{"id":6083,"date":"2017-01-25T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=6083"},"modified":"2017-01-24T14:04:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T19:04:40","slug":"okay-google-give-me-the-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2017\/01\/25\/okay-google-give-me-the-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Okay Google, Give Me the Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Matt Montagne. Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHow long do you bake chicken?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo whales sleep?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow many yards are in a league?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The all seeing, all-knowing Google search engine has helped many of us find answers to our many questions. When we need something answered, we simply “Google it.” This popular search engine uses a complicated algorithm to generate results, but last year it’s legitimacy was questioned when it was revealed that the\u00a0top link provided for the query, \u201cDid the Holocaust happen?\u201d was a neo-Nazi website run by white-supremacists denying its existence. <\/span><\/p>\n

In a recent <\/span>article<\/span><\/a> on The Conversation<\/em><\/span>,<\/span> sociologist <\/span>Thomas Maher<\/span><\/a>\u00a0describes the struggle that the Holocaust Museum had to go through in order to combat the false information online generated by the neo-Nazi website. Maher provides insight on how Google\u2019s search engine, which tries to pinpoint the answers users are looking for, can be manipulated to spread false information, especially in the conspiracy theory community. <\/span><\/p>\n

“(I)t\u2019s clear to me that sites intentionally presenting misinformation and propaganda are preying upon Google\u2019s eagerness to answer questions. These sites, peddling what is sometimes called \u2018<\/span>fake news<\/span><\/a>,\u2019 capitalize on people\u2019s tendency to ask those questions directly on Google.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maher suggests\u00a0that the best way for experts to respond to false information is to\u00a0participate in public writing and blogging themselves, using relevant and searchable key words and phrases to ensure their research-based writing is seen. Maher points out that this will not stop false information from being presented, but the existence of credible facts <\/span>alongside<\/span><\/i> misleading information\u00a0is a start.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow long do you bake chicken?\u201d \u201cDo whales sleep?\u201d \u201cHow many yards are in a league?\u201d The all seeing, all-knowing Google search engine has helped many of us find answers to our many questions. When we need something answered, we simply “Google it.” This popular search engine uses a complicated algorithm to generate results, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[39112,95756,775,96120,96121],"class_list":["post-6083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-culture","tag-fake-news","tag-google","tag-google-algorithms","tag-holocaust-deniers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6085,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6083\/revisions\/6085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}