Digital Media Literacy Notes

Professor Masato Kajimoto

Questions: to think about when analyzing the news story.

Thinking about who’s producing and who’s sharing fake news.

Is it the government that’s spreading the fake news/ organisations?

And who’s sharing the fake news, people in your community? Your friends?

Why is it being produced?

Is it for financial gains? Political propaganda?

For more clicks on social media?

How’s being produced?

by fake information?
Is it in video formats?
Adding more information?

What impacts are having on society? What impacts are having on the user side?

Then think about what are the solutions to these problems?

This kind of analysis is important about coming up with strategy to tackle misinformation,
because depending on what, where and how it is being produced and shared the strategy
and solutions will be different.

How we can analyse news and information.

Producers (Problem Content) People who share

Who?

Why?

How? What?

Impacts
 Solutions

Information Disorder in Asia - Overview of misinformation ecosystem in India, Indonesia,

Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan

Psychological factors
Emotional and Logical
Human psychology response better when the contents plays on basic emotions. Such as
fears and anger.

We tend to reject the facts that threaten our sense of identity

When you have a strong commitment to a group or belief and and you get
information that contradicts what you already know, you construct new ways of
thinking about that information rather than updating your belief
Tribalism is human nature
The cognitive structures that make it feel good to belong to an “in group” and
painful and scary to change allegiances when new facts come into conflicts
with our core beliefs.

Links to psychology of fake news

https://www.futurity.org/fake-news-1778042/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-dilemmas/201802/the-fake-news-game
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2018/03/27/597263367/the-psychology-of-fake-news
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/7-reasons-why-fake-news-goes-viral-
according-to-experts-36283450.html
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/08/fake-news.aspx

Available tools

Making Sense of the News. News literacy Lessons for Digital Citizens. (Online Course)

https://www.coursera.org/lecture/news-literacy/what-makes-journalism-different-BXD0d

Journalism

Journalism - Timely information of some public interest that is shared and and is subject to
be journalistic process of verification, and for which an independent individual or
organisation

Journalism is V.I.A.

Verfication
 Independence
Accountability

Not all news is journalism.

What is the different between news and journalism?

What’s journalism, and what’s news but not journalism?

VERIFICATION
Press releases - government officials give states to the news medias, the government writes
the news themselves, journalists just re write the press releases. This is not journalism.

For example, when a natural disaster comes, the government release a statement.
Journalism - The person take the news, and verify the facts, the journalist has to make sure if
the government is actually ready and prepared and report the news.

INDEPENDENT
When sources talks to the journalists, the sources have reasons to talk to the news. Want
preferable coverage.
Common in china. When business people talk to journalists, gifs are passed on to the
journalists. Dictating the tone of the news with influence. That’s no longer independent.

Wallstreet Journals. Three reporters - going around the world, restaurants, hotels and
getting preferable treatments. They write reviews for those business. They deleted all
the article written by the journalists, and make correction and apologise.

Washington Post - Season Whitehouse reporter, writing for 20 years. The reporter’s
wife helps the re election campaign for Obama. The reporter quit the post, he can not
write report the news independently.

CNN - Policy on gifts, you can get the free gifts as long as the gift is available for
everyone, not just for the journalists.

You can make stuff up on the who, what, when, where, why. But how can you distinguish if
it’s a journalism.

ACCOUNTABILITY
Journalism - we know who exactly is responsible for the information. They can be fired, lose
their job, have to make correction. Sharing just rumours, there is no responsibility.

Only when the three VIA, that’s journalism.

Lesson of the day - News is not Journalism.

Techniques for fake texts and news.

Using fonts. I and L, can bypass AI detections. Hate-speech detections.

INFORMATION NEIGHBORHOODS - Blurred Lines

A taxonomy of information neighbourhoods

Journalism Entertainment Promotion Propagandas Raw

Datas

Primary Goal

Methods

Practitioners

Outcomes

Understanding the purpose of the media contents.

VIA is the methods, not the purpose.

There are overlaps in the methods.

The question - How can you tell the differences, BLURRED LINES of the information
neighbourhood?

Media contents: What’s are different types?

Examples 1:
Hong Kong University made a press release and made a press conferences. Invited the
journalists.
News organisation writing news articles with photos, videos provided by the sources itself. Is
it news?

