Keeping It Real News with Baratunde Thurston

How do you tell fact from fiction when the information you see online all look alike? In the season 3 finale of IRL, New York Times bestselling author Baratunde Thurston ("How To Be Black") breaks down just how social media platforms enable the viral spread of misinformation and fake news.

Listen to the episode "What To Expect When You're Electing" https://irlpodcast.org/season3/episode7/
Subscribe to IRL: Online Life is Real Life https://mzl.la/IRL

part of the reason that we are

susceptible to misinformation is that

these new platforms make all information

look people a New York Times article

looks the same as a bright bar article

in the share model of a Twitter or a

Facebook we have flattened years of

distinction of quality and

accountability and credibility to make

everything look the same oh this is from

an institution that's received Pulitzer

Prizes and actually pays journalist and

has fact checkers on staff verses this

was made from a content farm in another

country that's been flagged three times

for monetizing this information just

because something says it's information

doesn't make it so

[Music]