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doctorclark t1_jaymm7u wrote

Reply to comment by Duende555 in On Facebook, Visual Misinfo Widespread. In the runup to the 2020 U.S. Presidential election visual misinformation was widespread across the platform, and that it was highly asymmetric across party lines, with right-leaning images five to eight times more likely to be misleading. by Wagamaga

The OP specifically calls out the differences in information quality across party lines. If the decline in print media alone explained misinformation's rise because of the attention economy, as you state, then what explains the party-line bias for amount of misinformation?

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LandmassWave t1_jayy9xm wrote

Selection bias and evaluation bias.

Don't forget that the lab leak theory and Hunter's laptop were both "misinformation" and the golden shower dossier was real.

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Duende555 t1_jayrndl wrote

Okay I'm tired today and don't really want to fight about this.

My point wasn't that the decline in print media alone explain misinformation's rise - my point was that the rise in misinformation and a diminished attention economy secondary to the internet *partially* explains the decline in print media AND has, in turn, led to print media mimicking the click bait tactics and misleading headline style that captures attention. Basically, print media is declining and increasingly trying to ape the style of Fox in an attempt to slow their own decline. And that's bad.

Also I'm tired today so that's probably all I got right now.

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doctorclark t1_jaysl0u wrote

That explanation cleared up my misreading of your proposed causality. I agree about print media's unfortunate mimicry of clickbait tacticrs that were born online.

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Duende555 t1_jayt04s wrote

Ah good. And yeah it’s a concerning trend.

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