A Masterclass in Manipulation
By Hank Green“ ‘Number of record high temperatures is holding steady’ is a very interesting way to say ‘temperatures are consistently getting higher and higher.’” It’s not worth talking to a climate change denier. However, denialism has changed; many no longer question climate change itself or its human cause, but rather the dramatic consequences. With this less contrarian position, misinformation is harder to spot. In his typically emotional and entertaining style, Hank Green analyses a video that uses a number of techniques to mislead the viewer. For example, how are people labelled (scientist, activist, journalist)? Which charts are selected to represent climate change? Are the numbers expressed as absolute or relative values? Is data shown for selected periods? Does the voice in the video simply state different information to that shown in the data?
The video is an excellent lesson in how to deal with all kinds of misinformation, fake news and visually misleading information: humorous yet sharp and absolute.
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