・Please summarize the following passage in 200-250 words. (10%).
・Design five multiple-choice cloze questions for 11th graders. (10%). Each question must include four alternatives, (A), (B), (C), and (D), with one of them being the best answer. Answers to each question must be provided.
The 21st century is a media-saturated, technology dependent, and globallyconnected world. Today’s digital world has made it easier than ever for content creation and distribution. The evolving and complex digital landscape has exposed individuals to a vast array of unfiltered information available in multiple formats. Social media have become breeding grounds for large-scale information sharing. As social media become embedded in the fabric of academia, they are also becoming a site of contestation.
Today’s information environment is rife with fake news stories. In times of crisis, as is the case with COVID-19 pandemic, individuals become increasingly dependent on electronic sources for instant updates and news. The unregulated nature of the internet has contributed to large masses of fake news stories being created and circulated online causing massive confusion among people. The propagation of online mis/disinformation has generated extraordinary interest across several disciplines, signaling a growing concern that the prevalence of falsehoods heightens political polarization, decreases trust in public institutions, and undermines democracy.
Disinformation and so-called “fake news” are informational disorders that are intentionally emitted and elaborated through the creation of doubt and false debates, with the purpose of obtaining economic profitability or an ideological advantage. It differs from “mis-information”, consisting of imprecise information that is not disseminated with the intention of lying, nor does it intend to cause harm. Finally, the term “mal-information” is defined as information based on real evidence, which is used cunningly, with the intention of causing harm to individuals, organizations or countries. The use of the term “fake news” has been questioned since disinformation is a complex phenomenon, involving uncertain content mixed with facts, the dissemination of which takes place in multiple formats and through various digital practices. Its use is considered to tend to destroy the credibility of information and to generate an oxymoron, since the concept of “news” is associated with verification and public interest (UNESCO, 2018).
Different factors are identified to explain the spread of disinformation among citizens: (a) The principle of minimum effort” and the rise of pseudo-contents: Information consumers prefer easily accessible resources, regardless of their intellectual value or relevance. (b) The use of logical fallacies and excessive trust: Repeated manipulated arguments about misleading or invented news encourage disinformation. The Kruger-Dunning effect suggests that people can overestimate their informational skills and knowledge of a subject, leading to misjudgments about the veracity of information. (c) Use of propaganda: It is used for partial presentation of facts, to distort the relationship with reality and to draw biased and inaccurate conclusions. (d) Acceptance of rumor: Rumors are distortions derived from ignorance and repetition of misinformation in an involuntary manner. (e) Parody, satire, and simulation of likelihood in political discourse: A joke, caricature, or irony, due to the loss of context, can be interpreted as valid
阿摩線上測驗
登入