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social media and misinformation
People make various decisions in their lives based on the information they receive, and incorrect information can cause problems for as small as individuals and as big as the whole society. Since 2000, social media has been an important vehicle for transmitting a lot of information every second. The social media systems are closely connecting with the information themself and are extremely easy to cause misinformation, which can have significant consequences. We studied the relationship between social media and misinformation and tries to consider how this problem can be improved from a systemic perspective.
Context
Systems and systems thinking | Course Fall 2021
7 weeks
Timeframe
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Miro
Role
Key system features, systems map, archetypes, stakeholder mapping, power dynamics, influence map, interventions
understanding the system
To understand and get an idea of the whole system of social media we started with our research and categorised it.
problem statements
?
How to define how true this information is?
Who should take the responsibility for misinformation?
How do we control the flow of info
How to define how true this information is?
Information is a subjective expression of a person's external world, and in many cases, it is difficult to distinguish between right and wrong information. For example, a carefully retouched photo on Instagram can reflect the original appearance of a person as well as be different from the person himself. The receiver's own state of mind and the situation in which he or she receives the message can also affect whether the message is conveyed incorrectly. For example, after being exposed to photos of beautiful people for a long time, they may think that beautiful people are normal in their lives and therefore have low self-esteem about their own appearance
Identifying key system features
We brainstormed the main actuators of Social media and clustered them as per the key elements. After identifying the key system features we made a 2x2. On one side we had variables such as agents, actions, stocks, variables, boundaries, interaction, and feedback and on the other, we had things affecting the variables such as stakeholders, influencers, platforms, and the public.
Our Interests
Misinformation can lead to various real problems:
● What kind of people are most likely to be misinformed?
● Having control on privacy invasion so that it does not or reduces misinformation
● Telling the right information might also result in the wrong way
How is the information received?
The information gets filtered through so many sources which lead to misinformation
Systems Map
In this graph, we examine how Instagram's business model relates to misinformation delivery. The social media platform collects many self-publishers and users together, which provides it with a lot of user information and influence. Intentional and unintentional misinformation is spread through social media to gain the trust of users
Archetypes
People often do not pay attention to the harm of network rumors, which can only be in the emergence of rumors' temporary response and education. This makes it hard to really address the rumors. We should further study the reasons for the emergence of online rumors, instead of just dealing with them AD hoc.
fixes that fail
shifting the burden
Causal Loop Diagram
An overview of the working of the system considering only misinformation
Causes of Misinformation
Social media is a platform for information distribution and dissemination, so we need to study how it can cause distortion to information. There are many possibilities for causing misinformation. First of all, we have to realize that all information can only partially reflect reality, so the definition of misinformation is actually a larger deviation from reality.
Distortion may occur during the processing and dissemination of information, which is the biggest cause of misinformation. This may be due to the malicious strolling of misinformation by the sender, the distortion and amplification of the information during the dissemination process due to the platform, or the misinterpretation of the information due to the receiver's own bias in the end.
And misinformation can misguide the recipients to behave in a particular way. In extreme cases, it can have a very negative impact on individuals and society.
Part of the cause of this phenomenon comes from purposeful human interference, and the other part comes from the self-generated properties of social media.
Take Instagram as an example, many companies and individual influencers need to use Instagram to promote their own brand image, so they choose good-looking models with sophisticated retouching to accomplish their purpose. These good-looking images attract users to view them, and after being immersed in this environment for a long time, users' perceptions are influenced by this information. They believe that this rare image of a perfect person is normal, and thus they feel inferior to their "imperfect" image in comparison.
Stakeholder Mapping
We started categorizing each factor under Users, Influencers and Advertising as our key influencing factors in our system
Power Dynamics
Understanding the power dynamics for Instagram. We started categorizing each point under Users, Influencers and Advertising as our key influencing factors in our system.
Influence Map
The influence map to understand the roles and dynamics of each stakeholder in our system.
From the map, it is clear that the most powerful and influential factors are advertising, influencers, and users on social media.
Interventions
How to deal with Internet misinformation?
Buffer size
Increase social media audits to shut down or alert to possible online rumors
System rules
Introduce advertising law to prevent advertisers from exaggerating Criminal penalties for online rumors that cause significant social damage Give internet users easy access to important information
Delays relative to change rates
Limiting the use of social media(Hours)
Restricted access to social media(Users)
Stocks and Flow structures
Education people, so they don't confuse at a first-place advertising
To prevent the expansion of misinformation, there are several methods. In the long run, the most important one is to increase the education of the population. This makes it more difficult for misinformation to get developed in the first place.
In the medium term, we will begin to restrict the use of social media to some users who are mentally incompetent or have insufficient credit. The length of time users can use social media will also be limited to prevent addiction. In addition, advertising laws will be strengthened to prevent exaggerated advertisements. Finally, it is also important to strengthen the audit of social media with a high volume of communication. In the short term, penalties should be increased for those who distribute rumors on the Internet, and as much information as possible should be made available to the public
Direct and indirect effect
It can be very difficult to control information in the United States, so it is foreseeable that advertisers and influencers whose interests are harmed by the reform process will gather other people to protest. However, if the reform is successfully carried out, there will be less misinformation with significant impact, and thus society will be a little more stable accordingly. At the same time, people would be less addicted to social media.
Intervention Map
There is a clear indication of the use of social media limiting the use and accessibility, creating awareness about false rumors.
In a paradigm shift, we need to educate the people about misinformation and its unintended consequences
How do we prepare for the unintended consequences?
To prevent people from getting angry, we need to educate them about the dangers of Internet rumors and let them know that what we are doing is necessary:
● Educate advertising companies/social media companies
● Create awareness amongst users and accept that there is misformation floating on the internet
Conclusion
The interventions are ways to modify the system of Social media to avoid misinformation amongst the users. Implementing a few laws and creating awareness in the system can be impacted. The paradigm shift is definitely about educating the users, advertisers, and influencers and understanding the gravity of the effects of misinformation to be able to limit and understand the reality of the social media
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