FACULTY OF INFORMATION STUDIES

IN NOVO MESTO

SEMINARY WORK

INFORMATICS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

FIRST DEGREE

MENTOR: MATEJ MAKAROVIČ

NOVO MESTO, 14.12.2022. STRAHINJA RAC

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SUMMARY

Fake news, disinformation, rumors are not something new and unusual that happens in everyday
life, in today's age where it is almost impossible to function without the Internet, computers,
mobile phones, a large number of people have the opportunity to write on the Internet both real
and false information . Because of this amount of information, it is much more difficult to filter
and remove the incorrect ones.

Keywords:

• False information
• Misinformation
• Media
• Journalists
• Reviews
• Scams
• Protection

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INDEX

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..5
2. Media………………………………………………………………………. ….………....6
2.1 Media division……………………………………………………………………….6
3. Fake news………………………………………………………………………..………..7
3.1 How to spot fake news………………………………………………………………8
4. Misinformation…………………………………………………………………………10
5. User reviews………………………………………………………………………..……12
5.1 How to recognize fake reviews……………………………………………………12
5.2 Scammers on the internet……………………………………………………………13
6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….…14
7. Source……………………………………………………………… …………………15

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INDEX IMAGES

1. Breaking (fake) news……………………………………………………………………9

2. Stop fake news................................................................................................................9
3. 7 types of mis- and disinformation……………………………………………………11

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 1. Introduction

Living in today's age, in the 21st century, where the media has the most influence on people, it
is not unusual for fake news with false information to appear. Today, with the increase every
day, more and more users of social sites, web portals... it is much harder to check whether a post
is true or false. Journalism functioned according to the standards of journalistic criteria, i.e. the
information was not fake, but accurate and verified with at least a few more sources. Journalists,
when an article does not seem promising enough, use a half-truth or total falsehood in order to
intrigue the people with some unusual text for the purpose of a larger number of readers,
journalists have become so "professional" in writing such (false) articles that it is extremely
difficult to recognize and seeing an article like this, it seems that it is really interesting and
unique that makes people believe that it is true even though it is a half-truth or even a total
falsehood.

-Fake news can be put in generally any form of media, it doesn't matter if it's media that make
newspaper articles, that are transmitted via radio stations, television, or those that are new such
as social networks or internet portals.

-In this seminar paper, I write about some topics such as:
 Fake news
 Misinformation
 Misinformation in trade
 Types of fake news
 How to spot fake news
 Protection from fake news

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 2. Media

The word "media", a term that began to be used in 1920, refers to a wide spectrum, i.e. any
channel of communication, which can include anything in it, i.e. from; printed paper, educational
content.. and many other content. The media is certainly the most influential way to
communicate. Announcements, events, polls, catalogs, blogs, these are just some of the ways the
media works in relation to the public.

The spread of technology and its advancement also caused the expansion of the media, which
leads to one of the most important tasks, which is advertising. The media do their task depending
on how the public works at that moment because their task is to act on it. At any moment there is
a lot of information available, so we are not even aware of how the media influence our thinking
about certain topics, influence the current action and build a new attitude.

2.1Distribution of media
People have witnessed great changes in the last 20 years or so in terms of media, from
"traditional media (old media)" we have switched to the use of "new media". Traditional forms
include predominance; press, television, radio. New forms of media include; internet, computers,
smart phones, smart watches, tablets and many others, besides the ones listed, there are other
reasons in which they differ.

 Old forms of media conditioned the audience to the fact that they could only consume a
product that was already made in the sense that they could buy a finished product and
that's it.

 New forms of media give the audience the opportunity not only to consume the finished
product, but also to produce it, which leads to the fact that they can be both producers and
consumers at the same time, they can do it through; blogs, social networks, portals...

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3. Fake news
Fake news is not something we haven't heard about before, but there are many examples of fake
news throughout history. One of the examples took place in the capitalization of the
Enlightenment when the false announcement of the Catholic Church about the earthquake in
Lisbon in 1755. led Voltaire to speak out against religious domination. One of the reasons why
the yellow press was created in the 1890s was exaggerated news with shocking headlines to sell
newspapers, which is still happening today. The term "fake news" was declared a buzzword in
2016, the term itself became popular thanks to the presidential elections in the USA, where
Donald Trump later started using it to challenge the then-current media.

