{"id":222552,"date":"2017-03-27T16:40:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T20:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=222552"},"modified":"2023-11-08T21:03:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T02:03:50","slug":"harvard-panelists-discuss-future-of-journalism-in-fake-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2017\/03\/harvard-panelists-discuss-future-of-journalism-in-fake-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake news is giving reality a run for its money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tFake news is giving reality a run for its money\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
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\n\t\tClea Simon\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tPanelists ponder the future of journalism in a click-happy, unsourced world\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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That \u201cfake news\u201d is both pervasive and dangerous is no longer in doubt. How best to respond, however, is still an open subject. Because of that, the topic made for a lively panel Thursday at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moderating the discussion, titled \u201cFake News, Concrete Responses: At the Nexus of Law, Technology, and Social Narratives,\u201d Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School<\/a>, began with a basic question: What is fake news? The range of possibilities, said Berkman Klein Fellow An Xiao Mina, is broad enough to render the term almost meaningless, and can encompass everything from \u201cwhen an Onion article is cited as news to dealing with state-sponsored propaganda botnets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Jonathan Zittrain, George Bemis\u00a0Professor of International Law<\/a> and co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center, offered a definition based on intent, defining fake news as that which is \u201cwillfully false,\u201d which he said means a story \u201cthat the person saying or repeating knows to be untrue or is indifferent to whether it is true or false.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Minow pointed out, propaganda has been around forever. However, much of what we now recognize as fake news is complicated by a \u201ckernel of truth,\u201d noted Nathan Matias, a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab. \u201cSo if you go to Google, you might feel as if you fact-checked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To formulate a response, Mina said it is necessary to understand how fake news spreads \u2014 the \u201ccultural logic\u201d that makes it attractive to a particular audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften the reason things spread is not about truth or falsehood, but about affirmation,\u201d said the technologist, who is the product director for the journalism-focused software firm Meedan. \u201cPeople are looking for validation.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

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HLS Dean Martha Minow (from left) moderates the panel with Sandra Cortesi and Nathan Matias. Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

Drawing on her studies of middle school and high school students, Sandra Cortesi, a fellow and director of youth and media at Berkman Klein, suggested a slight shift in focus. Rather than asking news consumers to evaluate \u201cwhat is true and what is false,\u201d she said, a more revealing question would be \u201cwhat do you value?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat news actually means to young people is quite different from what it means to adults,\u201d she said, broaching how affirmation can influence what people look for \u2014 and, thus, what they read and believe.<\/p>\n

Zittrain put this shift in historical context. As recently as a decade ago, he said, the public assumed there was a source of consistent information that could be trusted, the so-called mainstream media. \u201cThat model is scrambled now,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you pump enough stuff out there, it\u2019s hard to tell the reliable stuff from the nonreliable stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

News organizations themselves can strengthen both their practices and their readers\u2019 trust with transparency, the panelists said.<\/p>\n

Mina\u2019s firm is working\u00a0on Check<\/a>, a platform for\u00a0collaborative verification of digital media that has already been used by organizations such as ProPublica and Amnesty International. This effort and others like it have the potential to strengthen credibility and educate a new generation about news gathering and journalistic ethics, she said.<\/p>\n

However, society\u2019s infatuation with clicks will continue to clash with the complexities of news, the panelists agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like \u2018likes,\u2019\u201d said Zittrain. \u201cThe problem is that there is no button to click that says, \u2018I am having a subtle thought.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\n

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