This week in lecture we had the privilege of hearing Mauve speak on web design and type on screens. She had a lot of wisdom to share, and I tried my best to soak it all up. Some of what she talked about I had heard of before, but there was a lot that I was unfamiliar with. I appreciated all that she had to say. I only wish I could have heard her speak sooner in the semester, as I think what she had to say would have helped me a lot in the earlier stages of my website. 

Mauve focused on the principles of design. According to Mauve these principles are balance, rhythm, proportion/scale, contrast/point of focus, unity/harmony. What I found interesting as she was explaining these concepts is that I naturally tend to do all these things because I think doing them is what looks best in my eyes. I enjoyed learning about the term white space. This was a term I previously didn’t know, but already had an eye for.

Once I picked my theme and template for my website I have not had a lot of creative liberty. So as there is a lot that Mauve said that I might want to implement into my sight it would imply that I would have to choose a different template and I’m not sure that I want to do that at this point in my website. Although my website may not fit every design principle she states I think it incorporates enough and it fits my aesthetic and the style of my work. 

One thing that had totally slipped my mind before Mauve brought it up was that websites change form on a mobile site versus a desktop one. After her lecture I went to check my website from my phone, and sure enough there were some things I had to change. Pictures that I had did not look as good on the mobile version as it did on the desktop. I made a few changes, and now I am very pleased with how it looks.

There was a lot to take away from the lecture. I learned that the typography, use of photos, and overall structure of the site (design principles) can play a huge part in telling your readers what your site is about without them ever reading a word. I have no doubt that what I learned will greatly help me on my content creator journey.

In our world today where people are avid media consumerists misinformation is spread like wildfire through the means of fake news. With an easy repost button, platforms of influence, and the following anyone can share information regardless of the validity of what is being said. This online engagement allows for easy access to a vast majority of information that is created by highly accredited researchers, and also just the average opinionated person. Media platforms provide a network for this information to reach many people based on algorithms rather than credibility of source. We are in uncharted territory as we have entered a new era of news sources through its spread in the media, which comes with many benefits, but also brings about a whole new can of worms that people need to be aware of. Misinformation can flourish under circumstances where consumers do not act as their own information gatekeepers, media sources pick out their own findings from conducted research, and tweets are made without checking the accuracy of the information.

Many people fall victim to misinformation, which falls under categories of rumors and fiction, government and politicians, vested interests, and the media (Lewandowsky et al., 2012). There are people who use the media as a tool to produce and spread misinformation’s, and also those who spread misinformation as they fall prey to preconceived false news (Lewandowsky et al., 2012). It can be challenging to know what a good source is for information, as even trusted media sources “can inadvertently oversimplify, misrepresent, or overdramatize scientific results” (Lewandowsky et al., 2012, pg. 110). This makes it difficult for readers to know what information and from what sources they can trust. Most people do not go search for the latest news or research studies conducted to see if the headlines of articles are truthfully representing the results of the study. This plays into our consumerist mentality. 

The 2016 US presidential election is a great example of how misinformation can be spread. Twitter was at the forefront of this online war that took place. The results of a study done by Jang et al., found surprisingly enough that “root tweets about fake news were mostly generated by accounts from ordinary users, but they often included a link to non-credible news websites” (Jang et al., 2018, pg. 111). This shows that the majority of the false news that you saw circulating twitter was not necessarily spread by those with mal intentions, but who do not know how to filter truthful information from faults. This study did a good job showing how “content changes form as it spreads,” (Jang et al., 2018, pg. 111) as these tweets looked very different from the sights they were taken from. Since so many people were retweeting them it seemed as if it were all true. In psychology this is called the propaganda effect, which is when you see something so much that even if you thought it was false you start to see it as being true. This is the scary part of misinformation, as though people may understand that the information is incorrect it can still affect how they feel towards something (Lazer et al., 2018). So instead of blaming Russian bots for taking over the Twittersphere during the election, it may be beneficial for us to take a look in the mirror and understand the bed we made. 

It is extremely difficult to prevent fake news from coming up in the media. It is the ideal to have all information on the internet to be true, but that is a hefty task and not one I believe we should try to combat fully through forms of censorship. I think we would be better off spending our time and money educating people on how to critically analyze the information they are presented through different media sources. Fake news is able to thrive in media outlets such as twitter, Instagram, YouTube, blogs, etc., as they “lack the news media’s editorial norms and processes for ensuring the accuracy and credibility of information” (Lazer et al., 2018, pg. 1094). As a digital content creator myself I think the value of the internet and these platforms is that people can put whatever they want out there. As a blogger myself I would be pretty upset if my site got censored because I spoke about things that mattered to me, even if they were controversial. I do not force anyone to read my work, but it is out there for anyone to read. I think people need to understand and be able to differentiate opinion pieces versus opinions based on research. 

Misinformation is a serious problem in our world today. It has the power to ruin a person’s career, take advantage of those in vulnerable positions, and can make people weary of the media as a whole. The media is only going to expand, which will undoubtedly result in an increase in misinformation being spread. It is vital for humanity to be able to discern and question what it is they see in the media. There needs to be a shift from passive consumers, to active ones. 

References

Lazer, D., Baum, M. A., Benkler, Y., Berinsky, A. J., Greenhill, K. M., Menczer, F., Metzger, M. J., Nyhan, B., Rand, D. G., Rothschild, D., Schudson, M., Sloman, S. A., Sunstein, C. R., Thorson, E. A., Watts, D. J., & Zittrain, J. L. (2018). The science of fake news. Science, 359(6380), 1094–1096. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2998

Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K. H., Seifert, C. M., Schwarz, N., & Cook, J. (2012). Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(3), 106–131. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1177/1529100612451018

Jang, S. M., Geng, T., Li, J., Xia, R., Huang, C., Kim, H., & Tang, J. (2018). A computational approach for examining the roots and spreading patterns of fake news: Evolution tree analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 84, 103–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.02.032