Fake news is not created without some need, for example, by using incorrect information,
journalists get more clicks on their web portals, which brings them more popularity and thus
income, for some of them, the primary goal is just to click on their website so that people will
watch their the content they publish there for the reason that when a website has ads on it, the
more visits that website receives, the more money the company that paid to advertise there has to
pay, because mostly the amount of money from those ads depends on the clicks on that website
or on that advertisement, while the primary goal of some of them is to influence people's
consciousness regarding political intentions or some others, however, in essence, the primary
goal of all website creators is for their site to be visited as much as possible and as influential as
possible. Research in 6 countries showed that during the corona virus pandemic, 2/3 of the
information was fake. Social networks are one of the best ways to transmit inaccurate
information, but they are not the only one, as research shows that people trust traditional media
less and less over time, they believe that journalists have moved away from what they really
should be reporting for, which is the people.

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3.1 How to spot fake news
Here are some examples of how to spot fake news on the Internet more easily

1. Check the source!

See if the website looks real, if it is the only page with such text or if there are more, if the stories
written in both texts match, check if the page is legitimate.

2. Think rationally
Turn off your emotions, don't focus on what you would like to read Or you wouldn't want to
read, think about whether that article leads you to buy a product, whether it intentionally leads
you to think, or redirects you to another web portal.

3. Don't just pay attention to the pictures

Do not pay attention only to the pictures, because they can easily be photoshopped and do not
give a clear picture of the event that is being written about, pay attention to the shadows in that
picture, the background, whether they agree with the concept of the photo itself, etc.

4. Check if it makes sense

Do not immediately fall for an article in which there is e.g. that you only need to complete a few
steps and thereby enter the competition for some big prize, or that heaps of expensive things are
being distributed for just a few steps that you will do, look at the picture in a little wider
perspective.

5. Check if you are on the page you want to be on

Most of the fake sites try to imitate some original sites that are legitimate, they try to imitate their
logo, url of the real site, appearance and design. Do not stare, but make sure that you are in the
place where you would like to be.

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Image 1. Breaking fake news.

Image 2. Stop fake news!

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 4 . Misinformation

Ciboci, Kaniţaj and Labaš cite the definition of disinformation by the European Commission's
High Expert Group on Fake News and Online Information: "a term that includes all forms of
false, inaccurate or misleading information that is designed, presented and promoted to harm the
public or to gain profit", Ciboci, L.; Kaniţaj, I.; Labaš, D.How to spot disinformation and fake
news. // Development of media literacy, 2018. The main goal of disinformation is to spread
falsehoods, false evidence, to mislead the people in order to manipulate them more easily.
Disinformation has a negative effect on our consciousness, our understandings and conclusions.
When you knowingly spread incorrect information with a plan to confuse or deceive someone, it
is called disinformation.

States often deliberately spread disinformation to their enemies or rival states in order to
deceive their true state so that rivals do not have a real insight into their capabilities or intentions,
this is often called a disinformation campaign. North Korea uses misinformation to convince its
citizens that their country is much better and that the government is correct, and that other
countries are unfair and less good than theirs. Journalists have greater privileges when it comes
to disinformation because journalists generally do not accuse them of something they have stated
because they never know what is actually behind that disinformation, and they can be sued for a
false accusation if they are wrong.

There is also abuse by supervisory bodies, from which the private sector and the state profit the
most. As the state has the most power and influence, it controls the above-mentioned supervisory
bodies, statesmen can use their position for the purpose of propagating false information or
hiding some in order to influence people in the state, and thus it is very difficult to establish
control over this problem
.
It has never been easier to get a large amount of information in a short period of time as it is
now, but equally it has never been so difficult to find the truth in the sea of information and
misinformation that is served every moment on social networks, blogs, users who are to blame

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for this situation they publish misinformation and false information with the rest of internet
users.

