with writings on fake news, an ever-changing and expanding issue. So much is at risk. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download