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This is a media-savvy era. Americans have been trained to notice product placement in the movies, bloggers pick apart the accuracy and objectivity of mainstream media reports, and high schools offer classes in “media literacy.”
Why is it so much easier for a hoax to defeat our defenses online? “People are so used to getting their news and everything from the Internet, and the audience doesn't screen things,” said Leslie Savan, the author of "The Sponsored Life: Ads, TV, and American Culture.” “They don't have the same standard they would for old media. We've lost some of that ability and skepticism.”
“When we see ads on TV, we know they're there to sell to us; we know they have a persuasive goal,” said Matt McAllister, a media studies professor at Penn State University.
“But when we see viral videos and messages on the Internet, we don't know if there's an ulterior motive, so we don't have defenses that we would have with an ad.
“That's exactly what marketers are trying to circumvent, those defense mechanisms. Marketers are looking at social media with their mouths salivating. They're going to just keep getting more and more clever.”
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100823/FEATURES/308230024/In+web+hoaxes++even+experts+get+bitten+by+rumor+bug
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