PLEASE NOTE: THESE SLIDES MAY NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY ONLINE, BUT THEY ARE READABLE IF DOWNLOADED. September 26, 2018 Led by HGHI, Outbreak Week was a University-wide effort to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the globe. At this symposium on "Media in the Age of Contagions," journalists who have covered public and global health for print, television, radio, and digital media outlets including NPR, PBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, STAT, and more discussed the role of the media when an outbreak occurs, and the dangers of rumors and disinformation. Learn more on our website: http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/media-in-the-age-of-contagions

1. Information Disorder
Cameron Hickey
Information Disorder Lab

2. The Problem:
Disinformation continues to
spread across social media

3. What does it look like?
Fabricated content

4. What does it look like?
False context

5. What does it look like?
False connection

6. What does it look like?
Imposter Content

7. What does it look like?
Manipulated Content

8. What does it look like?
Satire

10. Fake
News
What is it?

11. ● Isn’t always “news”
● Disinformation isn’t always “fake”
● “Fake news” has been co-opted
“Junk News”
Fake
News

12. What Is (Political) Junk News?
FABRICATED
CLICKBAIT
Junk
HYPERPARTISAN
MISLEADING
SATIRE
PLAGIARISM

13. Identifying Junk Pages
● Clickbait headline
● Missing / fake byline
● False content
● Misleading content
● Inaccurate context
● Plagiarism
● Low quality ads
● Partisan rhetoric
● Inflammatory tone
● Hate speech
● Young domain
● Multi-site publishing
In combination, these signals indicate content may be junk:

14. Audience for mainstream news on Facebook
10,000
100,000
1M
10M
50M
FacebookFans

15. 10,000
100,000
1M
10M
50M
FacebookFans
Junk news audience

16. Why It Matters
10,000
100,000
1M
10M
50M
FacebookFans