"The share of interviewed persons who said that mass media in the Republic of Moldova behaves to a great extent responsibly to its audience remains at a very low level—8% (7% in September 2016, 8% in January 2016). However, as we can see in the chart below, there are also some good signs, despite
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the majority of persons being dissatisfied with the lack of responsibility of the national media—48% (54% in September 2016, 57% in January 2016)—we can see a significant progress of the perception of media’s increased responsibility to their audience against the answer ’to a great extent’, i.e. a consistent evolution from 30% to 43% during 2 years." (Main conclusions, page 4)
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"Alarmingly, the research reveals that fake news is a pervasive problem surrounding the Kenyan elections with 90% of respondents having seen false or inaccurate information and 87% viewing this information as being deliberately false. Why does this matter? An informed citizenry is vital to Kenya’s
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democracy and the findings have serious implications for the media and society at large. With a third of Kenyans unable to access accurate information about the election, fake news is limiting the public’s ability to make informed decisions. This is of course extremely relevant to the business and political communities alike. For the mainstream media, the survey findings will come as good news, with most Kenyans trusting traditional media sources such as TV, which has a trust level of 76%. With 67% of Kenyans actively wanting comprehensive and detailed information and 78% wanting factual and accurate information, Kenya’s media establishment should be encouraged to invest in better journalism." (In conclusion, page 14)
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"It is becoming increasingly apparent that fundamental principles underlying democracy—trust, informed dialogue, a shared sense of reality, mutual consent, and participation—are being put to the test by certain features and attributes of social media. As technology companies increasingly achieve
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financial success by monetizing public attention, it is worth examining some of the key issues and unintended consequences arising as a result. Six key issues: Echo chambers, polarization, and hyper-partisanship [...]; Spread of false and/or misleading information [...]; Conversion of popularity into legitimacy [...]; Manipulation by “populist” leaders, governments, and fringe actors [...]; Personal data capture and targeted messaging/advertising [...]; Disruption of the public square [...]" (Executive summary)
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"Revelations around Russian efforts to shape the 2016 US presidential election through the use of disinformation, bots, and hacking have thrust the problems of “fake news” and social media manipulation into the public spotlight. This primer is an introduction to this phenomenon, laying out the k
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ey terms, major actors, and potential legislative actions that might be taken." (Introduction)
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"Cyber troops are government, military or political party teams committed to manipulating public opinion over social media. In this working paper, we report on specific organizations created, often with public money, to help define and manage what is in the best interest of the public. We compare su
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ch organizations across 28 countries, and inventory them according to the kinds of messages, valences and communication strategies used. We catalogue their organizationalforms and evaluate their capacities in terms of budgets and staffing. This working paper summarizes the findings of the first comprehensive inventory of the major organizations behind social media manipulation. We find that cyber troops are a pervasive and global phenomenon. Many different countries employ significant numbers of people and resources to manage and manipulate public opinion online, sometimes targeting domestic audiences and sometimes targeting foreign publics. The earliest reports of organized social media manipulation emerged in 2010, and by 2017 there are details on such organizations in 28 countries. Looking across the 28 countries, every authoritarian regime has social media campaigns targeting their own populations, while only a few of them target foreign publics. In contrast, almost every democracy in this sample has organized social media campaigns that target foreign publics, while political-party-supported campaigns target domestic voters. Authoritarian regimes are not the only or even the best at organized social media manipulation. The earliest reports of government involvement in nudging public opinion involve democracies, and new innovations in political communication technologies often come from political parties and arise during high-profile elections. Over time, the primary mode for organizing cyber troops has gone from involving military units that experiment with manipulating public opinion over social media networks to strategic communication firms that take contracts from governments for social media campaigns." (Executive summary)
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"The guide is designed to help you develop a way of working with rumours. As with all humanitarian action, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, the guide aims to build your knowledge and understanding of rumours, and suggests key steps and considerations. A range of options and tools is
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presented that can be used in different combinations according to the context, and a ‘good enough’ approach is encouraged: integrate quick and simple steps immediately, and build from these." (Preface)
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"Internet subcultures take advantage of the current media ecosystem to manipulate news frames, set agendas, and propagate ideas. Far-right groups have developed techniques of 'attention hacking' to increase the visibility of their ideas through the strategic use of social media, memes, and bots - as
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well as by targeting journalists, bloggers, and influencers to help spread content. The media's dependence on social media, analytics and metrics, sensationalism, novelty over newsworthiness, and clickbait makes them vulnerable to such media manipulation. While trolls, white nationalists, men's rights activists, gamergaters, the 'altright,' and conspiracy theorists may diverge deeply in their beliefs, they share tactics and converge on common issues. The far-right exploits young men's rebellion and dislike of 'political correctness' to spread white supremacist thought, Islamophobia, and misogyny through irony and knowledge of internet culture. Media manipulation may contribute to decreased trust of mainstream media, increased misinformation, and further radicalization." (Executive summary)
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"What were Soviet influence and disinformation campaigns? What did the West do about them? This study answers these questions, explaining the Cold War strategies followed by the USSR, as well as the Western response. Eleven case studies follow, each one examining a counter-disinformation tactic in d
