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.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
WASHED ASHORE: Of the 16 bodies discovered along Taiwan’s west coast this month, two were Vietnamese and five were Taiwanese, coast guard officials said Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that he has instructed prosecutors and maritime authorities to launch investigations after 16 bodies were found along Taiwan’s west coast this month, amid speculation that they were victims of smuggling or human trafficking rings. Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials said the bodies, most of which had washed ashore, were found by coast guard personnel and local residents along the coastline from Keelung to Kaohsiung. Thirteen of the bodies are male and three are female, the CGA said, adding that items found on the bodies indicate that two of the men were Vietnamese, while three men
TASK FORCE DISPATCHED: MOFA said it would assist state employees with repatriation or relocation to other ally nations in the region after Tegucigalpa severed ties The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday ordered Honduras to vacate its embassy in Taiwan within 30 days of Sunday after Tegucigalpa made a similar demand of Taiwan. Taipei on Monday announced that it had cut ties with Honduras after the Central American nation earlier said in a statement that it had established ties with Beijing and ended its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Following the announcements, Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Garcia spoke on Honduran television saying that Taiwan would be required to vacate its embassy in the Honduran capital. In Taipei, MOFA later told a news conference that “according
CHINA TRIP: The former president said he hoped the two sides of the Taiwan Strait would work together to pursue peace, avoid war and strive to ‘revitalize China’ Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday began a 12-day tour of China with a visit to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. He paid tribute to Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), a founder of the Republic of China, giving a short speech and then bowing in front of the memorial. “The people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese nation, are children of Yandi (炎帝) and Huangdi (黃帝),” he told reporters who had been allowed to follow him on the trip, referring to figures said to have founded of the Han ethnicity in ancient China. Ma has framed the trip as
RSS