Alex Madrigal (of The Atlantic) on his recipe for countering misinformation on the viral web:
…I decided to do the only thing that seemed likely to help, in some small way:Â create content that would A) counter the misinformation, B) have authority, and C) be as viral as the bad information.
See his results as he wrestles with the fake photos going viral, post Sandy.
There is much to love about the Internet. But there is much, as well, to dislike — and/or to be annoyed by, and/or to resent, and/or to mistrust. In late June, the Q&A community Mancx decided to put numbers to those Internet-borne vexations. The firm conducted a survey of 1,900 American adults — adults who self-identified, it’s worth noting, as people who specifically search for information on the Internet. A group full of shoppers and cat-picture-seekers might have yielded different results.
Per Mancx’s numbers, however, the Internet as an information source leaves a lot to be desired. A whopping 98 percent of respondents don’t fully trust the information available on it. Which is a good thing, overall — skepticism! — except that 94 percent of respondents also noted the many negative effects that the Internet’s bad intel can have.
Everything Americans Dislike About the Internet, in One Chart – Megan Garber – The Atlantic.