Fake news essay

CIT305 Spring 2021Assignment 1aComputing Professional Skills, Discussion Activity 1: Current Issue in the IT FieldPurpose
The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to develop and practice the type of 21st century skills that are critically important for IT professionals in the workplace. These skills include critical thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, and lifelong learning.ABET, the world leader in technical education accreditation, states that students graduating from computing should possess such skills. The programs in CTI are accredited by ABET, and the CTI learning outcomes are aligned with ABET’s professional skills outcomes which are:• An ability to analyze a problem and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution.
• An ability to function effectively on teams to accomplish a common goal.
• An understanding of professional, ethical, legal, security and social issues and responsibilities
• An ability to communicate effectively
• An ability to analyze the local and global impact of computing on individuals, organizations, and society
• Recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in continuing professional developmentThese skills are the generic workplace skills that all successful computing professionals must possess.Task
Assume that you have been appointed by the UAE government to a task force of 5 or 6 computing professionals. You have been asked to examine the current issue outlined in the article below. Your team has not been asked to make specific recommendations on a solution. Rather, you have been asked to make recommendations that will help the Government decide what next steps they should take in developing potential solution/s.This task is discussion-based, meaning you will participate through a collaborative exchange and critique of each other’s ideas and work. Your team needs to think carefully about the issue and discuss it amongst yourselves by making posts to the online discussion board. You need to access and read other sources of information to help your team understand the issue better.You need to look at the issue from various perspectives. The goal is to challenge and support one another as a team to tap your collective resources and experiences to dig more deeply into the issue/s raised in the article. As each team member will refine his/her ideas through the dialogue that develops, and, as you are working together, it is very important to submit your posts in a timely manner.To guide your discussion, five questions are provided for you to consider. These guiding questions are in line with the steps and main considerations when examining and solving complex issues. Each team member should make between 4 (minimum) and 6 (maximum) posts. The posts should take into consideration what others have said in previous posts. As part of a team you need to keep in mind that ultimately the team should reach a consensus on your recommendations. So, as a team member you need to be checking carefully what others have said and ensuring that it is correct. You need to be sure that your team is working from facts and giving opinions based on facts, so you need to scrutinize the information to ensure it is accurate.Grading
Grades are awarded based on Timeliness and consider the following aspects of your work: Quality, Teamwork, and English. You will be graded individually i.e. not a team score. Your grade will be based on your four best posts.
This is a time-based activity meaning that you must participate continually over the 12 days and that your posts must be equally divided over the time. As time passes so too do the available marks. For example, after 6 days there are only 50% of the marks remaining. In other words, if you start after six days you have already lost 50% of the assignment marks.
You must write a minimum of 4 posts at equal intervals over the period. You must start on the first or second day and finish on the last or second last day. The posts should be around 10 lines or so (200 words minimum).• Teamwork
It is important that your group discussion be facilitated by the guiding questions provided below. You must acknowledge the posts of others and/or encourage others to participate. You must be critical of the posts of others. You must avoid repeating what others have said. You must try to keep the team on track. You must make sure the team is moving forward towards potential solutions based on facts and well-reasoned opinions. You need to be diplomatic in your communication with your team members.• Quality of Discussion
Your posts should show critical thinking and clear reasoning. While much of the content of your posts should be based on facts you should also give your opinion when appropriate.
You must state (reference) where you located your information so that the other team members can depend on its credibility (and access for checking if they wish).
It must be clear to others when you are giving opinion that it is an opinion. Your posts must make a meaningful contribution towards the issue. Your posts must move the issue forward towards possible solution/s.• English
You should communicate your ideas clearly with vocabulary, spelling, grammar and punctuality at a good standard.Guiding Questions
Consider the following guiding questions as you work on this.1. What is/are the problem/problems here? Is there an underlying fundamental problem?2. Who are the major stakeholders and what are their perspectives?3. What are the major ethical, legal, and security aspects associated with the problem.4. What are the intended and unintended consequences of existing computing solutions? Consider the consequences on individuals, organizations and society within local and global contexts5. What recommendations would you propose that will lead to potential solutions.Reading
Fake News
“So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate,” tweeted President Trump. A database of Trump remarks contains 320 references to fake news, named as term of the year in 2017. Leading news channels are not immune. For example, in 2016 a story claiming HH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nayhan had chanted a Hindu prayer went viral in India and was tweeted by main news channels. Fake news has been blamed for causing tension between countries – the Deputy Chairman of Dubai Police blamed Al Jazeera for deepening the crisis between Qatar and the UAE. Fake news has also resulted in tighter regulation of the Internet and is now seen as a threat to democracy and free debate.
Fake news refers to any news, data or information which is wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas. Fake news can be in the form of misinformation, which refers to false information being disseminated without a harmful motive, or disinformation where false information is created and shared with harmful intent. Real news, on the other hand, is written in a way that adheres to ethical guidelines for gathering, presenting and disseminating information. Typically journalists are tasked with producing real news; they act independently and are accountable and transparent in their sources. As the examples above show, however, journalists too are complicit in the spread of fake news.
