openPR Logo
Press release

Who can be trusted on the internet?

02-27-2017 07:05 PM CET | IT, New Media & Software

Press release from: PRD

In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, scientists examined how the credibility of information from the web can be assessed in order to obtain more effective data from platforms such as Flickr.

Recently, the credibility of information from the internet has become a hot topic, given the political dimension of fake news and the impact it has on democratic processes. Internet companies such as Facebook, which is particularly affected by this issue, are challenged by the fact that they depend on computerised methods for the selection of content. The success of the internet is based mainly on the automated processing of information: algorithms, not human beings, determine the results search engines will show. When it comes to fake news, there are no appropriate methods available. As people at Facebook emphasise, the truth is particularly difficult to identify in many cases. What does seem possible, however, is an assessment of credibility. This was the aim of an international research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF under the lead of principal investigator Allan Hanbury from TU Wien. "We have seen that there was no clear definition of the credibility of online content", says Hanbury. "It was our objective to find a better model for assessing credibility and to experiment with it."

According to Hanbury, credibility can be assessed on the basis of a number of criteria. Some relate to the source of the information. Does the source have expertise in this area? Do people consider it trustworthy? Other criteria involve the information itself. How high is its level of quality? This might involve detecting typos in documents, for instance. How reliable is the information? This question revolves around how strongly fluctuating the quality of information coming from a given source appears to be.

Credibility of images and search engines

Hanburys team studied the search for images in the social media, particularly in Flickr. The idea was to examine 'tags', i.e. annotations or labels attached to photographs, and to assess their credibility. Such tags could be 'water', 'mountain' or 'beach'. An algorithm assesses the credibility of these tags according to certain criteria, for instance the image captions, the regularity with which a user posts and how many images he or she puts online, without analysing the content of the images themselves. All this information is fed into a programme that tries to attach the correct tags to images.

The scholars were able to show that an algorithm using credibility criteria was very reliable in finding the correct tags for certain images. By taking credibility criteria into account, the effectiveness of automated information retrieval on the internet can thus be increased. Demonstrating that was one of the objectives of the project. The project team broke new ground with their attempt not only to analyse the credibility of content, but also the credibility of systems that gather information.

"Search engines and recommendation systems have a big impact on which posts and documents people see", says Hanbury. They can arrange the results by relevance, but can also push paid content to a higher place in the ranking. "We have explored whether it is possible to assess the credibility of search engines." That issue was examined for the first time in the context of this project and turned out to be very challenging. In the absence of knowledge about the programming of a search engine it was almost impossible, Hanbury conceded.

Health on the web

Misinformation is very sensitive not only in the political arena, but also when it comes to medical content. "People suffering from protracted illnesses often seek comprehensive information on the internet about their condition and slowly turn into experts themselves", explains Allan Hanbury. The scholar warns that in some cases it was especially top-ranked content that provided erroneous information in an attempt to make money out of people's hopes and despair. The organisation Health On the Net (HON) has been dealing with this phenomenon since 1995. Their fight for the quality of online medical information is, however, burdened by the enormous amount of data involved. "This makes manual assessment impossible." In collaboration with HON, the scholars from TU Wien tested the method developed in their project for an automated assessment of credibility. "The framework that we have set up can be used in the future to measure credibility", notes Hanbury.

Personal details
Allan Hanbury (http://allan.hanbury.eu/doku.php) is a Senior Researcher in the Information and Software Engineering group (ifs) (http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at), Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems, Vienna University of Technology. His research interests include data science, information retrieval, and the evaluation of information retrieval systems and algorithms. He is the coordinator of various EU projects and Austrian research projects.

Publications

Ralf Bierig, Cristina Serban, Alexandra Siriteanu, Mihai Lupu, Allan Hanbury: A System Framework for Concept- and Credibility-Based Multimedia Retrieval. ICMR 2014: 543,
http://doi.org/f3s5f8

Palotti, João, et al: How users search and what they search for in the medical domain. Information Retrieval Journal 19.1-2 (2016): 189-224. (pdf),
http://doi.org/f3s5fj

Image and text will be available as of Monday, 27th February 2017, from 9.00 am CET at: http://scilog.fwf.ac.at/en

Scientific Contact
Dr. Allan Hanbury
TU Wien
Favoritenstraße 9-11/188
1040 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 58801-188310
E hanbury ifs.tuwien.ac.at
W http://ifs.tuwien.ac.at
Austrian Science Fund FWF
Ingrid Ladner
Haus der Forschung
Sensengasse 1
1090 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 67 40 - 8117
E ingrid.ladner@fwf.ac.at
W scilog.fwf.ac.at/en/
W fwf.ac.at/en
Distribution
PR&D – Public Relations for Research and Education
Mariannengasse 8
1090 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
E contact@prd.at
W prd.at/en

PR&D – Public Relations for Research and Education
Mariannengasse 8
1090 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
E contact@prd.at
W prd.at/en

PR&D – Public Relations for Research and Education

This release was published on openPR.

