JREF
  • Home
  • Swift
  • About
    • About
    • About James Randi
    • The Million Dollar Challenge
    • Our Financials
  • Education
    • Education
    • Educational Modules
    • Educational Videos & Podcasts
    • Encyclopedia of Claims
    • E-Books
  • JREF Press

Are you interested in the truth about that news rumor?

10/22/2014

 
By Sharon Hill 

A few weeks ago, I spoke to Craig Silverman who is conducting a a research project with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University that focuses on how unverified information and rumor are reported in the media. We had a discussion of how I pick and write stories for Doubtful News, a site that casts a critical eye on some rather outrageous media stories on anomalies, the paranormal, alternative treatments and other kinds of questionable claims. 

Craig knows what he’s talking about when it comes to media misinformation. Just like me, he’s trying to figure out how to present good information and dispel the bad stuff as well and as fast as possible.
I had not heard of Craig's website Emergent.info. It’s now bookmarked and on my everyday read list. If you are interested in seeing if the latest news or political rumor is true, unverified or confirmed false, check this site out. It is a rumor aggregator that attempts to confirm or debunk the claim emerging on social media before it gets to the major news outlets. The front page is a straightforward list of rumors with their current "state" of validity - True, False, Unverified - along with the number of social shares showing how it's moving. A link for each shows the sources reporting the rumor (Critical for getting to the primary source!), and visualization of how the story is being shared on social media. Readers also can volunteer new information to back up or tear down the claim. 

We are all familiar with the Urban Legend database snopes.com - it’s our go-to place to look up all those wacky Facebook posts and emails we get from our friends and family asking us to avoid some product or gawk at some person’s misfortune. Emergent is different. For one, it’s faster. Early this week, a rumor that artist Bansky was arrested ran amok on twitter. One stop at Emergent showed it was false - the source was a fake news site. (Beware of unreliable or fake news sites.) 

Check out Emergent when you hear the rumors and make sure you cite updated information on social media to help stem the wave of misinformation on the net. It’s a daunting task, believe me, I know. But if no one says anything, the wave of misinformation travels even farther. 


Comments are closed.
    SWIFT is named after Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. In the book, Gulliver encounters among other things a floating island inhabited by spaced-out scientists and philosophers who hardly deal with reality. Swift was among the first to launch well-designed critiques against the flummery - political, philosophical, and scientific - of his time, a tradition that we hope to maintain at The James Randi Foundation.

    Categories

    All
    Cherry Teresa
    Doubtful News
    Everett Themer
    Faith Healing
    Guest Posts
    Guy Chapman
    Harriet Hall
    James Randi
    Kenny Biddle
    Leo Igwe
    Letters
    Paranormal
    Pseudoscience
    Psychics
    Science Based Medicine
    Sharon Hill
    Skepticism
    SkepVet
    Stuart Robbins
    Superstition & Belief
    TAM 2013
    TAM 2014
    UFOs
    William London


    Archives

    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

Picture
The James Randi Educational Foundation
E-mail | jref@randi.org

JREF Privacy Policy | Copyright © 2015 James Randi Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved.