Month: May 2018

The Software We Wrote to Understand Junk News – with Producer Cameron Hickey

05.29.18.

In the final episode in our series on Junk News, some wisdom from one of the leading experts in the murky world of online misinformation. He also happens to be the producer of the series that we aired on the PBS NewsHour. Now he’s taking the software he wrote to Harvard, where they hope to…
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Cyborg doctors in a pill, jet stream stuck in traffic, new Zika test: this week in science

05.25.18.

Here’s a look back at this week in science, with stories you don’t want to miss. Cyborg pill used to monitor health Scientists have created a hybrid biological-electronic system to detect biomarkers in the body, a breakthrough that could make medical diagnosis easier, faster, and more precise. They call the technology the Ingestible Micro-Bio-Electronic Device,…
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Inside Facebook – with Tessa Lyons, Head of News Feed Integrity

05.21.18.

Facebook was created for people to share family photos and memories. But as ads entered the mix, the platform was refined to hold our attention for as long as possible. Quality was not a consideration – until recently. But how to fix the junk news mess without editing it? Maybe Facebook needs a newsroom. I…
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Junk news series wrap, close asteroid flyby, microbiome connected to MS: this week in science

05.18.18.

Here’s a look back at this week in science, with stories you don’t want to miss. Junk news series comes to a close This week, we aired the final installment of our four part series shedding light on the murky world of junk news for the PBS NewsHour. Producer Cameron Hickey and I began our…
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Inside Facebook’s race to separate news from junk

05.17.18.

At Facebook, there are two competing goals: keep the platform free and open to a broad spectrum of ideas and opinions, while reducing the spread of misinformation. The company says it’s not in the business of making editorial judgments, so they use fact-checkers, artificial intelligence and their users. Can they stop junk news from adapting?…
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Inside the Filter Bubble – with Eli Pariser, the man who coined the phrase.

05.15.18.

The Internet was supposed to provide a utopian virtual world where all of us could come together in peace, love and harmony to better understand each other and our differing viewpoints… But we got derailed on the road to utopia, didn’t we? Eli Pariser, the man who coined the phrase “filter bubble”, knows as much…
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