false news today
False News Today
Today’s news today used to be the mantra of newspapers; now it’s much more likely to be false news today. We twenty first century technophiles pride ourselves on being at the forefront of the information wave like no other generation before us. However two personal experiences this past week had me pausing to reflect on our progress.
In between musings I have been researching the forts of South Africa's nineteenth century frontier wars. One of my prime sources is the newspapers of the time, copies of many of which can now be found online. Some of them are quite amazing. They might not have the photographs, charts or glossy adverts of today’s publications, but they are absolutely crammed with news. On the military front, for instance, they quote verbatim both the instructions of the commanding officers to their troops and the progress reports from the generals at the front to the politicians in London. If I tried to find that same level of information on America's war on ISIS, for instance, I would probably be arrested for attempting to breach the Pentagon firewalls!
The second incident seemed more innocent but probably had more serious undertones. I received an Email from a reputable cycle touring company advising that the French government had announced plans to make bicycles available free of charge to tourists at all major airports and railway stations. As an avid cycle tourist, I was overjoyed so I sent this joyous news on to a French friend. I was much less overjoyed when he punctuated my hopes by pointing out it was an April fool's joke. How was I to know it was false news?
With American universities starting to offer courses in identifying false news, I decided to investigate three other potential items of false news that had come my way. In the first, a letter to the editor of my local newspaper ranted about the health risks to children of cellphone base towers installed in urban areas. Was this true or was it not? Since I knew no experts in this area that I could call up, I resorted to Google Scholar. I typed in some keywords and was presented with a list of some impressively erudite journal articles. None of the experts had a definitive answer. A couple of papers reported on the probable negative impact of the base station radiation on trees and house sparrows. Several more implied that radiation from cell phones themselves was likely to be more harmful than radiation from the towers. There was one titled A cross-sectional case control study on genetic damage in individuals residing in the vicinity of a mobile phone base station which looked promising. However the researchers used a sample of about one hundred people round just one base station which didn’t seem statistically significant. I was pleased that none of the papers had stated categorically that there were no dangers for then I would have had the unenviable task of trying to uncover whether a financially interested party had funded the research.
Next I decided to follow up on an article claiming that Ivanka Trump's fashion company had just imported 400 tons of apparel from China. Of course, if true, this could have caused dad to have an apoplectic fit just prior to his Chinese golf summit last week. I thought of sending an E-mail to ivanka@westwing,whitehouse.gov or to her company or even to the American customs department; however I figured my chances of getting a reply were next to zero. Instead I Googled the information to see if the websites reporting the news were reputable. Sure enough there at the top of the list were the Huffington Post and the UK’s Independent describing how her company’s products were sourced from China and Hong Kong. Fully fifty three tonnes had been on the high seas while dad was blasting China in his inauguration speech with more shipments to follow. Their source was Agence France Press which had seen the customs declarations. One assumes neither the AFP report nor the customs documents were forgeries. Of course the newspapers themselves probably had their political biases.
About a year ago, I read a delightful story about a ninety year old Englishwoman living in Japan who trained sumo wrestlers. For a short while it lifted my gloom about Anglo-American politics and climate change. But was the story authentic or just plain fiction? Since I didn't have a Japanese friend who could interview Doreen Simmons in person, I had to rely once more on Google. Several websites, including that of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – which, incidentally, is notorious for its anti renewable energy, pro-coal stance, when commenting on energy matters, not that that’s relevant here – described how 84 year old Doreen Simmons, a graduate in classics and theology, has for more than thirty years commentated and written about sumo wrestling. Amazing, in fact inspiring in these days of localisation. Of course, maybe the Australians were looking to sumo wrestlers to boost their rugby teams, hence the sudden interest of the ABC in matters Japanese.
What all these examples illustrate, of course, is how difficult it is to find reliable information amidst the messy mass of data out there. No wonder we have political and business leaders making the oddest decisions when they stop relying on real live, up to date experts! Scary to say the least as we face a future in an ever more complex world.
