{"id":6896,"date":"2018-03-05T03:55:09","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T08:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/is-fake-news-disrupting-social-media-platforms-or-is-this-just-another-piece-of-fakenews\/"},"modified":"2018-03-05T04:01:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T09:01:09","slug":"is-fakenews-disrupting-social-media-platforms","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/is-fakenews-disrupting-social-media-platforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Is #FakeNews disrupting Social Media platforms?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paying tribute to Clay Christensen\u2019s venerated disruption framework, Sam Mallikarjunan, executive strategist at HubSpot and instructor at 性视界\u2019s Professional Development Program, makes the case of Fake News being a low-end disruption to traditional Media[<\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>. In particular, Mallikarjunan states that traditional journalism has move up in the sustaining innovation path that focused on high-value customers that either paid for subscriptions or were hot targets for advertisers, overserving \u201ctitle-readers\u201d, to whom robust media offerings and interactive experiences were much less valuable. In this context he claims:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job-to-be-done served by fake news is to reinforce existing beliefs and mitigate the immensely uncomfortable feelings caused by exposure to information that contradicts those beliefs. Fake news articles are to cognitive dissonance as decongestants are to a stuffy nose\u200a\u2014\u200athey relieve the discomfort caused by cognitive capacity clogged with contradictory evidence.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

But how does this affect platforms? Well, the vehicle through which Fake News has cheaply and virally spread has been mainly social media, and especially, through the most popular platforms where network effects are strongest: Google, Facebook, and Twitter. In fact, an analysis from Buzzfeed found that during the 2016 US election fake news stories generated more engagement on Facebook than did the top election articles from mainstream news channels[<\/sup>2<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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Source: BuzzFeed[<\/sup>3<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n

Some trends are relevant: increasingly everyone gets their news though online sources via their smartphones, people can customize information delivery on personal preferences (ex. sign up for news alerts, decide who to follow, etc.)[<\/sup>4<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>, and social media is the go-to source for news \u2013 according to PEW Research Center, in 2017 67% of Americans got at least some news on social media[<\/sup>5<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>. But despite the tremendous increase in reach, in parallel in the US, there has been a declining public trust in traditional news media:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Gallup [6<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Misinformation is not a novelty, but clearly the US election has made this long-standing issue much more apparent. Because again, what is unique about fake news today, is the role of digital platforms in facilitating the spread of both news and fake news. Social media allows for information to be shared and distributed at unprecedented speed, and because we are more likely to trust information shared by people we know, this mechanism also inadvertently leads more of us to believe in fake news[<\/sup>7<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>. In this clear turning point for media, all eyes are set on how platforms are reacting to this crisis of credibility, and also many are analyzing the new opportunities for value creation and value capture that are appearing in the industry.<\/p>\n

Following we will analyze 3 areas of opportunity:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. New incumbents <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    – Publishers creating their own platforms<\/em>: Publishers like Shibsted or Bingdu have started to build their own platforms for content and advertising, hoping to take advantage of this \u2018flight to quality\u2019 news to scale and compete with Facebook. The expectation is that more publisher-owned news aggregators might emerge in the future[<\/sup>8<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

    – Messaging applications and conversational interfaces<\/em>: It is not even Facebook and Twitter anymore, but today we share<\/strong> most of our content through messaging apps like Whatsapp, Facebook Messanger, Snapchat and WeChat. In that line, bots<\/em> \u2014intelligent computer programs that simulate a conversation\u2014are definitely part of a new engagement strategy that publishers have started to explore in order to improve user engagement.<\/p>\n

    – Voice platforms<\/em>: Publishers are already experimenting and investing with voice-controlled assistants. Having Alexa, Siri, or your Google assistant summoning up the news headlines is already a reality, though it comes with a whole set of new challenges to content creators regarding business models and storytelling.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Increased Platform Cooperation:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      – Google, Facebook and Twitter are all supporting the trust project<\/a>, which objective is to create Trust indicators these social media platforms (among others) will be able to use to surface quality news.<\/p>\n

      – Additionally, having identified fake content shared across platforms could help build a more robust moderation ecosystem.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. New Business Models, Changing Algorithms, New Products & Features: <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        – The fact-checking explosion<\/em>: \u00a0Many organizations have emerged to present evidence and hard facts on hot topics that may be subject to misinformation in social media (specially related to politics). We call these \u201cfast-checkers\u201d and we can find examples all over the World: FastCheck.org, PolitiFact.com, and MediaMatters.org in the US[9<\/a>]<\/sup>, Le Monde, and Pagella Politica in Europe[10<\/a>]<\/sup>, and even Chequeado.com in Argentina. It will be interesting to see the efforts platforms will do (if any) to incorporate these \u2018checks\u2019 to the content that is being distributed through them, or maybe they could even integrate with some of these players.<\/p>\n

