Tristan Hynson
Sources 6, 7, and 8
Research Source 6: False News Reports, Folk Devils, and the Role of Public Officials: Notes on the Social
Construction of Law and Order in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Substantive)

In the article False News Reports, Folk Devils, and the Role of Public Officials: Notes on the Social
Construction of Law and Order in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by Timothy Brezina &
Herbert E. Phipps Jr., the authors explain how public officials played a key role in spreading
rumors and unintentionally slowing down relief effort after Katrina. The authors make the
assertion that public officials in New Orleans were extremely unprepared, despite the early
warnings and the money given to them beforehand. The authors also draw the conclusion that
public officials are key in keeping rumors at bay, something that the New Orleans officials
definitely did not do. Public officials reported rumors to the media as truth, which in turn
drastically affected the view of anyone watching or reading those news reports. This played a
key role in how slow some of the relief efforts went, as people had to avoid the “danger”
presented by these media reports.
Quotes/Paraphrases:

“These reports [of rampant murder] were later found to be groundless, but they were accepted
as accurate by both media organizations and consumers of news”

“Several major news organizations announced that, contrary to initial media reports, no
evidence could be found to support claims of rampant murder in New Orleans”

‘‘Many if not most of the alarmist reports of violence were false, or at least could not be
verified.’’

“Rumors of extreme violence did, in fact, slow down the federal response to Hurricane Katrina
and forced government officials to plan a ‘‘more complicated military operation’’
Responses:

Quote 1 shows that the reporting done by the media was accepted as true by the public, which
could have thoroughly hindered their attempt to learn about the situation. It goes alongside my
question very well, as it proves that people will watch or read news and accept it as fact, with no
distinction as to whether or not the news itself is actually true. Quotes 2 and 3 also fall into the
same category, and are just more examples of the media admitting that they had received and
reported false news.

Quote 4 shows how the false Media coverage actually affected people. Due to the rumors be
told to and reported by the media, the Federal Government response to the disaster was
definitely slowed. It was also upgraded into a “More complicated military operation.” This
definitely shows how people can be affected by false reporting, as had the reports been more
accurate, the relief process could have been quickened, and more lives might have been saved.
Key Words:

Katrina, exaggerated, public officials, rumors
Source 7 (scholarly)

The Impact of Fraudulent False information on Equity Values by Saif Ullah, Nadia Massoud, and
Barry Scholnick, is a study that determines that false news reports about stock and equity values
can impact and lower prices, and the denial of such false information rarely immediately rights
the figurative ship. The study goes into detail, and gather significant amounts of data in order to
determine how the market is affected by false information provided by the news. The study
makes it clear that “insider trading” is NOT what they are studying, rather they are focusing on
the outright false news about stocks and values. The study concludes that false news does
strongly affect values, and after the information is proven false, it can take a long time before
the values return to their original values, if they return ever.

We find that such false information, even after being denied by a credible source such as the
SEC, generates both abnormal returns and abnormal trading volume.
o
This statement shows that false news does in fact have a large impact on the trading
values of stocks, and that false news itself cannot be reversed easily, even after being
proven false by a credible source. The news can manipulate and report false findings,
which in turn affect the way that we act or think in any form of life, and yet we cannot
simply reverse it after the damage has been done.

Our main finding is that we find no support for immediate price reversal (i.e. the market does
not revert to its original price level) after the denial of the false news.
o
See above analysis, quote finds the same thing, it just states it differently. (Included
purely for myself when writing my paper).

We also provide some evidence of front-running by perpetrators, whereby the perpetrators take
a position in the target company before the false news event in order to benefit from the fraud.
Our results show that these fraudulent activities can be very profitable for perpetrators at the
expense of innocent market participants.
o
This quote demonstrates why and how people release false news, which is in order to
further their own gains. In the context of this quote, the liar is manipulating the market
for their own gains, yet this can be applied to all forms of news, in which people can
provide false information to incite panic or chaos in order to gains something from it.

Fraud, Manipulation, Stocks, Market, Reversal
Source 8 (Scholarly)

Why do Partisan Media Polarize Viewers, by Matthew S. Levendusky, is a study in which he
concludes that partisan media (such as news broadcasts) causes individuals to become more
polarized in their views, and less likely to walk a middle ground. He also determines that this
partisan media effect is helping to cause the gridlock in the government that America is famous
for, as voters are pushed into the extremes of their opposing beliefs by these news channels.
Because this media is not strictly truth, it falls under the category of false media, and as is shown
in the study, this affects the populace of America by causing political turmoil.

“I argue that viewers’ use of motivated reasoning, combined with the slanted nature of these
programs, generates issue polarization. The results of my original experiments bear out this
theoretical expectation.”
o
This quote states the hypothesis of the study, and then the result that backs it up.
Levendusky is stating that the partisanship of these programs causes individuals to
become polarized in their viewpoints, which in turn affects how they vote, or act
politically, demonstrating how the media influences Americans.

“Relatively extreme partisan media hosts are not just priming citizens’ underlying
predispositions but are also making them more extreme and divided.”
o
This quote is important, because it shows how the media almost changes their viewers
views, by making them more extreme and divided, something which they lacked before
the viewing. The News is not only reinforcing peoples beliefs, but giving them new,
more divisive ones as well.

Key words: Partisanship, Division, Extreme, Polarization.