Weekly New/Digital Media (46)

Fake news is 'killing people's minds', says Apple boss Tim Cook

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/11/fake-news-is-killing-peoples-minds-says-apple-boss-tim-cook
Summary;
Apple chief calls on governments and technology companies to crack down on misinformation in public discourse
He believes that "firms such as his own needed to create tools that would help stem the spread of falsehoods, without impinging on freedom of speech" Especially in the time that a lot of fake news is being spread for political gain. He believes that this current rise of fake news is temporary, people don't want fake news, so there will be a rise to traditional in depth news once more.
He is calling for a wide spread campagin to raise awarnessa and counteract these fake news issues. 
Key facts/ statistics:

• Cook also called for governments to lead information campaigns to crack down on fake news in an interview with a British national newspaper
• “We are going through this period of time right here where unfortunately some of the people that are winning are the people that spend their time trying to get the most clicks, not tell the most truth,” Cook told the Daily Telegraph. “It’s killing people’s minds, in a way.”
• He said: “All of us technology companies need to create some tools that help diminish the volume of fake news. We must try to squeeze this without stepping on freedom of speech and of the press, but we must also help the reader. Too many of us are just in the ‘complain’ category right now and haven’t figured out what to do.”
•  “truthful, reliable, non-sensational, deep news outlets will win”
• A study by economists at Stanford University and New York University published two months after November’s US presidential election found that in the run-up to the vote, fake anti-Clinton stories had been shared 30 million times on Facebook, while those favouring her were shared eight million times.
• It said: “The average American saw and remembered 0.92 pro-Trump fake news stories and 0.23 pro-Clinton fake news stories, with just over half of those who recalled seeing fake news stories believing them.”
• “for fake news to have changed the outcome of the election, a single fake article would need to have had the same persuasive effect as 36 television campaign ads”.
• He added: “It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public. There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think through every demographic... It’s almost as if a new course is required for the modern kid, for the digital kid.
• “In some ways kids will be the easiest to educate. At least before a certain age, they are very much in listen and understand [mode], and they then push their parents to act. We saw this with environmental issues: kids learning at school and coming home and saying why do you have this plastic bottle? Why are you throwing it away?”

My opinion:
I agree very much with Tim Cook. There has to be awareness campaigns against these fake news stories, audiences need to be taught to be more active in their intake of the media and understand that nothing you read is 100% true. However, where there are media institutions that want to fight against this almost marxist concept, there will be many that wouldn't be happy with the move and would try every thing in their will to stop it from making a change. Moreover it is pretty hard to differentiate fact and opinion especially in this freedom of speech orientated generation. This will be very hard to tackle.
Overall i don't agree that only kids should be taught, yes they may be easiest, but by the time they have grown up NDM will have changed dramatically once more, the older audiences also need to be targeted. Those who have the ability to vote, make a change, share and spread that is the main audience they need ti reach otherwise the campaign will just be pointless - almost a distraction pretending to be trying to address the issue so people complain less about it but without making a difference.