User:Ronnam/hoax

A hoax study and report on urban myths was perpetrated by the producers of an Australian current affairs, comedy, and news televison show, Hungry Beast, to show the gullability of media outlets and their lack of source checking.

Two of the characters in the hoax were a Doctor "Carl Varnsen" and the "Levitt Institute".

Carl Varnsen has been given a legend, and the ficticious "Levitt Institute" given a WWW presence, only in September 2009

The report itself, which reads like buzz word generated jibberish, even states on page 5, These results were completely made up to be fictitious material through a process of modified truth and credibility nodes.

Media involvement
The report released by the ficticious Levitt Institute was taken up by Australian Associated Press (AAP), which was then widely reported in Australian and international media.

Wikipedia involvement
Wikipedia was also recruited into the hoax by an anonymous IP address editor, who posted entries for Carl Varnsen in a number of articles List of Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich people and UCSD Alumni Association, Sociology on 11 September 2009, and entries for Carl Varnsen in articles List of sociologists on 20 September 2009, and entries for the Levitt Institute in articles List of think tanks, and List of journals in sociology on 20 September 2009, including seeding with external links to the WWW site for the ficticious Levitt Institute.

The same anonymous IP editor also added an entry to the article Oakhill College referencing an actor in the television programme Hungry Beast on 11 September 2009.

These entries into Wikipedia were unreferenced and the only presence of them on the WWW appears to be in the WWW site for the ficticious Levitt Institute.