Interesting short article.
Example
And I think this is more appropriate in Weighty Matters as it applies to more than just COVID-19 disinformationIT IS NOT JUST TECHNOLOGY: THE SOCIOLOGY BEHIND MISINFORMATION
What explains the explosive, fast-spreading nature of health-related fake “news”? A study published in Science, The spread of true and false news online, points to human behavior as the main factor behind fake news viralization. According to the researchers, fallacies spread more quickly and with greater reach than the truth. To such an extent, the study concludes that falsehoods are 70 percent more likely to be shared on Twitter, depending on their degree of novelty and how unusual they are.
Given this context, Rocío Benavente points out the contradiction in labeling something ‘fake news’ when often it has nothing to do with news: “it is content that fits with the way we want to see the world; content that is easier to consume than content that contradicts this view, and at times this can make us ignore whether something is true or not, as if veracity is secondary, when it should come first.” It is easier to believe that which reinforces the way we see the world, the journalist explains, which is why it is so important to be aware of our own biases. Furthermore, in a landscape mired in doubt and pervaded by fears — such as the one created during the COVID-19 pandemic — people grasp for certainty, and science cannot always provide it, Benavente concludes. “The only certainty has come from those very people who are misinformed, because if you knew what you were saying, you wouldn’t be able to assert it with such confidence.”