Difference between revisions of "Media Bias/Fact Check"

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The [[Atlantic Council]] have used data from MBFC.{{cn}}
 
The [[Atlantic Council]] have used data from MBFC.{{cn}}
  
The site was used by researchers at the [[University of Michigan]] to create a tool called the "Iffy Quotient", which draws data from ''Media Bias/Fact Check'' and ''[[NewsWhip]]'' to track the prevalence of 'fake news' and questionable sources on social media.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Dian Schaffhauser|url=https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/10/16/u-m-tracker-measures-reliability-of-news-on-facebook-twitter.aspx |title=U-M Tracker Measures Reliability of News on Facebook, Twitter -- Campus Technology |website=Campus Technology |language=en |access-date=2018-12-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://csmr.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/UMSI-CSMR-Iffy-Quotient-Whitepaper-810084.pdf|author1=Paul Resnick|author2=Aviv Ovadya|author3=Garlin Gilchrist|work=School of Information - Center for Social Media Responsibility|title=Iffy Quotient: A Platform Health Metric for Misinformation|publisher=University of Michigan|page=5}}</ref> The site was also used by a research group at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in initial training of an AI to fact check and detect the bias on a website.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.popsci.com/AI-fake-news|title=This AI can help spot biased websites and false news|last=Verger|first=Rob|date=2018-10-04|website=Popular Science|language=en|access-date=2019-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference | author1 = Ramy Baly | author2 = Georgi Karadzhov | author3 = Dimitar Alexandrov | author4 = James Glass | author5 = Preslav Nakov | title = Predicting Factuality of Reporting and Bias of News Media Sources | booktitle = Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing | year = 2018 | publisher = Association for Computational Linguistics | pages = 3528-3539 | location = Brussels, Belgium |url = http://aclweb.org/anthology/D18-1389}}</ref>
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The site was used by researchers at the [[University of Michigan]] to create a tool called the "Iffy Quotient", which draws data from ''Media Bias/Fact Check'' and ''[[NewsWhip]]'' to track the prevalence of 'fake news' and questionable sources on social media.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Dian Schaffhauser|url=https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/10/16/u-m-tracker-measures-reliability-of-news-on-facebook-twitter.aspx |title=U-M Tracker Measures Reliability of News on Facebook, Twitter -- Campus Technology |website=Campus Technology |language=en |access-date=2018-12-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://csmr.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/UMSI-CSMR-Iffy-Quotient-Whitepaper-810084.pdf|author1=Paul Resnick|author2=Aviv Ovadya|author3=Garlin Gilchrist|work=School of Information - Center for Social Media Responsibility|title=Iffy Quotient: A Platform Health Metric for Misinformation|publisher=University of Michigan|page=5}}</ref> The site was also used by a research group at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in initial training of an [[AI]] to do "[[fact checking]]" and detect the [[bias]] of a [[website]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.popsci.com/AI-fake-news|title=This AI can help spot biased websites and false news|last=Verger|first=Rob|date=2018-10-04|website=Popular Science|language=en|access-date=2019-01-01}}</ref>
  
 
==Criticism==
 
==Criticism==

Revision as of 10:08, 6 December 2019

Named as an outlet of "Fake News" by PropOrNot.

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Website.png https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/   FacebookRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Started: November 2015
Founder: Dave Van Zandt

In its own words:
"Dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices"
Constitutes: “fact checker”

Main focus: fake news, bias, media

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is a "fact checker" which scores websites on "conspiracy level", "pseudo-sci level" and "left- or right wing bias, and by quality of factual reporting. MBFC has browser extensions for both Firefox and Chrome.

Official narrative

MBFC reports that it was started by Dave Van Zandt[1] in 2015[2] and has some volunteers who perform source research, writing and assist in fact checking. Van Zandt has a small internet footprint.[3]

Endorsement

The Atlantic Council have used data from MBFC.[citation needed]

The site was used by researchers at the University of Michigan to create a tool called the "Iffy Quotient", which draws data from Media Bias/Fact Check and NewsWhip to track the prevalence of 'fake news' and questionable sources on social media.[4][5] The site was also used by a research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in initial training of an AI to do "fact checking" and detect the bias of a website.[6]

Criticism

An image from the critical report by the Palmer Report

The Palmer Report published an article in April 2017 entitled Scam site “Media Bias Fact Check” caught cribbing its ratings from Wikipedia.[7]

The Poynter Institute wrote that "Media Bias/Fact Check is a widely cited source for news stories and even studies about misinformation, despite the fact that its method is in no way scientific."[8]

The site was #2 on a list of Zero Hedge's Top 9 “fakest ‘fake-news’ checkers.”[3]

Trusted websites

MBFC's most trusted fact checking websites, as of December 2019, were FactCheck.org, FactChecker, Flack Check, Hoax-Slayer, Open Secrets, PolitiFact, Poynter Institute, Snopes, Sunlight Foundation and Truth or Fiction.[9]

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/about/
  2. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/contact/
  3. a b https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-20/exposing-9-fakest-fake-news-checkers
  4. Dian Schaffhauser. "U-M Tracker Measures Reliability of News on Facebook, Twitter -- Campus Technology". Campus Technology. Retrieved 2018-12-03.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  5. Paul Resnick; Aviv Ovadya; Garlin Gilchrist. "Iffy Quotient: A Platform Health Metric for Misinformation" (PDF). School of Information - Center for Social Media Responsibility. University of Michigan. p. 5.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  6. Verger, Rob (2018-10-04). "This AI can help spot biased websites and false news". Popular Science. Retrieved 2019-01-01.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  7. https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/scam-site-media-bias-fact-check-caught-cribbing-its-ratings-from-wikipedia/2342/
  8. https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/heres-what-to-expect-from-fact-checking-in-2019/
  9. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fact-check-resources/