The 2,000-line poem by Scottish physician John Armstrong was written during a time of pandemic, war and increasing public disinformation. What can readers learn from it today?
We all have biases that impact what information we choose to accept and reject. But there are some ways we can train ourselves to become more discerning.
Tighter controls are not the answer; the opportunity should be used to think differently about trust and journalism. It is critical to enable audiences to distinguish reliable, verified information.
The strong disapproval of the South African government’s handling of the pandemic is a warning that crafting persuasive pro-vaccine messages is not enough.
Priyanka Ranade, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Anupam Joshi, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Tim Finin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Bots flooding social media with fake news about politics is bad enough. Muddying the waters in such fields as cybersecurity and health care could put lives at risk.
Users do spend some time thinking about whether information is true; the decision to share it (even if it’s fake news) depends on the topic and the type of message.
Over half of the 50 nations in the International Federation of Journalists survey said coverage of China had become more positive in their national media since the onset of the pandemic.
Google, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter have all agreed to a voluntary code of conduct targeting misinformation. But the only real commitment is to appear as though they’re taking action.