Photo by Filip Mishevski on Unsplash
Misinformation in Media
A solution-oriented investigation into media-borne misinformation and ‘fake news’
Project Lead:
Arjun Mazumdar
Researchers:
Arnav Brahmasandra, Ndidi Opara, Adam Jensen, Becca Sealy, Victor Qian, Sarah Ben-Yosef, and Elena Gill
Abstract:
There has been a general death of empirical study into the proclivity of the elderly to believe or proliferate ‘fake news.’ The scholarly effort to investigate the impact of ‘fake news’ on old adults internationally has also been minimal. However, from the existing research, there is a general consensus that old adults are major targets of misinformation, and play a major role in sharing it via social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. When such a politically powerful, yet vulnerable constituency has been consistently the unwitting target of misinformation campaigns, it is worth wondering first, why old adults are more susceptible to believing ‘fake news,’ and second, why they share it at disproportionate rates.