Fake News in a Post-Truth Society: The Death of Cri:cal Thinking? · 2016-12-07 · • Fake news...

FakeNewsinaPost-TruthSociety:TheDeathofCri:calThinking?

PHL130//Fall2016O’Rourke&Gibson

Whatiscri:calthinking?

•  Workingdefini@on:

Cri@calthinkingisthinkingthatinvolvestheprincipledapplica@onofstandardsandcriteriaintheevalua@onofprac@calandtheore@calop@onsforthepurposeofreachingconclusionsaboutthoseop@ons.

(hKp://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/crit_think/Chapter-Two-1.htm)

•  Argumentscons@tutetheevalua@veappli-ca@onofstandardsandcriteria

Howistruthimportanthere?

•  Truth–understoodascorrespondencetothefacts–isimportantinseveralways:•  Theprincipledapplica@onofstandards

requiresonetobesensi@vetothefacts•  Youneedtogettheop@onsrightinorderto

evaluatetheminaprincipledway•  Conclusionsaregoingtobemoredefensibleif

theyaretrueorarebasedintruth

Dissen:ngopinions

•  Thrasymachus:“Isaythatjus@ceisnothingotherthantheadvantageofthestronger”(Plat.Rep.1.338c)

Dissen:ngopinions

•  Protagoras:“itisequallypossibletoaffirmandtodenyanythingofanything”(Ari-stotle,Metaphysics1007b20–22)

Dissen:ngopinions

•  Sco`eNellHughes:“There’snosuchthing,unfortunately,anymore,offacts”-(DianeRehmShow)

Arewea“post-truth”society?

•  Whatispost-truth?•  OxfordDic@onaries2016WordoftheYear

(hKp://www.npr.org/sec@ons/13.7/2016/12/02/502542397/is-being-post-truth-a-new-concept)

Arewea“post-truth”society?

•  Whatispost-truth?•  OxfordDic@onaries2016WordoftheYear•  Defini@on:

“anadjec@vedefinedas‘rela@ngtoordeno@ngcircumstancesinwhichobjec@vefactsarelessinfluen@alinshapingpublicopinionthanappealstoemo@onandpersonalbelief.’”

(hKps://en.oxforddic@onaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016)

Arewea“post-truth”society?

•  Itwouldbegoodtogoslowhere…•  First,truthmaKerstomostofus•  Second,truthhasalwaysbeencontested•  OnmanymaKers,therearedeepdifferences

ofopinion•  InthesemaKers,weokensuspectbias,

whichisasubjec@vedeparturefromthetruth

Arewea“post-truth”society?

•  Third,poli@cianshavealwayshadacasualrela@onshipwiththetruth

•  Butatleastithasbeenimportanttocul@vatetheappearanceofhonesty

•  Un:lnow?

Arewea“post-truth”society?

•  Proposal:Twowaysthatwemightbepost-truth1.  Weallowcandidatestoassertcontradic@ons

andblatantlyliewithoutthatbeingadeal-breaker

2.  WhilecommiKedonthesurfaceto“truth”,wearenotcommiKedtothemeansofachievingit(e.g.,sciencedenialism)

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

•  Whatisfakenews?•  It’snotnew

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

•  Whatisfakenews?•  Youarefamiliarwithvarioussortsofit

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

•  Whatisfakenews?•  Varie@esofnon-news“news”:

•  Sa@reorcomedy•  Rumororgossip•  Sponsoredcontent•  Non-mainstreaminterpreta@onoffacts•  Poorlyreportedorjustincompetentnews

hKp://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/11/30/why-stopping-fake-news-is-so-hard/#7fec6a5a11e6

•  Thesearen’tnecessarilyfakenews,though

Howdoesfakenewsfigurein?

•  Whatisfakenews?•  Acharacteriza@on:

Astoryisfakenewsifitis(a)astoryknowntobefalseinten@onallypresentedasifitweretrue,or(b)informa@onthatisknowntobeunreliablepresentedasifitwerereliable,or(c)inten@onallymisleadinginforma@onpresentedwithoutanyaKempttocorrectthereader

Whyisfakenewsimportantnow?

Whyisfakenewsimportantnow?

•  Socialmediaincreasesthevolumeandrateofexposuretofakenews

•  Fakenewsispresentedinwaysthatcanbeseduc@veandinsidious

•  Wearen’tverygoodatiden@fyingit•  Ithasbeenwidelyspeculatedthatfake

newshadanimpactontherecentelec@on

Howtospotfakenews

1.  Readmorethanjusttheheadlineandthefirstfewlines–isitajoke?

2.  Whatisthesourceofthear@cle?Lookthatsourceup,esp.the“AboutUs”page

hKp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-guide-facebook_us_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169hKp://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

Howtospotfakenews

Howtospotfakenews

Howtospotfakenews

1.  Readmorethanjusttheheadlineandthefirstfewlines–isitajoke?

2.  Whatisthesourceofthear@cle?Lookthatsourceup,esp.the“AboutUs”page

3.  Checkthedateand@meofthepublica@on–isitoldnewspassedoffasnew?

4.  Whoistheauthor?Looktheauthoruptoseewhatyoucanfindoutaboutthem

hKp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-guide-facebook_us_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169hKp://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

Howtospotfakenews

5.  Aretherelinksandsources?Ifso,whatcanyoulearnaboutthem?Aretheylegit?

6.  Lookatthephotosandthequotes–searchforthemelsewhere

7.  Don’tgiveintoconfirma@onbias!Thisisinpartwhyechochambersaresocomfortable

8.  Areothernewsoutletsrepor@ngit?hKp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-guide-facebook_us_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169

hKp://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

Howtospotfakenews

9.  Checkwiththe“fakenews”experts–e.g.,snopes.org,FactCheck.org,Poli@Fact.com

hKp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-guide-facebook_us_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169hKp://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

Groupexercise

Splitupintogroupsof5and:1.  Findonefakenewsar@cle2.  ListtheURLforit3.  Summarizeit4.  Listwhatyoutaketobetheindicatorsofitas

fakenews

Finaldiscussion

Iscri@calthinkingimportantorjustanaïveintellectualfe@sh?