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epth, with comments on the relevance of that tactic today. The first seven case studies focus on defensive tactics aimed at stopping Soviet propaganda in the West, while the latter four focus on offensive tactics used to promote accurate information and democratic messages to the USSR and beyond. The conclusion features a deeper examination of the difference between modern Russian propaganda and its Soviet antecedents." (Abstract)
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"1. There is no clear or consistent definition of fake news; 2. Fake news is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited to social media; 3. There is a dearth of evidence about the scale, dissemination or effects of fake news; 4. Fake news is a symptom of much broader structural problems with our digita
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l information environment; 5. Remedies solely or heavily based on technological fixes or market-driven corrections will not, on their own, address these problems; 6. Any hasty attempt by government to introduce measures to address fake news will have unintended consequences – some of which are likely to be damaging to free speech and democratic discourse; 7. The government could seek to better understand the conditions that enable fake news, consider progressive interventions to promote and sustain public interest news and information, call for greater and more transparent self-governance by tech platforms, and inquire into the use of digital platforms for political campaigning." (Summary)
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"[...] this book aims to draw from the experience of Arab journalists and experts in the Arab World to help journalists enhance their news verification and social newsgathering skills. We hope the publication contributes to the ongoing debate on techniques and ethics that surrounds user-generated co
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ntents (UGC) and the use of digital platforms in the news production process." (Page 13)
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"These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Perils of Perception survey. The results highlight how wrong people across 38 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. Perceptions are not reality … Things are not as bad as they seem ... Only a small minorit
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y of people in most countries think the murder rate has declined in their country since 2000, despite that being true in most countries, and the overall rate across these countries having declined by 29% [...] Very few people in most countries think deaths from terrorist attacks are lower in recent years, despite that being the case in most countries [...] Most countries greatly overestimate the proportion of prisoners in their country that are immigrants, with the Netherlands, South Africa, France and the USA particularly likely to guess too high [...] All countries overestimate teenage births, and many are hugely wrong, particularly in Latin America and South Africa. But even countries with very low levels of teenage births overestimate significantly. For example, actual rates are under 1% in Canada and France but the average guess is that one in five teenagers get pregnant each year [...] Nearly six in ten people across the countries as a whole say they are unsure or believe that there is a link between vaccines and autism in healthy children, despite the claim being widely discredited. Some countries, particularly Montenegro and India, have very high levels of belief in the claim [...] (Slides 2-12)
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"This report provides a new framework for policy-makers, legislators, researchers, technologists and practitioners working on the theoretical and practical challenges related to mis-, dis- and mal-information — the three elements of information disorder. While the historical impact of rumours and
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fabricated content have been well documented, the complexity and scale of information pollution in our digitally-connected, increasingly polarised world presents an unprecedented challenge. There is an immediate need to work collaboratively on workable solutions and this report provides a framework for the different stakeholders involved in research, policy discussions, and technical innovations connected to this phenomenon of information disorder." (Back cover)
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"These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Perils of Perception survey. The results highlight how wrong people across 40 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. Perceptions are not reality… Nearly all countries overestimate their Muslim population, a
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nd many are extraordinarily wrong [...] Nearly every country thinks their Muslim population will grow much more than is projected [...] Every country thinks people are much less happy than they say they are [...] People are often very wrong on how acceptable their fellow citizens find homosexuality [...] Countries are also often very wrong on how acceptable people find sex before marriage [...] (Slides 2-12)
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"The aim of this handbook is to provide civil society campaigners with the knowledge and skills they need to undertake high quality counter-narrative campaign evaluations. It presents model frameworks and case studies of successful counter-narrative M&E, as well as a range of useful tools and resour
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ces that counter-narrative campaigners can use to support their M&E efforts, including: A description of key metrics and how to interpret them; An explanation of various research methods that can be used in online M&E; Guidance on potential risks and ethical considerations for counter-narrative M&E; A flexible M&E framework that can provide a starting point for evaluation planning; Three case study examples of high quality counter-narrative campaign evaluations; A glossary of key M&E terms; • An index of useful online M&E tools." (Page 3)
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"Only 8% of respondents stated that the media in Moldova exhibit, to a very large extent, a responsible behavior toward their audiences. The majority of respondents or 56% stated they were dissatisfied with the lack of responsibility of the national media. One in ten respondents considered him/herse
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lf very informed; another five in ten respondents are quite satisfied in terms of perceived level of information. Television is still the main source of social and political news in Moldova, with 65% of respondents citing it as the preferred source, followed by the Internet (websites) (24%), and the social networking sites and radio stations with 5% each. According to the study “Measuring the perceptions of sociopolitical news by the media audience in the Republic of Moldova”, realized in October 2015, information sources have their specific audiences. Television is preferred mostly by occupationally inactive people, aged over 45 years, with secondary and low levels of education. Young people, with higher levels of education, who are occupationally active, and live in municipalities show preference for getting information online." (Page 5)
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