Permanent link to this press release:

Copy
Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release.

You can edit or delete your press release Who can be trusted on the internet? here

News-ID: 451110 • Views:

More Releases from PRD

11-06-2018 | Health & Medicine
PRD
EUROPE AND USA: AGREEMENT ON DEFINITION AND DIAGNOSIS OF SPECIFIC FORM OF HIGH B …
Physician from Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences plays a part in global consensus-building process Krems (Austria), 6 November 2018 – A transcontinental agreement was recently reached on the definition and diagnosis of a particular form of high blood pressure. Until now, it was difficult to outline a generally accepted set of symptoms – and therefore to diagnose – this type of high blood pressure, which is known as neurogenic supine
08-09-2018 | Science & Education
PRD
On the "shelf life" of water: Hot on the trail of the biostability of water usin …
Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Krems launches project to study the growth of water-based microorganisms Krems (Austria), 9 August 2018 – In order to better understand and assess the quality of ground and spring water, state-of-the-art methods from the fields of molecular biology and microbiology, as well as chemical high-performance analytics are now developed. This has been made possible by a project currently underway at the Karl Landsteiner
03-27-2017 | Energy & Environment
PRD
Bacteria, deadwood and climate changeT
With the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, an international group of researchers is investigating to what extent the forest floor serves as a carbon sink and how bacteria and fungi interact in this context. The researchers have found deadwood to be populated by a great diversity of life. "The wealth of microorganisms we found in deadwood was astounding", says the microbiologist Judith Ascher-Jenull. It has long been known

All 4 Releases


More Releases for Hanbury

Geranyl Tiglate Market Global Outlook On Key Growth Trends, Factors Forecast 202 …
A recent report published by QMI on the geranyl tiglate market is a detailed assessment of the most important market dynamics. After carrying out thorough research of geranyl tiglate market historical as well as current growth parameters, business expectations for growth are obtained with utmost precision. The study identifies specific and important factors affecting the market for geranyl tiglate during the forecast period. It can enable manufacturers of geranyl tiglate
Italian Government Honours Ray Hammond for Services to Futurology
Burnham, UK, October 25th 2010: On the recommendation of the United Nations’ Pio Manzü Research Centre, the Italian Government has awarded Ray Hammond the Medal of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for services to futurology. The medal was presented to Ray Hammond by Italian government minister Giuseppe Pizza, Secretary of State for Education, at a ceremony organised by the Pio Manzü Research Centre in Rimini, Italy on October 17th 2010. The diploma
Off Hours Hot Times for Online School Inquiries
A recent survey shows persons inquiring about an online education usually call over a lunch break or when arriving home from work. Birmingham, AL July 9, 2007 -- The administration of Virginia College Online recently completed an unusual survey that reveals the applications and information seeking patterns of potential online college students. The survey, done in an effort to better serve potential students who contact the college, revealed some distinctive
Analytiqa: Logistics Bulletin: Friday 08th June
This week’s Logistics Bulletin reports on financial results from two leading UK-based 3PLs and a number of bolt-on acquisitions from around the globe. DC developments feature from a variety of manufacturers and 3PLs, again on a global scale. In the UK, Wincanton has reported strong continuing momentum in its UK & Ireland business, which more than compensated for difficulties in certain operations in Mainland Europe. Conversely, at Christian Salvesen, the
Guidelines For Choosing Best Online Schools Released
Virginia College Online releases new guidelines in response to increasing interest in online learning. March 29, 2007 Birmingham, AL -- In an effort to help students choose the online school that is right for them, Virginia College has developed a set of tips that will narrow the field. The Internet has exploded in recent years with hundreds of opportunities for online learning, but with these opportunities come pitfalls. Darrell Hanbury, Director
Financial Aid Helps Students Get Online Education
Thanks to the availability of financial aid, online education has become an option for many who would otherwise not be able to afford to go to school. January 29, 2007 -- Phoenix, AZ. Contrary to popular belief, education is not a luxury enjoyed only by the wealthy. Thanks to the availability of financial aid, a degree has become an option for many students who would otherwise not have been