TASK 2

SURVEY
Figure 1

Question Options Why I included this question/what I hope to gain

What's your Year Level Year 7 - 12 This information is included to help me understand what age-
group is being primarily exposed to fake information

How Often do you use None - 4+ hours This is just to see how long people are exposed to social
social media media, and both the negatives and positives that come with
it. If the people who are on social media most of the time, are
more exposed to fake news, it proves that the spread of fake
information is primarily over social media

How Often do you notice Short Answer Text I hope to just gain a few ideas of how aware people are of the
you are being Exposed to information they are consuming.
Fake Information

Where do you Primarily Instagram, Snapchat, I want to see which platforms are most notorious for their
See Fake Information? Facebook, Twitter, fake information. My first thoughts on the main offenders are
YouTube, Tiktok, Twitter and TikTok
Other (add answer)

How Often do you see Very often, Often, When people do identify that information is fake, I want to
People Accepting Sometimes, Maybe, see if they notice how many other people fall for it, if they fall
Information you know to Never for it at all.
be False

Do you think people Yes, No and Other This will let us know if people believe fake news is created
knowingly CREATE fake (add answer) with malicious intent, due to a lack of education, both, or
information? something else entirely

Do you think that people Yes, No and Other Similar to the one above, this lets us know if people think
knowingly SPREAD fake (add answer) that fake information is spread due to a lack of education, mal
information? intent, both or something else.

Do people’s opinions Yes, No and Other I believe that when someone's opinions line up with a
always play a part in (add answer) statement, the less they’ll be sceptical about the information.
whether or not they This question is to see if people agree with that logic, and if
research the information it’s a common pattern seen.
they’re handed?
 Do people who use social Yes, No and Other Due to how often people on social media are exposed to fake
media have a higher (add answer) news, advertisements, and other similar things I believe that
chance to blindly accept although most can identify it, it becomes very normalised.
the information they’re Without realising it people will believe, and accidentally
handed? spread fake information.

Do you think things like Yes, No and Other I believe Instagram fact-check, and similar things, although
Instagram Fact-Check (add answer) could have been executed a lot better are clunky and
actually help? unhelpful. They’re too easy to manipulate, and there’s too
much data for it to sift through it to run an advanced analysis.
If there’s large chunks of harmful misinformation, such as
threat of imminent disaster that isn’t true, that's when I
believe fact check could be useful. It could take the key words
and tag a disclaimer on each post with them, making sure this
information couldn’t spread too far without context.

How Often is the Fake All of the Time, Most I think it’s very half and half. Misinformation about medicine
Information you see of the time, is extremely common, and dangerous, though news about a
Harmful? Sometimes, Not a lot celebrity’s baby’s eye colour that’s fake is just as present.
of the Time, None of Misinformation however isn’t helpful no matter what it’s
the time about, dangerous or not.

The survey I have created is to be used as a tool to gather statistics that will be utilised to back-up the information
provided by my secondary research. The information could also be applied to figure out what kinds of people are
most affected by our question, and therefore what kind of people we should be considering as our target audience.
As seen in figure one, the questions being asked in the survey are all related to society’s perspective on our topic,
especially in relation to how consciously they are exposed to it in their everyday lives. This information is extremely
crucial, as without it, it would be very difficult to answer the questions that our secondary research doesn’t. An
example of that being if there is an age group that is more active on social media, are they more or less conscious of
the information they consume? In the primary resources I used, although there were experiments conducted and
statistics taken from the public, information is constantly changing. It’s very valuable to be able to accurately provide
recent statistics to compare for any changes that may have occurred. The survey also provides information on the
topic in a simple way, whilst still giving people the chance to share more insight on their perspective with examples
such as in question 3, and questions 6-10 where additional information can be added. The survey is being used to
reinforce the findings of the secondary research, and not necessarily answer the guts of the question alone.

INTERVIEW
Figure 1

Question What type of data it will elicit + strengths and/or Why I included this question/what I
weaknesses of the data hope to gain
 Do social media Gather data on the weak links and possible loopholes This information will further
platforms control as reasons to denote why society/people with a answer the research question
the spread of fake larger influence should not inform and spread through a primary resource.
news on their information whether sensitive or meagre on the
platforms? internet.

What negative Gather data on the distortion of truths spread on This information will further
impacts come about social media platforms that would cause discrepancy answer the research question
from the spread of between political figures or cause society to develop branching out into a more sensitive
fake news within disorders/mental illnesses. I.e., A user was sponsored topic as to how manipulation by
society? I.e., to post with #diet, #exercise and other related social media platforms cause
politics, trends keywords about a type of medicine that could make further harm upon our mental and
people lose weight without completing the other physical health.
factors such as diet and exercise. The platform’s
configuration then spreads this post to other users
who have recently or are currently searching these
keywords. Most users would fail at losing weight and
would lose money as the product was a scam which
could result in a turn for the worse in terms of
mental and physical health.

Do social media Gathers data on how companies attract society to This information will further
platforms allow the engage in social activity on their platforms answer the research question and
free roam of fake provide further harms caused by
news as a means to the control of information by social
gain attention? media platforms on society.

The interview I’ve proposed as shown below in Figure 1 will allow a focus group to help further my answer towards
the research question through backing up the existing secondary knowledge. The focus group will consist of a target
audience of people who either use or are concerned about someone that frequents social media platforms. The
gathered statistics from the questions in Figure 1 will discuss the negative impacts of how social media platforms
could utilise fake news to gain attention, distort truths, cause discrepancy between society, and provide reasoning to
be sceptical of the information that is spread online. This information will be crucial in exposing the configuration
behind social media platforms and provide warning from different perspectives to society as to how the control of
information by social media platforms can be harmful. The primary research conducted will be valuable as it will be
recent in comparison to the secondary research and will branch out to answering the research question in more
depth. An example of this is demonstrated in the 2nd row of Figure 1, which questions the links between social
media platforms, users, sponsors and how these factors affect the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of each
user. Furthermore, the interview provides suggestions as to how social media companies permit the roam of fake
news on their platforms as a way to implement specific ideas and opinions into society. This interview further
reinforces the findings of the secondary research conducted on the research question.

AMBER & BASTION