The spread of misinformation proved to be especially dangerous when it comes to the corona
virus pandemic that hit us 2 years ago, which is still going on today, people shared incorrect
information every day that meant life or death to someone at that moment. Disinformation has
been found on the Internet in the sense of promoting fake medical devices, giving false hope that
the virus will pass even though it was not true at the time, strengthening the feeling of security,
worsening the situation at a given moment, etc.

Image 3. 7 types of mis- and disinformation

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 5.User reviews

Considering how much influence reviews have on the Internet when it comes to: selling
products, renting some space, traveling through agencies, etc. sellers have discovered tactics to
raise their ratings in a less honest way. The British association Which discovered that some
online sellers offer their products and in return receive the highest rating possible, if one of such
customers does not meet the criteria set by the seller, which means that the criticism, which must
be convincing and professional, the buyer'' would get nothing.

5.1.1 How to recognize fake reviews

Here are a few ways to successfully avoid fake reviews on the Internet.

1. Do not look at the reviews of customers who only rated the product without any comments,
but focus more on reviews with a description.
 
2. If the product is rated only with the highest ratings, people's opinions are generally divided, if
all are the highest ratings, that is already suspicious, there should be at least a few "medium"
ratings. 
 
3. If a large number of products were published in a short period of time or at the same time, and
before that it was not published for a long time or after, there is a high probability that these
reviews will be obtained during some campaign.
 
4. Be careful, fake reviews will sound just like what you want to hear, the review will say the
best about the product, which is a bit suspicious, right?

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5.2 Scammers on the Internet

Scammers on the Internet are unfortunately mostly professional in their "job", they will never
use their real identity or anything related to them, and they will look completely normal. They
use the latest technology to set up fake websites that seem completely normal and legitimate, a
large number of these pages and sites offer luxury jewelry, branded clothes from famous
designers, white goods, etc. at very low prices to attract customers. If you do fall for it and buy a
product from these fraudsters, sometimes you will get that product, but it will be fake or you
won't get anything, most often they will ask you to pay the money in advance, where the
probability that you will get the same is even less, also do not believe that the sites are for sale
real if you see them being advertised somewhere, such sites are opened during that time, they
deceive people, and immediately after that, in a short period of time, they are also closed.

One of the ways to avoid being cheated by these fraudsters is reviews, but with the rulebook
that contains the previous chapter, do not fall for products that sound too good to be true at a low
price, avoid paying with a card in advance if the site has not been checked beforehand.

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6. Conclusion

The fact is that the internet, web portals and social networks have helped people a lot nowadays
for easier communication, checking information, work, etc. although the older generations are
more against the internet and social networks and more in favor of socializing and talking live,
the fact that it has helped the new generations cannot be disputed. As everything that is good
must also contain a little bit of what is bad, in this case it is false information on the same, they
can really affect the human psyche and their way of thinking if users do not recognize them, so it
is best to follow the advice mentioned above in a seminar paper. As good as the internet can be,
it can also be bad, it all depends on how you use it, and whether you will come across real or
fake information.

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Sources

1. Chandi Ahuja (2015) - Differences Between Traditional Media and New Media.

https://www.vskills.in/certification/blog/differences-between-traditional-media-and-new-media/

2. Ciboci, L.; Kaniţaj, I.; Labaš, D.How to spot disinformation and fake news. //Development of
media literacy, 2018., str. 8.

https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/brief-history

3. Milica Kulić - Professor of Journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade (2022)
- interview for RTS.

https://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/125/drustvo/4142170/lazne-vesti-milica-kulic-zoran-
ilic.html
4. Kaja Furjan (2021) - Lažne vijesti u masovnoj komunikaciji.

https://repozitorij.foi.unizg.hr/islandora/object/foi%3A6618/datastream/PDF/view

5. Delač Valentina (2020) - Lažne vijesti, dezinformacije i informacijska pismenost.

https://repozitorij.ffzg.unizg.hr/islandora/object/ffzg%3A2282/datastream/PDF/view

6. Ćorić David (2022) - Lažne vijesti i dezinformacije kao medijski alat.

https://zir.nsk.hr/islandora/object/aukos%3A530/datastream/PDF/view

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