210 | nº 29, pp. 197-212 | doxa.comunicación
July-December of 2019
Artificial intelligence and journalism: diluting the impact of disinformation and fake news through bots
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
Algorithms developed to create bots allow us to understand several cases in which algorithms, automation, and artificial intelligence can improve journalism, such as in the computational search for stories and automated content production. Journalists must develop a critical eye to see the pros and cons of algorithms and their use in journalism and society at large. It is equally important to know how news algorithms are implemented and how they are implemented at work.
Therefore, it is necessary to use a sophisticated bot detection algorithm to identify and remove all the “other” bots before running the news analysis. As we have seen in our analysis, some initiatives are being carried out, but it is necessary to continue advancing the creation of state-of-the-art bots. The bots studied have accelerated the dissemination of true and fake news and have affected the spread of both equally. This suggests that fake news spreads further, more quickly, more profoundly and more widely than the truth because humans, not bots, are more likely to spread it.
Finally, more research is warranted on the behavioral explanations for differences in the dissemination of true and fake news. In particular, more robust identification of the human judgment factors that drive the spread of true news and fake news online, which requires more direct interaction with users through interviews, surveys, and laboratory experiments. In future work, it is essential to encourage these and other approaches to research human interface factors that drive the diffusion of accurate and fake news. We therefore, hope that this analysis will succeed in encouraging further research, in collaboration with international researchers to study the causes and consequences of the spread of fake news affecting democratic societies, as well as the potential eradication of it.
6. Bibliographic references
Alandete, D. (2019) Fake news: la nueva arma de destrucción masiva: Cómo se utilizan las noticias falsas y los hechos alternativos para desestabilizar la democracia. Bilbao, Deusto.
Benítez, J. (2018). “Cazadores de ‘fake news’: así funciona la tecnología que evitará que te manipulen”, en El Mundo (de fecha 12/09/2018) (en línea) https://www.elmundo.es/papel/futuro/2018/09/12/5b97cc7f22601d761e8b45d0.html [Acceso 23 de mayo de 2018]
Calhoun, L (2018) “Just Launched: Google News App Uses Artificial Intelligence to Select Stories, Stop Fake News” in INC.com (en linea) https://www.inc.com/lisa-calhoun/new-google-news-app-uses-ai-to-select-stories-stop-fake-news.html [Acceso 23 de marzo de 2019]
Conner-Simons, A. (2018) “Detecting fake news at its source” en MIT News (en línea). http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-csail-machine-learning-system-detects-fake-news-from-source-1004 [Acceso 3 de marzo de 2019]
D’Ancona, M (2017) Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back. London, Ebury Press.
Edelman (2019) Trust Barometer Global Report (en línea) https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2019-03/2019_Edelman_Trust_Barometer_Global_Report.pdf?utm_source=website&utm_medium=global_report&utm_campaign=downloads [Acceso 3 de mayo de 2019]
