Fake News Stories as an Info Cascade
http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2014/10/29/our-appetite-for-fake-ebola-stories-and-other-bunk/
This article explains a phenomenon in journalism where sensational fake news stories spread among the public and create a panic. Recently, stories related to the Ebola outbreak have been most common. This article focuses specifically on the website National Report, which has published 7 articles about the Ebola outbreak in the past several weeks. Specifically, an article which claimed that a Texas town had been quarantined was viewed two million times in one day, and shared thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. This story was shared six times more than the article proving it false, leading to the conclusion that many people never received the truth of the issue.
Though these false news reports are not a new occurrence, the way they spread has changed significantly in the past decade due to the emergence of social media. Rather than one news source spreading the false story, with perhaps a few other news sources joining in, we are exposed to these stories through our friends and family as well.
This is similar to how an information cascade works. Though the initial story is false, many people are convinced that it is true simply by the number of people who “share” the story, essentially advocating its validity. Most people ignore their intuition about the event and what they know already to agree with the majority. In considering the information cascade involving the quarantined Texas town, most people had some knowledge about the Ebola outbreak already. This previous knowledge would have contradicted the story, but because of how they received the story, on recommendation from family and friends, many chose to ignore what they already knew.