False news has been found to spread faster and wider than real news. The success of the message is not reliant on the truth of its content but on its popularity. Prior to the 2016 US election, 25% of tweets were found to spread either fake or biased views in favour of Donald Trump. Some news commentators claim that Donald Trump would not have been elected president if it were not for the influence of fake news. This perhaps is not surprising as research shows that 62% of American adults get their news on social media, many of whom believe in most of the stories they read.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media, in particular, have been targeted for spreading fake news. Abdulrahman Al Owais, the Minister of Health and Prevention, said that the biggest challenge the UAE faces in dealing with the pandemic has been the impact of social media platforms. He added that even though in some cases the misinformation was not intentionally spread, the damage it caused was too serious to ignore. The UAE announced that it would fine individuals who are caught communicating fake news about the coronavirus up to 250,000Dhs. This they hope will curb the disruption of factual information.
Countries such as Malaysia, Russia and Kenya have passed laws that make the creation and/or circulation of fake news punishable by law. In the UAE, Federal Law No. 5 of 2012 punishes anyone who spreads mis- or disinformation with a fine and a prison sentence. In 2019 Egypt arrested and charged 19 of its journalists on grounds that they were involved in the spread of fake news. Human rights activists, however, argue that governments should not be in charge of policing fake news. There are concerns that governments can use such laws to silence the voices of opponents.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool being used to identify fake news. One team of students from Berkeley built a website which scores the truth of information based on its URL. Their site claims 84% accuracy but the sample is based on only 5000 articles. IBM tested a prototype Question Answering Machine (QAM) called Watson to separate fact from fiction, and Google funded a fact checking operation called Full Fact to develop an automated fake news detection system. However, the successful implementation of fact checking models requires a constantly updated corpus of knowledge which is verified.
Tracer News, a fake news detection system used by Thomson Reuters is a sensitive algorithmically driven system which filters news stories and social feeds for truth and assigns a veracity score. It’s claimed to be 84% accurate in distinguishing rumour and fact. However, a simple claim could take hours to verify. Moreover, if the responsibility lies with algorithms, biased data sets that underpin algorithms can lead to flawed decisions.
Dr Kristy Hess, a lecturer in Communication at Deakin University, argues that it is neither the government, nor social media administrators or AI that should be combating fake news. Rather, it is the responsibility of readers to interrogate what they are reading rather than simply believing everything that aligns with their values. In this regard, schools can educate young people to develop a critical mindset via the teaching of media literacy.
Today’s Internet driven world has enabled anyone to create news and for that news to go viral. There is too much information to validate all claims made before they are publicised. Many questions are raised about why people so readily believe in fake news, how to identify it and whose responsibility it is to trace and remove fake news. How can we create and sustain a global culture which promotes and values truth? What indeed is the truth of an event when multiple perspectives of the same event can hold truth?Bibliography
Ahmad, A. (2018, March 20). Youth panel to spot fake news in UAE. Retrieved from Gulf News : https://gulfnews.com/news/uae/government/youth-panel-to-spot-fake-news-in-uae-1.2191796
Gulf News. (2018, February 11). Fake news: Viral video clip in Indian media spreads false propaganda on UAE. Retrieved from Gulf News : https://gulfnews.com/news/asia/india/fake-news-viral-video-clip-in-indian-media-spreads-false-propaganda-on-uae-1.2172114
Hit Capital . (n.d.). Dubai security chief highlights importance of combating ‘fake news’. Retrieved from hit 96.7: http://hit967.ae/dubai-security-chief-highlights-importance-of-combating-fake-news/
Lazer, D., Baum, M., Benkler, Y. B., & Greenhill, K. (2018, March 9). The science of fake news. Social Science , 359(6380), 1094-1096.
Oxborrow, I. & Ryan, P. (2020, June 22). Coronavirus: “None of us are safe until all of us are safe” says WHO chief Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus. Retrieved from The National: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/health/coronavirus-none-of-us-are-safe-until-all-of-us-are-safe-says-who-chief-dr-tedros-ghebreyesus-1.1037346Snow, J. (2017, December 13). Can AI Win the War Against Fake News? Retrieved from MIT Technology Review : https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609717/can-ai-win-the-war-against-fake-news/
The National . (2018, April 22). Anti-fake news banners to appear on UAE Facebook accounts. Retrieved from The National : https://www.thenational.ae/uae/anti-fake-news-banners-to-appear-on-uae-facebook-accounts-1.723767
Vorhies, W. (2017, May 1). Using Algorithms to Detect Fake News – The State of the Art. Retrieved from Data Science Central : https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/using-algorithms-to-detect-fake-news-the-state-of-the-art
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