[论文解读] Combating Misinformation in Bangladesh: Roles and Responsibilities as Perceived by Journalists, Fact-checkers, and Users

Mahfuzul Haque, Mohammad Yousuf+4 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jul 25, 2020

ICT in Developing Communities参考文献 92被引用 6

一句话总结

本研究通过与记者、事实核查员和用户访谈及调查，探究了孟加拉国的虚假信息问题，发现尽管公众期望媒体核实网络内容的真实性，但新闻机构缺乏事实核查能力，志愿事实核查员也面临基础设施不足的问题。本文倡导为非英语、全球南方语境量身定制的协作性、技术赋能和基础设施驱动的解决方案。

ABSTRACT

There has been a growing interest within CSCW community in understanding the characteristics of misinformation propagated through computational media, and the devising techniques to address the associated challenges. However, most work in this area has been concentrated on the cases in the western world leaving a major portion of this problem unaddressed that is situated in the Global South. This paper aims to broaden the scope of this discourse by focusing on this problem in the context of Bangladesh, a country in the Global South. The spread of misinformation on Facebook in Bangladesh, a country with a population over 163 million, has resulted in chaos, hate attacks, and killings. By interviewing journalists, fact-checkers, in addition to surveying the general public, we analyzed the current state of verifying misinformation in Bangladesh. Our findings show that most people in the `news audience' want the news media to verify the authenticity of online information that they see online. However, the newspaper journalists say that fact-checking online information is not a part of their job, and it is also beyond their capacity given the amount of information being published online everyday. We further find that the voluntary fact-checkers in Bangladesh are not equipped with sufficient infrastructural support to fill in this gap. We show how our findings are connected to some of the core concerns of CSCW community around social media, collaboration, infrastructural politics, and information inequality. From our analysis, we also suggest several pathways to increase the impact of fact-checking efforts through collaboration, technology design, and infrastructure development.

研究动机与目标

• 理解记者、事实核查员和用户在孟加拉国应对虚假信息中的角色与责任。
• 考察阻碍全球南方语境下有效事实核查的结构性与基础设施性挑战。
• 探讨文化、语言和社会经济因素如何塑造虚假信息的动态及其应对机制。
• 识别通过协作、技术设计与基础设施建设改善事实核查的可行路径，尤其在低资源环境中。

提出的方法

• 采用便利抽样方法对29名普通公民进行深入访谈，涵盖不同年龄和教育水平。
• 收集Facebook用户的数据，评估公众对虚假信息和媒体责任的看法。
• 采访来自BDFactCheck、Fact Watch和Jaachai等组织的记者与志愿事实核查员，了解其运营挑战。
• 分析孟加拉国社交媒体上病毒式传播的虚假信息案例，包括与Facebook上虚假谣言相关的群体暴力事件。
• 探讨语言与计算资源在支持孟加拉语内容自动化事实核查中的作用。
• 将研究发现与协同工作计算（CSCW）的核心主题相联系，如基础设施政治、协作机制以及数字媒体生态系统中的信息不平等。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 记者、事实核查员和用户在孟加拉国应对网络虚假信息中，如何看待自身的角色？
• RQ2 结构性与基础设施性限制如何影响媒体与志愿事实核查员核实虚假信息的能力？
• RQ3 在孟加拉国这类低资源、非英语数字环境中，规模化事实核查工作面临哪些关键挑战？
• RQ4 技术设计与协作模式如何提升全球南方语境下事实核查的有效性？
• RQ5 在发展中的民主国家中，哪些政策与设计干预措施可减少虚假信息，同时兼顾文化与语言的特殊性？

主要发现

• 大多数公众期望新闻媒体核实网络信息的真实性，表明对媒体问责存在强烈需求。
• 孟加拉国的印刷媒体记者不认为核实网络内容是其职业职责的一部分，理由是工作量过大且缺乏机构支持。
• 孟加拉国的志愿事实核查员缺乏足够的技术与财政基础设施支持，限制了其影响力与可持续性。
• 孟加拉国的虚假信息常通过Facebook传播，并已导致现实中的暴力事件，包括与儿童绑架和宗教亵渎虚假谣言相关的群体私刑事件。
• 缺乏孟加拉语计算资源（如词性标注器和命名实体识别系统）严重阻碍了自动化事实核查工具的开发。
• 在以单一主导宗教为主的国家（如孟加拉国、印度、缅甸），宗教类虚假信息尤其具有破坏力，表明与宗教机构合作可能提升应对策略的有效性。