Government professor Brendan Nyhan and other scholars call for increased study of fake news
By Autumn Dinh | April 13, 2018Government professor Brendan Nyhan has joined 15 other scholars from different disciplines in calling for increased interdisciplinary efforts to study and eventually counter the spread of “fake news.” In an article published on March 9 in the journal Science, the 16 researchers discussed potential interventions that may effectively stem from “the flow and influence of fake news.” “[The article] was basically a call for action,” said Brown University cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences professor and article co-author Steven Sloman. Harvard Kennedy School global communications and public policy professor Matthew Baum, one of the article’s authors, added that the article was a response to “concerns about the political environment, especially the problems with information.” According to the article, social bots — automated accounts impersonating humans — are estimated to take up nine to 15 percent of active Twitter accounts and 60 million Facebook accounts, and can magnify the spread of fake news online by liking, sharing and searching for information.
