Since
I am a university professor I suppose it comes as no surprise that this is my
favorite quote. It is attributed to Sir
Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England circa 1597. Bacon was the father of Empiricism - the
scientific field that emphasizes the gathering of data through experiments.
The
reason I thought about the quote today was that TheSkimm mentioned it in their
story about the Chinese hackers targeting colleges for maritime military secrets. https://www.theskimm.com/recent
That's
a fairly straight-forward example of seeking knowledge to gain power, so we are
outraged.
But
what about the bigger discussions that have been taking place lately about data
mining? Clearly that is also a perfect example
of "knowledge is power" too, since data enables marketers to more
efficiently target consumers and sell their products and services more effectively.
And as
we have seen lately, data can also be used to influence elections, amplify
false rumors and perpetuate discrimination.
Sadly,
27% of Americans, mostly Trump supporters, visited a fake news site between
10/17/16 and 11/14/16. And research
shows that fake news spreads faster than real news, probably due in part to its
sensationalism. (Guess, Nyhan, Reifler, 2018)
So
what is someone to do? First, get your
news from a reliable source. There's a
reason why the readership of the New York
Times is up. Second, be well
informed enough that you know when something is clearly fake.
Apparently
the most read fake news story of the election was "Pope Francis Endorses
Trump." I remember seeing that
headline and chuckling while thinking - "I sincerely doubt it." Needless to say, I skipped the article. Hopefully you did too.
Guess,
A., Nyhan, B., Reifler, J. (2018, January 8)
Selective Exposure to Misinformation: Evidence of the consumption of
fake news during the 2106 U.S. presidential campaign. European Research Council. Retrieved
March 3, 2019, from,
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