A friendly guide to fake news…
Since this seems as topical as ever, a few interesting titbits. Here’s an attempt by two economists (Gentzkow is widely admired, haven’t encountered Alcott before) to quantify the electoral impact of fake news stories circulating through social media. Here’s the wonderful Maria Konnikova on “Trump’s Lies vs Your Brain” – although it’s not going to cheer you up. William Davies takes a step back and asked where statistics originally came from, why we no longer seem to trust them, and what comes next. And here’s a brilliant-looking reading list from two academics at the University of Washington on “Calling Bullshit” in the modern age. And my own feature article – almost a year old now, dated in some ways and horrifyingly relevant in others, is “How Politicians Poisoned Statistics“.
Musical recommendation
Try Jimmy Scott, “Holding Back the Years”. (UK) (US) A sublimely restrained cover of Nothing Compares 2U and much else.
Books
I’ve been reading Daniel Levitin’s “A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics” (UK) (US) – so far does what it says on the tin. Clearly written and explained although these will be familiar ideas to many readers of this blog.
Or why not build your own Brutal London? (UK) (US) A papercraft kit of London’s best hunks of concrete.
Discovery of the week, though, is the Alan Moore classic “The Ballad of Halo Jones” (UK) (US). It’s weird and sprawling and flawed and I loved it.
My own book “Messy” is now out and available online in the US and UK.