LYRICFLUENT
LYRICFLUENTHow False News Can Spread Lyrics by Addison Anderson Addison Anderson
Below, you will find the lyrics for How False News Can Spread by Addison Anderson.
There's a quote usually attributed to the writer Mark Twain that goes
'A lie can travel halfway around the world
While the truth is putting on its shoes.'
Funny thing about that
There's reason to doubt that Mark Twain ever said this at all
Thus, ironically, proving the point
And today, the quote, whoever said it, is truer than ever before
In previous decades, most media with global reach
Consisted of several major newspapers and networks
Which had the resources to gather information directly
Outlets like Reuters and the Associated Press
That aggregate or rereport stories were relatively rare
Compared to today
The speed with which information spreads now
Has created the ideal conditions for a phenomenon known
As circular reporting
This is when publication A publishes misinformation
Publication B reprints it
And publication A then cites B as the source for the information
It's also considered a form of circular reporting
When multiple publications
Report on the same initial piece of false information
Which then appears to another author
As having been verified by multiple sources
For instance, the 1998 publication of a single pseudoscientific paper
Arguing that routine vaccination of children causes autism
Inspired an entire antivaccination movement
Despite the fact that the original paper has repeatedly been discredited
By the scientific community
Deliberately unvaccinated children are now
Contracting contagious diseases
That had been virtually eradicated in the United States
With some infections proving fatal
In a slightly less dire example
Satirical articles that are formatted to resemble real ones
Can also be picked up by outlets not in on the joke
For example, a joke article in the reputable
British Medical Journal entitled
'Energy Expenditure in Adolescents Playing
New Generation Computer Games,'
Has been referenced in serious science publications over 400 times
User-generated content, such as wikis
Are also a common contributer to circular reporting
As more writers come to rely on such pages for quick information
An unverified fact in a wiki page can make its way
Into a published article
That may later be added as a citation
For the very same wiki information
Making it much harder to debunk
Recent advances in communication technology
Have had immeasurable benefits
In breaking down the barriers between information and people
But our desire for quick answers
May overpower the desire to be certain of their validity
And when this bias can be multiplied by billions
Of people around the world
Nearly instantaneously, more caution is in order
Avoiding sensationalist media
Searching for criticisms of suspicious information
And tracing the original source of a report can help slow down a lie
Giving the truth more time to put on its shoes
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