Tag: junk news

Want to learn about junk news? Here’s all our award-winning reporting.

12.20.18.

UPDATE 6/13/19: This series won a 2019 Mirror Award for Best Story on Social Media in the Crosshairs, tied with a BuzzFeed News series focusing on the same topic. After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it became clear to a lot of people, including me, that the issue of fake news on the internet merited…
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Hurricane season starts, methane dunes on Pluto, climatic adaptations of parasites: this week in science

06.01.18.

Here’s a look back at this week in science, with stories you don’t want to miss. Bracing for another hurricane season June 1st marks the beginning of hurricane season, one which NOAA forecasts to likely be “near- or above-normal.” Of course, after last year, we wonder if there may be a “new normal” to get…
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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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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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