Related Research Articles
An urban legend is a genre of folklore comprising fallacious claims or stories circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family member, often with horrifying, humorous, or cautionary elements. These legends can be entertaining but often concern mysterious peril or troubling events, such as disappearances and strange objects or entities. Urban legends may confirm moral standards, reflect prejudices, or be a way to make sense of societal anxieties. Urban legends in the past were most often circulated orally, but now can also be spread by any media. This includes newspapers, mobile news apps, e-mail, and most often, social media. Some urban legends have passed through the years/decades with only minor changes, in where the time period takes place. Generic urban legends are often altered to suit regional variations, but the lesson or moral remains majorly the same.
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.
A rumor, or rumour, is "a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern."
There are multiple urban legends centering around the fast-food chain McDonald's. These legends include claims about the food and allegations of discrimination by the company.
Snopes, formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source for both validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture.
Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such checking done in-house by the publisher to prevent inaccurate content from being published; when the text is analyzed by a third party, the process is called external fact-checking.
FactCheck.org is a nonprofit website that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics by providing original research on misinformation and hoaxes. It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.
The "Well to Hell" is an urban legend regarding a putative borehole in Russia which was purportedly drilled so deep that it broke through into Hell. It is first attested in English as a 1989 broadcast by a U.S. domestic religion-based TV broadcaster, Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is deliberately deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often verified, but can turn out to be either true or false. Even if later retracted, misinformation can continue to influence actions and memory. People may be more prone to believe misinformation because they are emotionally connected to what they are listening to or are reading. The role of social media has made information readily available to society at anytime, and it connects vast groups of people along with their information at one time. Advances in technology has impacted the way people communicate information and the way misinformation is spread. Misinformation has impacts on societies' ability to receive information which then influences our communities, politics, and medical field.
Loose Change is a series of films released between 2005 and 2009 that argue in favor of certain conspiracy theories relating to the September 11 attacks. The films were written and directed by Dylan Avery and produced by Korey Rowe, Jason Bermas, and Matthew Brown.
Gossip Cop was a website that fact-checked celebrity reporting. Based in New York City, Gossip Cop investigated entertainment stories that were published in magazines and newspapers, as well as on the web, to ascertain whether they are true or false. To help visitors quickly identify the truth value of every story, the site featured a 0-10 scale next to each article. A rating of 0 meant the rumor is completely untrue, fiction or even fake news, while a rating of 10 meant the report was 100 percent fact or true. Gossip Cop participated in International Fact-Checking Network events, including attending Global Fact 4 in Madrid in July 2017, Global Fact 5 in Rome in June 2018, and Global Fact 6 in Cape Town in June 2019.
PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the Tampa Bay Times, with reporters and editors from the newspaper and its affiliated news media partners reporting on the accuracy of statements made by elected officials, candidates, their staffs, lobbyists, interest groups and others involved in U.S. politics. Its journalists select original statements to evaluate and then publish their findings on the PolitiFact.com website, where each statement receives a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The ratings range from "True" for statements the journalists deem as accurate to "Pants on Fire" for claims the journalists deem as "not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim".
Rudolph Fentz is the focal character of "I'm Scared", a 1951 science fiction short story by Jack Finney, which was later reported as an urban legend as if the events had truly happened. The story tells of a 19th-century-looking young man possessing items of that period who is found confused in the middle of Times Square in the 1950s before being hit by a car and killed, suggesting that he had, perhaps involuntarily, time travelled about a century forwards.
Rich Buhler was an American evangelical Christian radio talk show host, writer, and pastor. He held honorary doctorates from Biola University and Trinity College of Graduate Studies. He is best known for his radio talk show, Talk from the Heart. He created www.truthorfiction.com. He died May 7, 2012 of causes relating to pancreatic cancer.
Media coverage of North Korea is hampered by an extreme lack of reliable information, coupled with an abundant number of sensationalist falsehoods. There are a number of reasons for this lack of information and incorrect stories.
Black-eyed children or black-eyed kids, in American contemporary legend, are paranormal creatures that resemble children between ages 6 and 16, with pale skin and black eyes, who are reportedly seen hitchhiking or begging, or are encountered on doorsteps of residential homes.
Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term "fake news" was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information. It's also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavourable to them. Further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. In some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.
The litter boxes in schools hoax is a false rumor alleging that certain North American schools provide litter boxes in bathrooms for students who "identify as cats", or who participate in the furry or otherkin subcultures. In 2021 and 2022, various American conservative and far-right politicians and media personalities promoted the hoax in response to several school districts enacting protections for transgender students. Many news outlets, fact-checking websites, and academic researchers have debunked such claims, and officials from every school named by those promoting the hoax have verified that the accusations are false. The claims have been described as internet trolling, fearmongering, and anti-transgender rhetoric.
References
- ↑ "Mythbusting Resources & Links". American Chemistry Council. 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22.
- ↑ Herb Weisbaum, ConsumerMan (2009-03-31). "The joke's on you: Beware of Internet hoaxes". NBCNews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24.
- ↑ Rusty Pipes (2002). "Would You Like A Little Hoodwink Insurance With Your Email Today?" . Retrieved 2013-03-25.
- ↑ Bill Sanders (2007). "Urban Legends". Orange Frog Productions. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
- ↑ "The 'Father of Modern Christian Talk Radio' is back!". ASSIST News Service (ANS). 2008-08-13. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
- ↑ Tyrel McMahan (2007-06-19). "SitesCollide #9: e-Rumors - Rich Buhler". sitescollide.com (Podcast). Archived from the original on 2015-12-22.
- ↑ "About TruthOrFiction". TruthOrFiction.org. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ↑ "Fact Check: So who's checking the fact-finders? We are". jacksonville.com. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