        – Sponsored Content Disclosure<\/em>: Among the many transparency tools and features being developed, the \u201cPaid for by\u2026\u201d and \u201cAdvertisement\u201d labels on paid content are already being deployed in most social media platforms, and it is expected in the future for users to be able to click to disclose more information about the advertisers[<\/sup>11<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>. Additionally, Facebook has deployed the \u2018Related Articles\u2019 feature[12<\/a>]<\/sup> to allow users to explore different perspectives on the stories and advertising they are reading in their feeds.<\/p>\n

        – Algorithm Changes paired with AI content curation<\/em>: changing algorithms that \u201cturbo charges\u201d misinformation because it prioritizes posts that spread quickly, incorporating automatic picture recognition, machine learning, and better source verification programmatically are all changes that platforms are looking into, and will probably soon be on the way[13<\/a>]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

        If social media should be held responsible for a phenomenon like #FakeNews is a different moral discussion, but what we can assure is that to the extent that Fake News continue to disrupt how customers engage with platforms, we can bet that it will be in the best interest of Google, Facebook and Twitter, to help become part of the solution, if they don\u2019t want to lose relevance.<\/p>\n

        Sources:<\/p>\n

        [1]https:\/\/thinkgrowth.org\/face-it-fake-news-is-a-disruptive-innovation-13455a588c28<\/a><\/p>\n

        [2]https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/17\/report-fake-news-outperformed-real-news-facebook-during-home-stretch-2016-campaign\/214510<\/a><\/p>\n

        [3]https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/craigsilverman\/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook?utm_term=.fdyYDy2Z5#.ny0wnoL6m<\/a><\/p>\n

        [4]https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/research\/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        [5] http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2017\/10\/04\/key-trends-in-social-and-digital-news-media\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        [6]http:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/195542\/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

        [7]https:\/\/reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk\/risj-review\/how-can-we-combat-fake-news-role-platforms-media-literacy-and-journalism<\/a><\/p>\n

        [8]http:\/\/reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/2017-04\/Journalism%2C%20Media%20and%20Technology%20Trends%20and%20Predictions%202017.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

        [9] https:\/\/www.technorms.com\/454\/get-your-facts-right-6-fact-checking-websites-that-help-you-know-the-truth<\/a><\/p>\n

        [10]http:\/\/reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/research\/files\/The%2520Rise%2520of%2520Fact-Checking%2520Sites%2520in%2520Europe.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

        [11] http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2017\/10\/27\/media\/facebook-ad-transparency\/index.html?iid=EL<\/a><\/p>\n

        [12] http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2017\/08\/03\/technology\/facebook-related-articles\/index.html?iid=EL<\/a><\/p>\n

        More materials for further discussion:<\/p>\n

        http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/2017\/10\/19\/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        http:\/\/mediashift.org\/2017\/12\/key-innovations-fighting-fake-news\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/02\/18\/fake-news-is-an-existential-crisis-for-social-media\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2015\/11\/28\/the-platform-paradox\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/12\/20\/facebook-will-ditch-disputed-flags-on-fake-news-and-display-links-to-trustworthy-articles-instead\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/02\/02\/to-fight-propaganda-youtube-will-now-label-state-funded-news-broadcasts-in-the-u-s\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/01\/04\/france-says-anti-fake-news-election-law-incoming\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/02\/18\/fake-news-is-not-the-real-problem\/<\/a><\/p>\n

        https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/02\/01\/factmata-closes-1m-seed-round-as-it-seeks-to-build-an-anti-fake-news-media-platform\/<\/a><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Do you believe in what you read in Facebook and Twitter?<\/p>\n

        As new challenges emerge for current leader platforms in social media \u2013 challenges such as Fake News \u2013 opportunities open for incumbents to compete, for platforms to cooperate, and for addressing changes in current business models.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2323,"featured_media":6898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[2048],"class_list":["post-6896","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fakenews-platforms-fastcheckers-socialmedia-facebook-twitter-google-advertising-disruption","hck-taxonomy-organization-facebook","hck-taxonomy-industry-media-and-broadcasting","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/growing-businesses-in-the-age-of-platforms-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nIs #FakeNews disrupting Social Media platforms? - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/is-fakenews-disrupting-social-media-platforms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is #FakeNews disrupting Social Media platforms? - Digital Innovation and Transformation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you believe in what you read in Facebook and Twitter? 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