The Science of Truthiness 180
E IS mC(Square) writes "Researchers at Indiana University have just launched Truthy.indiana.edu, which they humbly declare 'a sophisticated new Twitter-based research tool that combines data mining, social network analysis and crowdsourcing to uncover deceptive tactics and misinformation leading up to the Nov. 2 elections.' According to their FAQ, they define 'truthy' thus: 'A truthy meme relies on deceptive tactics to represent misinformation as fact. The Truthy system uses Truthy to refer to activities such as political smear campaigns, astroturfing, and other social pollution."
summary: (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are interested in the truth and have the required attention span to analyse detailed information, you won't be using Twitter.
Bears! (Score:3, Insightful)
...which they humbly declare 'a sophisticated new Twitter-based research tool that combines data mining, social network analysis and crowdsourcing to uncover deceptive tactics and misinformation...
Deceptive tactics, such as using data mining, social network analysis and crowdsourcing?
uncover deceptive tactics and misinformation... (Score:3, Insightful)
> ...leading up to the Nov. 2 elections
What's to uncover? Just look at anything published by or in support of any politician.
Where is the reference to the words origin? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Science"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, I detest astroturfing as much as the next person who values "truth", but anyone who cares to look, can see lies and half-truths for what they are. Detecting them, then, is not the problem. The problem is that so many people can't, or won't.
But ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the majority is always right... (Score:2, Insightful)
I always find myself suspicious when people claim that they have some sort of uncontested claim on truth - politicians who start sentences with the words "believe me" spring to mind.
And their list of facts is displayed where? (Score:2, Insightful)
If we're going to have a group of social scientists run a negative points scoring system it would be great to start out with them saying which views of the world are false and which are true. "Obama is a communist" or "Obama is a muslim" is no different from saying "Republicans are racist" or "Bush was uneducated". Although based on my existing prejudices and the examples they use I suspect they disagree.
Well, we can see where this is going (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"Science"? (Score:5, Insightful)
When most of the science is sociology - a science of human interaction - I think crowd-sourcing is an acceptable way to do experimental data collection.
Wow... (Score:1, Insightful)
It is funny, it is on topic, and it is accurate (currently modded -1 Troll).
(It is a tad inflammatory but hey...)
Re: uncover deceptive tactics and misinformation.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:summary: (Score:4, Insightful)
Twitter ... consumes and distributes everything from minor status updates to breaking news.
Minor status updates are just that - minor. 24hr news networks can cover the breaking news.
The "everything new is a waste of time" attitude just makes you sound like a dottering old fool.
There are new things that are not a waste of time. Twitter is not among them
Re:summary: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a rather limited view. Twitter is a communication tool used by millions of people. It consumes and distributes everything from minor status updates to breaking news.
The "everything new is a waste of time" attitude just makes you sound like a dottering old fool.
And the fact that you would rely on any social networking portal for anything that would even remotely resemble "truth" doesn't make you look much different.
There is "data" (a.k.a. noise, lies, bullshit, or the random "I just farted" post), and then there is "information", with the latter being the only useful part. Unfortunately, "information" on most social network portals represents itself as a tiny needle in a haystack the size of Texas, and thus I see little point in relying on a tool that is churning through that much hay hoping to find a useful needle.
Twitter. New? Ever hear of IRC? (Score:2, Insightful)
Twitter is not new (just a much worse implementation).
Signal to noise ratio about 0.
That isn't new ether. Twitter takes it to a new low.
Re:"Science"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's not talk about the brigher people out there, the ones who always can see political doublespeak for what it is. Let's also not talk about the, uh, less bright people out there, the ones who are absolutely set in there ideas and eat up any reports that fit their viewpoints. Let's talk about Joe Average, the average voter.
Right now, there are PR people in Washington. There are people who are trained in psychology or sociology. There are people who have spent years running advertising campaigns. People who have large networks of contacts in the media, businesses, activist groups who can spread their messages when told. People who are smart enough to understand what the arguments are against the messages that they distribute and know how to counter them.
That is to say, there are people out there that are deliberately skilled in changing the mind of Joe Average. You can call it propaganda or messaging or outright lying, but these people know what they're doing. To say that everyone could stop this if they just stopped to think about it is asking everyone to be above average, a Lake Woebegone sort of thing. And even then, even if everyone figured out what the lies were and starting listening different, then these skilled PR people would figure out what the new average person is doing, and they would figure out how to change their minds in a new way.
Re:Paging Mr Orwell... (Score:2, Insightful)
So truth is a lie?
Well, according to Fox News, a lie is the best alternative there is to the truth, and as such is worth the same level of 'respect'.
Why is this in Science? (Score:3, Insightful)
It belongs in Idle.
Re:Where is the reference to the words origin? (Score:4, Insightful)