User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Webliography on social psychology

Webliography on social psychology is a shareable research tool of reliable sources related to social psychology, specifically as referred to in the category social psychology and its specific subcategories, Social and political influence at play in the 2000s in the United States and Canada. Subcategories of "social and political influences" of interest include, Influence of mass media, Media manipulation, Culture of fear, Psychological manipulation. Related Wikipedia articles include Media bias in the United States, Watchdog journalism, Fact checking, Gatekeeping (communication), specifically Gatekeeping in the 21st century, Vested interest (communication theory), Gateway belief model, and. The category Epistemology includes articles on Critical thinking.

According to a December 1-4, 2016 Pew survey of 1,002 U.S. adults, sixty-four percent of those surveyed—regardless of their "incomes, education levels, partisan affiliations"— etc, claimed that "fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current issues and events." Twenty-three percent "23% say they have shared a made-up news story – either knowingly or not."

Fake news in the 2016 election and 2017 presidency
In 2016, concerns have been raised by Barack Obama to Pope Francis among others, "about fake news and the potential impact on both political life and innocent individuals." Fake news websites in the United States

According to the Wikipedia article on Fake news website in the section 2016 election

"Fraudulent stories during the 2016 U.S. presidential election popularized on Facebook included a viral post that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump, and another that actor Denzel Washington "backs Trump in the most epic way possible"." "Donald Trump's son and campaign surrogate Eric Trump, top national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, and then-campaign managers Kellyanne Conway and Corey Lewandowski shared fake news stories during the campaign." "Alternet reported that Trump himself had been the source of some of the related misinformation over the years."

"After the 2016 election, Republican politicians and conservative media began to appropriate the term "fake news" by using it to describe not made-up news, but rather genuine news they saw "as hostile to their agenda", according to the New York Times, which cited Breitbart News, Rush Limbaugh and supporters of Donald Trump as dismissing mainstream news reports as "fake news"."

Pizzagate
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory "led a North Carolina man to bring a gun into a popular Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant under the impression that it was hiding a child prostitution ring." Pizzagate which originated from a October 30, 2016 a "reputed white supremacist" tweet during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle alleging that "Anthony Weiner's laptop as part of an investigation into his sexting scandals, had discovered the existence of a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democratic Party." It was allegedly posted on Godlike Productions, on YourNewsWire, and fake news websites, including SubjectPolitics, which falsely claimed the New York Police Department had raided Hillary Clinton's property. It was posted by the Conservative Daily Post and then went "the mainstream internet" after Reddit's post several days before the 2016 US presidential election. Fake news websites such as Alex Jones' Infowars.com, Planet Free Will and the Vigilant Citizen, It was promoted by alt-right activists such as Mike Cernovich and Brittany Pettibone. Other promoters included David Seaman, former writer for TheStreet.com, CBS46 anchor Ben Swann, and basketball player Andrew Bogut. "Jonathan Albright, an assistant professor of media analytics at Elon University, said that a disproportionate number of tweets about Pizzagate came from the Czech Republic, Cyprus, and Vietnam and that some of the most frequent retweeters were bots."

Media bias in the United States

 * liberal bias
 * conservative bias
 * mainstream bias
 * corporate bias

Fact checking
In the article Fact checking under the section United States there is a list of entities that self describe as fact checkers.

"FactCheck.org and FactCheckEd.org: non-partisan, nonprofit sister websites that are self-described "advocates for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics," and serving as an educational resource for high school teachers and students, respectively (the latter founded 2005). They are projects of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and are funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation."

"Fact Checker (The Washington Post): A project of The Washington Post, known for grading politicians on the factual accuracy of their statements with one to four "Pinocchios." Created September 2007 by Post diplomatic writer Michael Dobbs specifically for the 2008 presidential campaign. Ceased operation November 4, 2008, but relaunched with a broader focus in January 2011, led by veteran Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler. "

"PolitiFact.com: A service of the Tampa Bay Times - Created August 2007, uses the "Truth-o-Meter" to rank the amount of truth in public persons' statements. 2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner."

"Snopes.com focuses on, but is not limited to, validating and debunking urban legends and other stories in American popular culture."

TruthOrFiction.com "validates and debunks urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin."

Gateway belief model
Pew Research has shown that in the United States by 2012, the "views of the general public often diverge sharply from experts on a number of important societal issues". This is known as the "consensus gap". According to gateway belief model, a theory applied in the communication sciences,psychology, and science communication, the gap between viewpoints, known as the "consensus gap" "can be reduced by highlighting or communicating the actual degree of social or scientific consensus on an issue".