Paris Information Cascade
http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/19/paris-and-the-trail-of-social-media-misinformation/
One thing I noticed last weekend when the paris attacks occurred was the mass influx of notifications I received. My phone buzzed with Facebook notifications and updates from the ny times. At the time, I was having a conversation with my friends and Paris was the last thing on my mind, but the notifications forced me to pay attention. In this way, the media created an information cascade, causing many people to focus on what was happening in that part of the world. It was likely the topic of conversation for many people. The internet has made it possible for information cascades to begin very easily and very quickly, but this is not always a good thing. As the article above states, some people took advantage of the cascade to change the story. They took advantage of the information cascade in order to gain their own attention or create their own cascade. These things happen all the time. I remember a time when an article about Kanye West beating a kids basket ball team was all over my news feed. This may not seem like a big deal, but information cascades have immense power. They have the ability to change opinions and capture peoples attention, especially as more and more people join the cascade. It makes it hard to believe things that people post on the internet and can have an adverse affect on many movements.