It started with promotion

Journalists took the promotion and made some modification, some verification is
done.
Therefore 80% promotion, and 20% Journalism
In Hong Kong
Information service department. The department published all the press releases online.

Exercises given to student compare the press releases how similar and different

Government is not the only entity that make press releases.

Businesses and other entities also use this method.

Examples 2:
When journalists information from pressrselases, there is Verification and Accountability. But
not independent.

Some news stories rely heavily on press releases.

Native Advertisements
Native Advertisements - paid partnerships

Similar to native contents, until examining closely

Promoters are using this technique, more prevelent

Does not overtly promoted or advertise

Hard to differentiate

Entertainments and companies are using VIA as a weapon, because they’re more credible
Important to understand information neighbourhood.

Native ads are business model of online only publications. Advertorial and native advertising
look and read like Journalistic news articles.

Advertisements

Promote the product.

(Promotor buy the publicity, buy ad spaces)

Press releases

Promote the products but Journalists can decide which part to use, not to use, which
part to, journalists can advertise
(Publicists do not buy publicity space. Media give the publicity)

Native ads

Produce placement.
Product plugs
VIA, the methods is blurred in between lines.

Drawback of news literacy training.

Permisistic outlook on all news, distrust of news

Recap
Not all news is created equal

News contents come with other types of information such as promotion,

entertainment, propaganda, etc.
Even the news that come from credible sources can be mixed with others
Not all news has gone through verification
News does not equal Journalism

Judging the reliability of news

I’M VAIN
The Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University
http://drc.centerfornewsliteracy.org/content/introducing-imvain

Independent sources are better than self-interested sources.

Multiple sources are better than single sources.
Sources who Verify with evidence are better than sources who assert.
Authoritative / Informed sources are better than uninformed sources.
Named sources are better than unnamed sources.

Look at the source first

Example 1
Article 23 - Controversial

Can arrest anyone for perversion, treason

The head of Hong Kong came to Hong Kong and hold a press conference regarding enacting
or this law.
Two news paper made two different headlines.

Wang hints time to enact Article 23 is coming soon

Wang Guangya says no rush on article 23 law

Even when the journalists strives to be true, based on the quality of the sources, they can be
interpreted differently.
Example 2
Passengers praise magnificent Kai Tank Cruise Terminal on opening day
Cruise sip tourists let down by Hong Kong visit

Journalist interview the sources and reflect those opinions of sources in the news
Depending on who the journalist talk to, the coverage will be different.
It’s not that the journalist is bias. But the quality of the sources will be different.

Sources influence, colour the coverage.

What sources do journalist use?

Human sources = sources
Documents = evidence
Observation

Source evaluation: Ask yourself

Who is this person? What is the person’s name, position, relationship to the news event?
Before jumping to conclusion, evaluate the sources.

Why is this person quoted by the journalist.

What information does this person provide?
How does this person know the facts?

Anonymous Source:
Transparency - The journalist explain why the source is anonymous. (Life could be in danger.)
Characterisation - Name can be hidden but character can be described
Corroboration - The story included other sources and/or evidence that supports the claim

Source Evaluation Tool

1 (not reliable) 5 (reliable)

I M V A/I N

Person A

Person B

Person C

Person D
 Person E

Bias: A predisposition that distorts your ability to fairly weight the evidence and prevents you
from reaching a fair or accurate judgment.

We as news audiences have our own biases.

Cognitive Dissonance

When we encounter conflicting conniptions (ideas, beliefs, value or emotional

reactions. Etc). We are inclined to stay consistent with our belief system, by altering
existing cognitions, adding new ones or/and reducing the importance of any one of
the dissonant elements.

Naturally occurring in the brain. The brain is always self-serving.

Kids demonstrate this behavior frequently.

Example?

Dissonance creates pains and anxiety in our brain.

As a result…

Selective distortion and retention - We remember things we like

Source misattribution (amnesia) - When we do remember source, we may selectively
attribute conformation information to a more respectable source
Confirmation bias / Motivated reasoning: We tend to pursue information that confirms
or reflects our point of view. We tend to “like” and “share” things that we agree. We
like to think what we believe is true for “truth” is not as much of a factor as feeling
“right”)
Trusting personal experience or an isolated example: Anecdotes are not proof.
False compromise: Believing the middle of two extreme as the correct position.
Emotional reactions: The stronger the emotions, the harder it is to accept facts for a
different viewpoint) - Politics, Race, Gender, Religion. etc.