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Reasons Why It Is Difficult to Empirically Evaluate Disagreements Over the Prevalence and Importance of Misinformation

  • Because there is no single source of data that covers all three modes of consuming news, researchers select data sources on "the basis of their availability," which doesn't necessarily correspond with representativeness.
  • The studies done on fake news often fail to consider how much of the fake news is consumed relative to other types of news or non-news related content.
  • Even when the prevalence of fake news is low compared to other content, fake news can still be considered important because of its disproportionate impact on certain populations. Therefore comprehensive questions of prevalence on their own cannot resolve questions about influence.

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Updated 2021-07-29

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Psychology

Social Science

Empirical Science

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