This is a summary of some of the research contained in my Tow Center report, which can be downloaded here: http://towcenter.org/research/lies-damn-lies-and-viral-content/ It examines how news sites cover rumors and unverified claims, and examines best practices for debunking misinformation.

1. Lies, Damn Lies and
Viral Content
@CraigSilverman
Emergent.info

9. –Carl Drott
“She volunteered to defend Kobani against the
Islamic State and risk her life. It’s an affront to
her that some people think that’s not enough, but
that more fantastic details have to be invented,
and it also devalues the very many completely
true and even more fantastic stories coming out
of Kobani. Unfortunately, there’s not an iconic
picture for every fantastic story, and vice versa.”

12. Rumors emerge
in situations of
uncertainty, fear,
or lack of
information.
Lake Monster Attack designed by Luis Prado from the Noun Project

13. “[W]e are fundamentally social beings and
we possess an irrepressible instinct to
make sense of the world. Put these ideas
together and we get shared sensemaking:
We make sense of life together. Rumor is
perhaps the quintessential shared
sensemaking activity.”
— Nicholas DiFonzo, author of “The Watercooler Effect: A
Psychologist Explores the Extraordinary Power of
Rumors.”

15. RICHARD QUEST, CNN: . . . So, many
questions, none of which, frankly, we’re
going to be able to answer for you tonight.
But many questions are raised by this new
development. For instance, not least, how can a
plane go like this and no one notices it’s off flight
plan?
The former director general of IATA says he
finds it incredible that fighter jets were not
scrambled as soon as the aircraft went off
course. I asked Giovanni Bisignani for his gut
feeling about what happened to the plane.

16. The Truth About Rumor
• Rumors are inevitable, spread rapidly in a connected
world.
• They are prevalent in breaking news and other fluid,
confusing or anxiety-inducing situations.
• Repetition has an effect on belief.
• People are more likely to believe a rumor if it aligns
with their existing beliefs/knowledge.
• It matters how journalists treat rumors and claims
because we can give them credibility and oxygen.

17. What We Found

18. +1,600 news articles about more
than 100 online rumors that
circulated in the online press
between August and December of
2014.

19. 1. Point, then Retreat

20. Mindless
Propagation
Silent
Restraint

21. 2. Following On

23. 3.Fake/False Stuff Spreads

29. 4. Declarative/Innuendo Headlines

30. 5. Headline/Body
Dissonance
• 1,660 articles
• 213 contained headline/body text dissonance
• Just under 13 percent of all articles

31. True/Observing

32. True/Observing

34. True/Observing
the rumors we tracked saw at least one media report use the true

35. True/False
• “WATCH: Bird Launches Airstrike on Putin’s
Shoulder (UPDATED)” (Time magazine)
• “Woman Gets Third Boob to Appear Unattractive to
Men [Updated]” (New York magazine)
• “Weather Reporter Caught Writing His Name In The
Snow Was NOT Ready To Go On Camera
(UPDATED)” (The Huffington Post)

36. Hedging Words

38. st websites claim Israeli-Canadian woman kidnapped by IS: re
— The Globe And Mail

39. Thank goodness for
pumpkin spice condoms

40. rex will neither confirm or deny the pumpkin spice condom.”— Qu

47. Debunking Efforts

48. Tips For Newsrooms
Handling rumors/claims:
• Understand your impact.
• Set a standard for pointing/propagating.
• Evaluate before your propagate.
• Hedge consistently.
Debunking:
• Debunk the idea, not the person.
• Tell a story.
• Choose the right sources.
• Be positive.

49. Thank you! Questions?

50. 6.Updates/Follow Ups

51. Claim: ISIS captured a U.S. airdrop of
weapons intended for Kurdish fighters

52. Claim: Hewlett-Packard will split
itself into two separate companies

53. We Need Better BS
Detectors/Debunkers

56. –Brendan Nyhan, New York Times
“The problem, however, is that the spread of
rumors, misinformation and unverified claims
can overwhelm any effort to set the record
straight”

57. Key Players

58. Context: Networks
Source: Statistica, http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

59. Context: Abundance
• 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube ever
minute.
• More than 500 million tweets sent per day.
• More than 55 million Instagram photos
uploaded per day.

60. Context: Smartphones

61. 1. Official Sources of Propaganda

63. 2. Hoaxsters

64. Claim: The Batmobile was stolen

65. 4. Unintentional Propagators

66. Why Debunking is
Difficult

68. –Brendan Nyhan
“….we found that parents with mixed or negative
feelings toward vaccines actually became less
likely to say they would vaccinate a future child
after receiving information debunking the myth
that vaccines cause autism.”

69. – Cordelia Fine, the author of A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and
Deceives, in The New York Times.
“[W]e humans quickly develop an irrational
loyalty to our beliefs, and work hard to find
evidence that supports those opinions and to
discredit, discount or avoid information that does
not.”