Student’s Name: Daniel Alejandro Escobar Suárez

New York Times Article:

It’s True: False News Spreads Faster and Wider. And Humans Are to Blame.

1. Who are the “principal culprits” in spreading fake news, according to a new study?

The research shows that the culprits of spreading fake news are people who use social media to

share information without verifying the sources.

2. How much more likely are false claims to be spread than the truth on Twitter?

According to the article false claims are seventy percent more likely than the truth to be shared

on Twitter.

3. What other statistics did the study find regarding tweets containing true versus false

information?

The study found that true stories were rarely retweeted by more than 1,000 people, but the top 1

percent of false stories were routinely shared by 1,000 to 100,000 people. And it took true stories

about six times as long as false ones to reach 1,500 people.

4. How was the study conducted?

The M.I.T. researchers pointed to factors that contribute to the appeal of false news. Applying

standard text-analysis tools, they found that false claims were significantly more novel than true

ones.
5. What independent fact-checking organizations were consulted when determining the

veracity of information being tweeted and re-tweeted?

The stories found in Twitter were classified as true or false, using information from six

independent fact-checking organizations: Snopes, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.

In light of the information you read in the article, how likely are you, if at all, to change

your behavior regarding where you get your news? What about when it comes to Twitter

or other social media? Do you think you will become more critical of information sources?

Why or why not?

I think we must not trust everything which is shared on Twitter at first reading, because it is too

easy for anybody to have access to this social media and sharing information without worrying

about its accuracy. In my opinion, I think we have to do a research of any information we read in

order to avoid non-accurate or fake information. By doing this, we can be sure that what we read

is true and we will not be confounded. Finally, the advice for all of us is to get used to be more

critical readers by reading news from the original sources and not be content with just one.