Today’s news today used to be the mantra of newspapers; now it’s much more likely to be false news today. We twenty first century technophiles pride ourselves on being at the forefront of the information wave like no other generation before us. However two personal experiences this past week had me pausing to reflect on our progress.
In between musings I have been researching the forts of South Africa's nineteenth century frontier wars. One of my prime sources is the newspapers of the time, copies of many of which can now be found online. Some of them are quite amazing. They might not have the photographs, charts or glossy adverts of today’s publications, but they are absolutely crammed with news. On the military front, for instance, they quote verbatim both the instructions of the commanding officers to their troops and the progress reports from the generals at the front to the politicians in London. If I tried to find that same level of information on America's war on ISIS, for instance, I would probably be arrested for attempting to breach the Pentagon firewalls!
The second incident seemed more innocent but probably had more serious undertones. I received an Email from a reputable cycle touring company advising that the French government had announced plans to make bicycles available free of charge to tourists at all major airports and railway stations. As an avid cycle tourist, I was overjoyed so I sent this joyous news on to a French friend. I was much less overjoyed when he punctuated my hopes by pointing out it was an April fool's joke. How was I to know it was false news?
With American universities starting to offer courses in identifying false news, I decided to investigate three other potential items of false news that had come my way. In the first, a letter to the editor of my local newspaper ranted about the health risks to children of cellphone base towers installed in urban areas. Was this true or was it not? Since I knew no experts in this area that I could call up, I resorted to Google Scholar. I typed in some keywords and was presented with a list of some impressively erudite journal articles. None of the experts had a definitive answer. A couple of papers reported on the probable negative impact of the base station radiation on trees and house sparrows. Several more implied that radiation from cell phones themselves was likely to be more harmful than radiation from the towers. There was one titled A cross-sectional case control study on genetic damage in individuals residing in the vicinity of a mobile phone base station which looked promising. However the researchers used a sample of about one hundred people round just one base station which didn’t seem statistically significant. I was pleased that none of the papers had stated categorically that there were no dangers for then I would have had the unenviable task of trying to uncover whether a financially interested party had funded the research.
Next I decided to follow up on an article claiming that Ivanka Trump's fashion company had just imported 400 tons of apparel from China. Of course, if true, this could have caused dad to have an apoplectic fit just prior to his Chinese golf summit last week. I thought of sending an E-mail to ivanka@westwing,whitehouse.gov or to her company or even to the American customs department; however I figured my chances of getting a reply were next to zero. Instead I Googled the information to see if the websites reporting the news were reputable. Sure enough there at the top of the list were the Huffington Post and the UK’s Independent describing how her company’s products were sourced from China and Hong Kong. Fully fifty three tonnes had been on the high seas while dad was blasting China in his inauguration speech with more shipments to follow. Their source was Agence France Press which had seen the customs declarations. One assumes neither the AFP report nor the customs documents were forgeries. Of course the newspapers themselves probably had their political biases.
About a year ago, I read a delightful story about a ninety year old Englishwoman living in Japan who trained sumo wrestlers. For a short while it lifted my gloom about Anglo-American politics and climate change. But was the story authentic or just plain fiction? Since I didn't have a Japanese friend who could interview Doreen Simmons in person, I had to rely once more on Google. Several websites, including that of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – which, incidentally, is notorious for its anti renewable energy, pro-coal stance, when commenting on energy matters, not that that’s relevant here – described how 84 year old Doreen Simmons, a graduate in classics and theology, has for more than thirty years commentated and written about sumo wrestling. Amazing, in fact inspiring in these days of localisation. Of course, maybe the Australians were looking to sumo wrestlers to boost their rugby teams, hence the sudden interest of the ABC in matters Japanese.
What all these examples illustrate, of course, is how difficult it is to find reliable information amidst the messy mass of data out there. No wonder we have political and business leaders making the oddest decisions when they stop relying on real live, up to date experts! Scary to say the least as we face a future in an ever more complex world.
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