I see objectively misleading, clickbait headlines and articles from bad (eg not recommended by Wikipedia) sources float to the top of Lemmy all the time.
I call them out, but it seems mods are uninterested in enforcing more strict information hygiene.
Step 1 is teaching journalism and social media hygiene as a dedicated class in school, or on social media… And, well, the US is kinda past that being possible :/.
That’s not what I meant. It’s true that too many left leaning tabloids get upvoted to the front page, but the direction of the slant isn’t the point, and there’s nothing “mysterious” about them. They’re clickbait/ragebait.
Most of the misinformation I regularly find on top are statements made by the US president or his administration – and these are news reports in an appropriate context with appropriate commentary by Lemmy users. Occasionally, very rarely, I have also seen misinformation about the US president, but I don’t see that as much of a problem.
Rather, I see it as a very serious problem that the US president himself and his administration are massively spreading misinformation. That is what my question refers to.
With no offense/singling out intended, this is what I’m talking about.
You (and many others) are interested in misinformation from MAGA, but not from misreported news on MAGA. But it’s these little nuggets that his media ecosystem pounces on and has gotten Trump to where is.
And it’s exactly the same on the “other side.” The MAGA audience is combing the greater news ecosystem for misinformation like a hawk while turning a blind eye to their own.
The answer is for everyone to have better information hygiene, and that includes shooting misleading down story headlines one might otherwise like. It means being critical of your own information stream as you read.
So you think it’s okay for the US president to spread misinformation? You really don’t see a problem with that, even though you yourself talk about “information hygiene”?
But Trump’s going to do it and no one is going to stop him. And if we aren’t willing to look at, say, Lemmy and misleading upvoted posts, how can we possibly tell MAGA acolytes to do the same thing on a more extreme scale?
Well, my question was about how to counter the constant misinformation spread by influential people like Trump (there are people like him in pretty much every country) – that’s why I mentioned other platforms, because Lemmy is completely irrelevant in this context due to its very limited reach.
In US English classes at any level above middle school, the importance of finding valid sources and providing citations is emphasized, although that’s mainly for essays and the like.
I could imagine it would be possible to adapt that mindset towards social media as well. Provide your sources, so you can prove you understand what you are saying. The foundations are there, they just need to be applied.
It’s not of course, but it’s a good start. Certainly good enough to use as a quick but fallible reference:
No, it really isn’t. The fact that Wikipedia has been arbitrarily vested with such supreme authority to be the default source of truth by so many people is a big part of why misinformation is so common. Back in my day, even high schoolers were taught not to do that.
Yes, I remember too. We were specifically told not to use Wikipedia.
Then information hygiene went to shit. Now it’s a rare oasis in the current landscape.
Look, I’m not saying to start referencing Wikipedia in scholarly journals or papers. But it’s more accessible than some JSTOR database and way above average, and more of the population using it would be a wonderful thing. The vast majority of the time, Wikipedia is not the source of misinformation/disinformation in this world.
I’m looking around the information landscape around me, and Wikipedia is not even in the top 1000 of disinformation peddlers. They make mistakes, but they aren’t literally lying and propagandizing millions of people on purpose.
And this is the problem.
I see objectively misleading, clickbait headlines and articles from bad (eg not recommended by Wikipedia) sources float to the top of Lemmy all the time.
I call them out, but it seems mods are uninterested in enforcing more strict information hygiene.
Step 1 is teaching journalism and social media hygiene as a dedicated class in school, or on social media… And, well, the US is kinda past that being possible :/.
There might be hope for the rest of the world.
yeah, lemmy could stop pushing extreme leftist misinformation from mysterious online “news” sources and rewriting history that would be a great start
Yeah, western right wing neoliberal misinformation only.
That’s not what I meant. It’s true that too many left leaning tabloids get upvoted to the front page, but the direction of the slant isn’t the point, and there’s nothing “mysterious” about them. They’re clickbait/ragebait.
Most of the misinformation I regularly find on top are statements made by the US president or his administration – and these are news reports in an appropriate context with appropriate commentary by Lemmy users. Occasionally, very rarely, I have also seen misinformation about the US president, but I don’t see that as much of a problem.
Rather, I see it as a very serious problem that the US president himself and his administration are massively spreading misinformation. That is what my question refers to.
There’s buckets of wrong information on Lemmy mate, no question
Any examples?
With no offense/singling out intended, this is what I’m talking about.
You (and many others) are interested in misinformation from MAGA, but not from misreported news on MAGA. But it’s these little nuggets that his media ecosystem pounces on and has gotten Trump to where is.
And it’s exactly the same on the “other side.” The MAGA audience is combing the greater news ecosystem for misinformation like a hawk while turning a blind eye to their own.
The answer is for everyone to have better information hygiene, and that includes shooting misleading down story headlines one might otherwise like. It means being critical of your own information stream as you read.
So you think it’s okay for the US president to spread misinformation? You really don’t see a problem with that, even though you yourself talk about “information hygiene”?
Of course not.
But Trump’s going to do it and no one is going to stop him. And if we aren’t willing to look at, say, Lemmy and misleading upvoted posts, how can we possibly tell MAGA acolytes to do the same thing on a more extreme scale?
Well, my question was about how to counter the constant misinformation spread by influential people like Trump (there are people like him in pretty much every country) – that’s why I mentioned other platforms, because Lemmy is completely irrelevant in this context due to its very limited reach.
In US English classes at any level above middle school, the importance of finding valid sources and providing citations is emphasized, although that’s mainly for essays and the like.
I could imagine it would be possible to adapt that mindset towards social media as well. Provide your sources, so you can prove you understand what you are saying. The foundations are there, they just need to be applied.
Except there are plenty of “sources” that spew even more BS. We can’t even trust what comes out of our government anymore (by design).
You’re right, I remember this. It just needs to be updated.
If you want to know why misinformation is so prominent, the fact that you think this is a good standard is a big part of it.
And will those classes be teaching “Wikipedia is the indisputable rock of factuality, the holy Scripture from which truth flows”?
It’s not of course, but it’s a good start. Certainly good enough to use as a quick but fallible reference:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources
As I heard someone else here quote, perfect is the enemy of good.
No, it really isn’t. The fact that Wikipedia has been arbitrarily vested with such supreme authority to be the default source of truth by so many people is a big part of why misinformation is so common. Back in my day, even high schoolers were taught not to do that.
Yes, I remember too. We were specifically told not to use Wikipedia.
Then information hygiene went to shit. Now it’s a rare oasis in the current landscape.
Look, I’m not saying to start referencing Wikipedia in scholarly journals or papers. But it’s more accessible than some JSTOR database and way above average, and more of the population using it would be a wonderful thing. The vast majority of the time, Wikipedia is not the source of misinformation/disinformation in this world.
It went to shit because people started treating low quality sources like Wikipedia as “a rare oasis”.
Are you sure about that?
…You’re kidding, right?
I’m looking around the information landscape around me, and Wikipedia is not even in the top 1000 of disinformation peddlers. They make mistakes, but they aren’t literally lying and propagandizing millions of people on purpose.
And you determined this how?
And you determined this how?
Hey, just wanted to say I’m always grateful when someone calls out posts not linking to proper sources. Your doing good work, thanks!
Note that Wikipedia is not a proper source.