Results from an online survey indicate that “fake news” reports had the potential to influence voters’ decisions in the Nov. 24 local elections last year, especially among young women with low incomes, a National Taiwan University academic said.
The survey, conducted by Wang Tai-Li (王泰俐), a professor at the Graduate Institute of Journalism, asked respondents to assess the authenticity of six false news reports widely circulated last year, Wang said yesterday.
The reports included one falsely claiming that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was unwilling to leave an armored vehicle in Chiayi to inspect damage caused by flooding in August; a report that the government was planning to lease Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) to the US armed forces; and one that said the Chinese embassy had sent tour buses to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport to evacuate Chinese and Taiwanese passengers following Typhoon Jebi, Wang said.
Photo: CNA
About half of the respondents were unable to tell whether the reports were true, she said.
Supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) tended to be better at identifying false reports, but independent voters and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters did not perform as well, she said.
Among female respondents, 49.15 percent were unable to identify the reports as false, compared with 28.5 percent of men, Wang cited the survey as showing.
The ability to identify false reports differed with age, Wang said.
Among voters aged 20 to 30, 43.5 percent were able to identify them, while it was 59.6 percent among 50-to-59-year-olds and 55 percent for those aged 60 or over, she said.
One reason younger voters might be more susceptible to false news could be that they spend more time on social media, where it most often circulates, Wang said.
The first version of a story that people read tends to leave the strongest impression, she said, adding that they will ignore clarifications that follow.
Educational background does not appear to be an indicator of a person’s susceptibility to false reports, she said.
Among respondents with a monthly income between NT$50,000 and NT$100,000, 61 percent were able to identify false reports, while it was 37 percent among those with a monthly income under NT$10,000, Wang said.
Respondents in Taichung, and Changhua and Nantou counties were least able to identify false news, followed by those in Taoyuan, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, she added.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS