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There's a quote usually attributed
to the writer Mark Twain that goes,
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"A lie can travel
half way around the world
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while the truth is putting on its shoes."
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Funny thing about that.
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There's reason to doubt
that Mark Twain ever said this at all,
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thus, ironically, proving the point.
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And today, the quote, whoever said it,
is truer than ever before.
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In previous decades,
most media with global reach
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consisted of several
major newspapers and networks
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which had the resources
to gather information directly.
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Outlets like Reuters
and the Associated Press
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that aggregate or rereport stories
were relatively rare compared to today.
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The speed with which
information spreads now
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has created the ideal conditions for
a phenomenon known as circular reporting.
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This is when publication A
publishes misinformation,
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Publication B reprints it,
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and publication A then cites B
as the source for the information.
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It's also considered a form
of circular reporting
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when multiple publications
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report on the same initial piece
of false information,
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which then appears to another author as
having been verified by multiple sources.
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For instance, the 1998 publication
of a single pseudoscientific paper
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arguing that routine vaccination
of children causes autism
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inspired an entire
antivaccination movement,
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despite the fact that the original paper
has repeatedly been discredited
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by the scientific community.
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Deliberately unvaccinated children
are now contracting contageous diseases
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that had been virtually
eradicated in the United States,
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with some infections proving fatal.
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In a slightly less dire example,
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satirical articles that are formatted
to resemble real ones
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can also be picked up by outlets
not in on the joke.
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For example, a joke article in the
reputable British Medical Journal entitled
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"Energy Expenditure in Adolescents
Playing New Generation Computer Games,"
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has been referenced in serious
science publications over 400 times.
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User-generated content, such as wikis,
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are also a common contributer
to circular reporting.
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As more writers come to rely
on such pages for quick information,
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an unverified fact in a wiki page
can make its way into a published article
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that may later be added as a citation
for the very same wiki information,
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making it much harder to debunk.
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Recent advances
in communication technology
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have had immeasurable benefits
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in breaking down the barriers
between information and people.
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But our desire for quick answers
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may overpower the desire
to be certain of their validity.
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And when this bias can be multiplied
billions of people around the world,
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nearly instantaneously,
more caution is in order.
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Avoiding sensationalist media,
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searching for criticisms
of suspicious information,
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and tracing the original source
of a report can help slow down a lie,
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giving the truth more time
to put on its shoes.