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Minutes: Credible Web CG (11 June 2018)

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# [An Xiao Mina] Agenda here: https://credweb.org/agenda/20180611.html

# [connie moon sehat] present +

# [An Xiao Mina] https://credweb.org/scribing.html

# [An Xiao Mina] https://credweb.org/cciv/r/1

# [An Xiao Mina] https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11MzfbhicQG5jNwrilr8DXPbFuRVuyw4t1xCowb0HfTo/edit#slide=id.g38d3ddfe32_2_1

# An Xiao Mina says: one of the weak points of credibility coalition is understanding how advertising works

# .. mere quantity of ads does not correlate with credibility

# .. instead, one of the elements that seemed to play a role is the aggressiveness of ads, like pop-ups, or the request to readers to share the content on social media

# .. also the language in the text emphasizing requests for sharing is perceived as a relevant indicator for aggressiveness (and credibility)

# Owen Ambur says: the use of the work "fight" can be an indicator of polarisation

# connie moon sehat says: there might be an intersection here with other topics that use similar tones ad that call people to action

# .. engaging people in a larger arena: not necessarily "fight" but also "combating"

# .. there is a subtle division between call to to action, self-promotion, and ads

# Owen Ambur says: it is a matter of balance

# connie moon sehat says: when you start moving to the activist side that seems to be when you start to invoke emotionally charge

# Owen Ambur says: it seems that a lot of marketing is based on emotions rather than on utility

# connie moon sehat says: at Oxford Internet Group they are looking at how propaganda intersects with advertising

# .. one thing is having ads in your page, another is having an article promoting a movement

# .. or maybe the question is what is the difference

# Owen Ambur says: maybe the difference is the appealing to emotions or the fact that something is factual

# An Xiao Mina says: I think we are extending from emotions to actions, beyond the text

# Owen Ambur says: in the political realm voters don't find detailed plans in candidates websites

# An Xiao Mina says: some of the article they were assessing look like marketing

# Owen Ambur says: the health domain is interesting because this is where the connection between reality and emotions takes place

# connie moon sehat says: the presence of an ad is easy to check, and then you can decide how aggressive it is

# .. then you can check if there are calls to action in the article

# .. if there is a specific call to action it might worth nothing

# .. then we might look at the specific kind of call and maybe define a taxonomy, but the fact that it is present is worth nothing

# An Xiao Mina says: in some sources there is an engineering of reality in the content itself through calls for action

# Owen Ambur says: there should be a distinction between a call for action and advertising

# An Xiao Mina says: that the types of ads should be considered, their aggressiveness, their patterns

# Scott Yates says: the correlation is interesting. Sometimes reputable sites have annoying ads

# .. sometimes publishers don't have control over ads

# .. I'd be nice to say that if a thing pops over 12 times it becomes an indicator

# .. there are small publishers doing a good job but due to the mechanisms in place they rely on annoying ads

# An Xiao Mina says: financially motivated misinformation is basically selling clicks

# Scott Yates says: third party certification might be useful to address this issue

# An Xiao Mina says: in the vocabulary we are trying to articulate the security risk

# An Xiao Mina says: could content recommendation boxes be good indicators?

# Scott Yates says: the problem of blacklists is that new sites appear very quickly

# An Xiao Mina says: the most productive thing to do seems to distinguish between content and ads

# .. is thinking to classify the different types of ads

# .. is setting up another study soon with 30-50 articles

# [An Xiao Mina] thank you @Davide Ceolin ! :pray:

# [Scott Yates] And thanks, @Davide Ceolin for not mentioning that I think @An Xiao Mina should run all the meetings from now on and not @Sandro Hawke .

# [Scott Yates] *Re: "" -- quote And thanks, @Davide Ceolin for not mentioning that I think @An Xiao Mina should run all the meetings from now on and not @Sandro Hawke . *

# [Davide Ceolin] You're welcome, @An Xiao Mina

Addenda from An Xiao Mina: Three indicators formalized and discussed for the next study. (1) A simple check for the presence of ads.txt. We discussed possibly going into the context, but a simple check at this stage might be worth studying for any meaningful correlations with content credibility, (2) Aggressive calls for social shares in particular, after looking at articles that have calls for sharing baked into the text itself, (3) A typology of aggressive advertising, including ads that follow you around while you scroll and ads that take up more space disproportionately than the content of the article.