Rumors, Hoaxes, Fake News, and Media’s Counter-News

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Other Title
  • 流言･デマ･フェイクニュースとマスメディアの打ち消し報道
  • 流言・デマ・フェイクニュースとマスメディアの打ち消し報道 : 「大阪府北部の地震」の事例などから
  • リュウゲン ・ デマ ・ フェイクニュース ト マス メディア ノ ウチケシ ホウドウ : 「 オオサカフ ホクブ ノ ジシン 」 ノ ジレイ ナド カラ
  • 「大阪府北部の地震」の事例などから
  • Focusing on the June 2018 Earthquake in the Northern Osaka Prefecture

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With the diffusion of social media, misinformation and false information spread rapidly and across an extensive area. This paper discusses how the media outlets should tackle with this problem to curb those information scatterings. Through examination and verification, the author reached the following conclusions.[Target of scattering control]Rumors, hoaxes, and fake news quickly spread, affected by socio-psychological elements such as anxiety and fear, at a time of emergency represented by major disasters, some of which may endanger public safety, and therefore become a target of counter-news.[Significance of resorting to counter-news]According to preceding studies, rumors spread at a time of emergency when social unrest mounts and the media can only vaguely explain the situation. In that case the media outlets need to issue counter-news in order to eliminate ambiguity, if only a little.[Actual case of scattering]When the June 2018 Earthquake in the Northern Osaka Prefecture occurred, a rumor that “Keihan train has derailed” scattered around. Tracking Twitters posts, you can see the initial tweets were “I thought the train would derail.” After a little while, questions “Has it derailed?” and conjectures “I hear Keihan has derailed” increased. Then, tweets confidently stating that “Keihan has derailed” appeared.[What is required in the age of post-truth politics?]Misinformation and false information can be categorized into two groups: one is “acute” or “semi-acute” information that affects people’s lives and safety and its scattering should be promptly suppressed, and the other is “chronic” information that gradually erodes sound formation of public opinion. To issue counter-news against the latter, the public good of the counter-news must be convincing enough.

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