Docsity
Docsity

Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity


Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan


Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips

False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors: Three Case Studies - Paul Hitlin, Papers of Computer Science

An article by paul hitlin discussing the role of the internet in the spread of unsubstantiated news stories, using three case studies: twa flight 800, sidney blumenthal, and vince foster. Hitlin explores how the internet's open nature and the desire for speed, traffic, political gain, and scandal can lead to errors and rumors in cyber-journalism.

Typology: Papers

Pre 2010

Uploaded on 08/09/2009

koofers-user-tag
koofers-user-tag 🇺🇸

10 documents

1 / 3

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
Paul Dumoulin
CS 312
Dr. Wolf
Chapter 33: False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors:
Three Case Studies
The article “False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors: Three
Case Studies” was written by Paul Hitlin in two thousand four. The focus of the article is
on how the internet acts as a catalyst for unsubstantiated news stories, and it examines
three instances of this. He examines internet rumors that surrounded the crash of TWA
Flight 800, white house special assistant Sidney Blumenthal, and Bill Clinton aide Vince
Foster.
Hitlin starts of by arguing that rumors which surround tragic events often occur
because the public wants to makes sense of a seemingly random and tragic event. He
states that the internet has allowed the new process to be a much more open one that
allows a greater number of people “to become involved with the production and
dissemination of news” 1(Hitlin, 155). It is difficult to define the term journalist when it
is applied to a free-lance, often partisan, internet reporter. The scale and importance of
this problem on the internet is best summed up by Hitlin when he observes that “public
opinion can often be influenced as much from rumors on sites with little credibility as it
can from more mainstream sources” 1(Hitlin, 156). Error correction is another major
shortcoming of internet reporting. He claims that errors in an internet news report are
often disseminated and spread before they can be detected and corrected 1(Hitlin, 155).
Hitlin cites four main reasons for errors in cyber-journalism. Firstly is the “need
for speed”. The constant availability of internet news creates a demand all day; writing
news stores online is not a day long endeavor like it is in newspapers. The desire to
pf3

Partial preview of the text

Download False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors: Three Case Studies - Paul Hitlin and more Papers Computer Science in PDF only on Docsity!

Paul Dumoulin CS 312 Dr. Wolf Chapter 33: False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors: Three Case Studies The article “False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors: Three Case Studies” was written by Paul Hitlin in two thousand four. The focus of the article is on how the internet acts as a catalyst for unsubstantiated news stories, and it examines three instances of this. He examines internet rumors that surrounded the crash of TWA Flight 800, white house special assistant Sidney Blumenthal, and Bill Clinton aide Vince Foster. Hitlin starts of by arguing that rumors which surround tragic events often occur because the public wants to makes sense of a seemingly random and tragic event. He states that the internet has allowed the new process to be a much more open one that allows a greater number of people “to become involved with the production and dissemination of news” 1 (Hitlin, 155). It is difficult to define the term journalist when it is applied to a free-lance, often partisan, internet reporter. The scale and importance of this problem on the internet is best summed up by Hitlin when he observes that “public opinion can often be influenced as much from rumors on sites with little credibility as it can from more mainstream sources” 1 (Hitlin, 156). Error correction is another major shortcoming of internet reporting. He claims that errors in an internet news report are often disseminated and spread before they can be detected and corrected 1 (Hitlin, 155). Hitlin cites four main reasons for errors in cyber-journalism. Firstly is the “need for speed”. The constant availability of internet news creates a demand all day; writing news stores online is not a day long endeavor like it is in newspapers. The desire to

attract hits is another problem; sites often want to increase their traffic to advertise more or become more prominent because competition is worldwide on the web. The third reason is political gain. Rumors and false news can spread only to advance a certain partisan group or ideology without regard to accuracy. Lastly the attraction to scandal is a problem. Inaccurate and sensation reporting is often embraced because it is more exciting than the real facts 1 (Hitlin, 156-157). The first case that he studies is the crash of TWA flight 800 in nineteen ninety six. Soon after the tragedy three theories surfaces, that the plane was blown up by a terrorist bomb, there was a mechanical failure, or the plane was shot down by a missile. In March of the next year the investigation disregarded terrorism as a cause, but internet speculation continued. Pierre Salinger, a correspondent for ABC news claimed to have a letter from French Intelligence proving the missile theory, but it was instead a memo that was circulating on the internet. The significance of internet rumors was apparent in the days after the crash when extra security measures were taken to prevent terrorism. Websites still exist that claim to know what really happened 1 (Hitlin, 158-159). The second study involves Matt Drudge, a one-man internet news team. In nineteen ninety seven he claimed that white house special assistant Sidney Blumenthal was a wife-beater. There were no facts to back up Drudge’s report, and he was sued by Blumenthal. Unlike most cases, the accused could confront the accuser, and Drudge retracted his story, it was a clearly partisan move 1 (Hitlin, 159-160). The third case deals with the suicide of Vince Foster, a white house aide. In nineteen ninety three he was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot would to the head. Rumors surfaced that he was killed to cover-up a scandal in the Clinton administration