I found that one of the main points of this documentary was to explore how fabricated stories and conspiracies spread online, revealing the real-world harm that these theories can do to individuals, politics, and public trust in general. It traces major cases of misinformation and shows how digital platforms can amplify falsehoods faster than it shows the truth. An example of this was "pizzagate", and I found this interesting since I had never heard of it before. #so315

I had never heard of “pizzagate” before the documentary. It is INSANE how fast fake news and conspiracies spread. It is clear that this can have serious consequences. I never realized the severity of what happens when these rumors spread. #so315

One of the individuals in the documentary mentioned how he barely trusts news online, especially from social media. This is something I relate to. There are many times I will see a headline on instagram (mostly political) and get extremely skeptical. I try to fact check any information that seems sketchy, but i’m sure I have consumed fake news and thought it was real. #so315

After watching the documentary, the question that still remains for me is, how do we truly combat this issue of fake news? Where can we draw a line between free speech and misinformation? I know fact-checking happens, and posts will get flagged, but it's often after millions have seen it, in which case they won't return to the post. Do we need to redefine free speech as a whole? #so315

I found it interesting that instead of trying to cut down on the spread of fake news, some people just added to it. It became competitive, especially with the "Dry Alabama" scenario. It's almost like a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality #so315

I think the discussion of PizzaGate was a really good example of how fast fake news/conspiracy theories spread. It's crazy how far it escalated, ultimately affecting the business and livelihood of the workers. It's also interesting because this is almost cyclical, as with the release of the Epstein files/emails, people have drawn back to PizzaGate and are rehashing it. #so315

If people are willing to critically think about how to fix this topic, then I believe it could be fixed with enough time and money. However, I think as we have come to notice that money is a the large driving factor in media. They have to be able to pay for employees, so it is important for them to generate revenue. I do not foresee this issue benign resolved unless money is given to the media industry. Even then I do know if that would actually solve the issue at hand. #so315

I have noticed glory bias more recently due to social media. Since a majority get their news from social media, we generally see the same people over and over again who have received the most likes. This further creates bias as we are only seeing one person, but it also limits diversity in the news which we discussed in the course earlier was very important in the media. I think glory bias has and will only continue to increase as more people look to social media to get their news. #so315

I thought the list of critical questions for detecting bias were intriguing, especially number 4 which talked about the collection of data. I think statistics is a great way to hide bias, that people typically do not think about. A person could collect a non representative sample of the population, but get statistics and report it. They are falsely claiming evidence that could be tailored to their bias, and successfully convince people to believe something that isn't true. #so315