Main content

The Digital Human explores whether the online world is inhibiting truth by amplifying the spread of rumour.

Today tens of thousands of people run the Boston marathon amidst tight security. A year ago two bombs were detonated at the finishing line, killing three and injuring 260. Social media went into overdrive as people frantically pieced together clues which might lead them to the bombers. From this patchwork of evidence two suspects emerged and rumours began to spread.

During the London riots in 2011 people tweeted photos of the London Eye ablaze. Rumours circulated that rioters had broken into the zoo and released wild animals. A tiger was even spotted prowling around in Primrose Hill; there was even a grainy picture to prove it.

We seem to be spending less time verifying facts and more time believing things that fits in with what feels right. Is technology helping or hindering the flow of good information? Do we need to think before we retweet?

In this episode of The Digital Human, Aleks explores how rumours spread both online and in the physical world and discovers how in the echo chamber of social media falsehoods repeat until they become truth.

Contributors: Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic, psychologist Nicholas DiFonzo, computer scientist Kalina Bontcheva, DJ Russ Gibb, Twiggy Garcia and Ty Evans.

Producer: Caitlin Smith.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Mon 21 Apr 2014 16:30
Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

VoiceSeries 5

Next

QuantizeSeries 5

See all episodes from The Digital Human

Clip

Music Played

  • Marihiko Hara

    Ocean

    • Flora.

  • Marihiko Hara

    Flora

    • Flora.

  • Tycho

    A Walk

    • Dive.

  • Chromatics

    Tick of a Clock

    • Drive: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

  • Pantha du Prince

    The Splendour

    • Black Noise.

  • Zahnluecke

    • Room To Expand.

  • The Beatles

    Revolution 9

    • White Album.

Kalina Bontcheva

Kalina Bontcheva

of Sheffield University talks us through a new EU funded project called which aims to establish the veracity of information found online.

Alexis Madrigal

Alexis Madrigal

is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Technology Channel. He's the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology.

Alexis discusses the architecture of social media and analyses the role of reddit in the Boston bombing.

Professor Nicholas DiFonzo

Professor Nicholas DiFonzo
has studied rumour in a social and psychological context for thirty years. He provides the context for the origin and spread of rumours in both the online and offline worlds.

Russ Gibb

Russ Gibb
is former Michigan DJ who was the first to transmit the rumour that Beatle Paul McCartney was dead to a wider audience.

Professor Zongli Lu

Professor Zongli Lu
tells us how rumours have been with us since ancient times, focussing on a rumour in 15AD in China which changed the way he looked at rumour.

Ty Evans Akingbola

Ty Evans Akingbola
is a freelance Project Manager and has worked at various creative agencies across London. During the 2011 riots she and decided to let a tiger loose, on Twitter.

Broadcast

  • Mon 21 Apr 2014 16:30
    Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 4

Podcast

Related Links

  • (thedigitalhuman.tumblr.com)
  • (www.theatlantic.com)
  • (www.youtube.com)
  • (gizmodo.com)
  • (www.theguardian.com)