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Good afternoon everybody, I am recording this video because I cannot attend to the class

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and I would like to talk to you a little bit about the so-called fake news, this should

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only take a few minutes of your time.

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Let me start by saying that I totally reject Conscious Deceit, either by media or public

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figures, because it damages society's trust.

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Now that I clarified that point, I freely admit that the term fake news can be tricky

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if the term is perversely used to disauthorize truthful accounts, I'll elaborate.

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Have you ever readily accepted a piece of information that you weren't so sure about,

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like for example the existence of the Loch Ness Monster?

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Well, I sincerely believe we all have done something like that.

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That's what the specialists call misinformation, that is, information that is false but the

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person who is disseminating it believes that it is actually true.

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Now let's move on to another category, disinformation, that is a blatant lie and the person who is

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disseminating it knows that it is false.

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The last type of fake news could be information that is based on reality but it is used to

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inflict harm on a person, organization or country.

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That's what we call malinformation.

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This brings me to the key question of how to protect ourselves from fake news.

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Did you know that many journalists, social scientists and philosophers have thought about

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this problem too?

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Well, they have reached some conclusions that I enthusiastically endorse.

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Last Thursday we already spoke about some good practices to pursue the truth, like looking

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for coherent information, contrasting your sources, avoiding sensationalism and knowing

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your own biases.

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To conclude my talk, I would like to strongly recommend you to have a look to the short

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comic A Day at the Park, which is completely free online and gives us a brief but enticing

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story about the nature of truth and knowledge.

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And that was it!

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I sincerely hope you enjoyed this presentation and I thank you all for your time and attention.

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See you soon!