Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
opposed to scientific fact. Robert Eshelman
as
argued that, beginning in the 1990s, fossil-
has
industry groups seized this opportunity and
fuel
reporters of bias if they portrayed global
accused
as a settled fact, while funding research
warming
prove it was not. The tobacco industry used
to
tactics in the decades before. These
similar
succeeded in politicizing the issue and
industries
decades of public debate though the
spawning
consensus had been clear. This is the
scientific
of “false balance” implicated in many
problem
controversies on scientific issues.
public
Jayson Harsin has argued that a
Professor
set of recent developments is creating
convergent
post-truth society. These developments include
a
following.
the
Scientifically and technologically
•
methods of political
sophisticated
and persuasion are used (as
communication
explore later in the Facebook-Cambridge
we
episode) as well as strategic use of
Analytica
and disinformation.
rumours
An “attention economy” exists, characterized
•
information overload combined with a lack
by
society-wide trusted sources of news. Usergenerated
of
content within social networks has
more influential, while at the same
become
there appears to be less attention for, or
time
Filter bubbles curate content delivered via
•
media and search engines according
social
recent studies have suggested that lies
Two
spread faster than the truth. As you read
can
details, though, consider the warning
the
Chapter 8, III.1, about sampling biases in
in
at MIT investigated 126,000
Researchers
stories, shared by 3 million people
Twitter
4.5million times. The researchers’
over
was that lies spread further, faster,
conclusion
what a user “likes”, as opposed to what is
to
We explore filter bubbles and echo
factual.
What are the significant political issues
1.
debated in your community?
being
To what extent is your opinion about
2.
issues influenced by:
these
opinions of close family and
the
friends?
Have you noticed people in your network
3.
the claims of experts? If so, in
questioning
information. Interestingly, fake political
of
spreads faster than fake news about
news
disasters, terrorism, science or financial
natural
The authors specifically found that
markets.
and not Twitter bots, are more likely
humans,
spread fake news. Why is this the case? The
to
speculate that false information
researchers
to be more original than true news and
tends
people are more likely to share surprising
that
(Vosoughi et al 2018).
information
2
chambers in II.4.
For reflection
A post-truth society
(a)
(b)
the news
opinions of friends shared on
the
media
social
(c)
what context, and on what grounds?
trust in, fact-checking websites.
Box 2.2: Do lies spread faster than the truth?
behavioural science research.
deeper and wider than truth in all categories
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