Fascinating look at how nearly nonsensical belief systems become established
Correlation is not causation.
Do social media algorithms favor “sexualized posts”?
Social media algorithms that select what items we see in our feeds or in our “recommended” posts or video lists, may be designed to favor content that features attractive people (usually females, usually young and fit) or which include more sexualized content (broadly defined). Content creators see in their viewership data what works to obtain views and will produce more content like that. The effect is that algorithms may be reinforcing stereotypes of women as sex objects (data suggests this has happened more so for women than men).
Story contradicts the headline: “Minimum wage doesn’t cover the rent anywhere in the U.S. – CBS News”
Their third paragraph contradicts the headline: “Even the $15 hourly wage touted by labor activists would not be enough to make housing affordable in the overwhelming majority of states, the coalition found.” — but in other words, it can afford housing in some states. But the story’s errors are worse than that …
When the media spins a story to tell the author’s narrative, rather than reality
An incredibly lengthy news article spins a story that a top athlete and scholar’s death, due to suicide, is likely due to the increasing pressure on young women to accomplish great things. 10 pages into this 14 page, single spaced news article, does the author mention she had suffered a brain injury just prior to her suicide, and even that mention goes into less detail than contemporary news reports shortly after her death. (I have had multiple and serious TBI’s myself, which is why I found the reporting on this terribly sad story to be a rambling odyssey that seemingly wanted to avoid reality.)
Reuters long history of fake news photos
Reuters is called out this week for leaving out critically important details from their photo (cropped) and text description.
Snopes beclowns itself again, “fact checks” a satire news site again
Snopes falls for it again and fact checks a satirical web site that prominently says it is “Fake news you can trust”. Seriously Snopes?
Oxfam’s annual report on income inequality is nonsense designed for propaganda messaging
Oxfam issues its annual report on global wealth inequality, but this time, many notice that its methodology is garbage, designed to produce a specific outcome for citation in propaganda campaigns. Specifically, many U.S. university graduates with good paying jobs, nice apartments, cars, smart phones, cable TV and Internet access are identified as among the poorest people on earth. Really?
Everything, everywhere is now a “crisis”
While researching overuse of the “crisis” label (literally everything is now a crisis), I ran across a Google News linked web site whose own description largely labels itself as a propaganda mill. Yet this is what passes for “news”?
“Political motives” have become “the major driving force behind most science communication”
Study finds that “science communications” has routinely devolved into propaganda messaging intended to persuade targets to adopt someone’s agenda.
Updated: How airlines use intimidation to persuade you to spend more money
Six months ago, I wrote about airlines’ new policies of dividing cabins into as many as 9 different tiers or classes of customers, creating a sense of peer pressure between the haves and have-nots. Now, researchers say this passenger hierarchy appears to lead to more in flight aggression by passengers.