2016 Postmortem

bullwinkle428

(20,640 posts) Wed Dec 7, 2016, 01:58 PM Dec 2016

Buzzfeed : 58% of CLINTON voters BELIEVED fake news stories

86% of Trump voters believed the same stories.

Fake news headlines fool American adults about 75% of the time, according to a large-scale new survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for BuzzFeed News.

The survey also found that people who cite Facebook as a major source of news are more likely to view fake news headlines as accurate than those who rely less on the platform for news.

People who say they voted for Hillary Clinton were less likely than Trump voters to view the claims made in these fake headlines as accurate, according to the survey. This may be partly due to the fact that the majority of top-performing fake news stories about the election on Facebook had a decidedly pro-Trump or anti-Clinton bent. However, it’s notable that a majority of Clinton voters still believed the fake news stories to be very or somewhat accurate.

On average, Clinton voters judged 58% of familiar fake news headlines as accurate, versus 86% for Trump voters. (These percentages are based on 434 judgments by Clinton voters and 634 judgments by Trump voters.)

https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/fake-news-survey?utm_term=.fbWG53O6Y#.ie0LNwE4q

6 replies

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Buzzfeed : 58% of CLINTON voters BELIEVED fake news stories (Original Post) bullwinkle428 Dec 2016 OP

It is worth remembering that we aren't a better breed of people, just people, and that JCanete Dec 2016 #1

I think the focus on whether voters believed a headline, in isolation, is missing the point. Skinner Dec 2016 #2

Completely agree. TwilightZone Dec 2016 #3

We wish, but... JSup Dec 2016 #6

We're all a bunch of bias-seeking dumbasses - left and right. SpankMe Dec 2016 #4

Whenever I see a story quoting GOPs saying totally evil or completely mornoic things, BlueProgressive Dec 2016 #5

JCanete

(5,272 posts)

1. It is worth remembering that we aren't a better breed of people, just people, and that

Reply to bullwinkle428 (Original post)

Wed Dec 7, 2016, 02:04 PM

Dec 2016

propaganda works on all of us. Or at least, "58%" of us. Thank you for your state run maoist liberal media Obama...

Skinner

(63,645 posts)

2. I think the focus on whether voters believed a headline, in isolation, is missing the point.

Reply to bullwinkle428 (Original post)

Wed Dec 7, 2016, 02:10 PM

Dec 2016

Yes, it's unfortunate that people believe things that are false. But asking whether someone believes a particular story, without any context does not really do anyone much good.

More important is whether citizens can learn to use their critical thinking skills and the tools available to them in order to discern the likelihood that a particular story is fake. Or can they at a minimum learn to be more skeptical?

TwilightZone

(28,833 posts)

3. Completely agree.

Reply to Skinner (Reply #2)

Wed Dec 7, 2016, 02:15 PM

Dec 2016

Simply believing a story is not as important as why they believe it or what they do with the information. Or how they act on it.

Also agree that we have to figure out how to teach people to use critical thinking skills - and freaking Google. Some of the stuff people believe is so blatantly false that the response seems almost Pavlovian. Ring bell, hit Share.

JSup

(740 posts)

6. We wish, but...

Reply to Skinner (Reply #2)

Thu Dec 8, 2016, 07:35 AM

Dec 2016

More important is whether citizens can learn to use their critical thinking skills and the tools available to them

That's called 'liberal indoctrination' by those that don't use them.

These 'freedom from liberal indoctrination patriots' are now saying that CNN (and all the rest) are fake news because the polls were wrong; this is like calling someone a liar when they guess the incorrect number of marbles in a jar.

SpankMe

(3,248 posts)

4. We're all a bunch of bias-seeking dumbasses - left and right.

Reply to bullwinkle428 (Original post)

Wed Dec 7, 2016, 02:17 PM

Dec 2016

"...the fake news phenomenon [...] has had a sweeping effect on global politics, and [...] recently caused a gunman to threaten a DC pizza place."

The guy going to the pizza place was very disturbing.

We need some sort of trusted news source that everyone can go to for "real" news. This fragmentation of information availability caused by the Internet has been a disaster for society and for the intelligence and situational awareness of the average citizen. The Internet hasn't been as "democratizing" as we'd hoped. It has become destructive.

I think that NPR, PBS, NYT and WaPo are safe sources for reasonably accurate news and are places where we can be sure fake news won't be published. But, these entities don't have the resources to do the vast news gathering and reporting that would be required to provide the public a safe haven for accurate news and responsible analysis across the board.

We need a non-profit, "super-BBC" type of entity in the US. We need media entities to come together and voluntarily create and support a neutral news mega-agency that is not a profit-maker and that they just support at a loss, as a public service, and consider it an "expense" like rent or utilities. Sort of like what cable companies have done with C-SPAN. The major media companies should get rid of their own news arms (often redundant) and support a C-SPAN-like news channel (2 or 3 of them) that can be trusted.

BlueProgressive

(229 posts)

5. Whenever I see a story quoting GOPs saying totally evil or completely mornoic things,

Reply to bullwinkle428 (Original post)

Wed Dec 7, 2016, 03:49 PM

Dec 2016

I tend to believe it!

For the past several years they have been in a race to the bottom which makes the previously inconceivable, now quite believable.

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