Skeptik: A Hybrid Framework for Combating Potential Misinformation in Journalism

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fan, Arlen, Lei, Fan, Corman, Steven R., Maciejewski, Ross
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908503580344320
author Fan, Arlen
Lei, Fan
Corman, Steven R.
Maciejewski, Ross
author_facet Fan, Arlen
Lei, Fan
Corman, Steven R.
Maciejewski, Ross
contents The proliferation of misinformation in journalism, often stemming from flawed reasoning and logical fallacies, poses significant challenges to public understanding and trust in news media. Traditional fact-checking methods, while valuable, are insufficient for detecting the subtle logical inconsistencies that can mislead readers within seemingly factual content. To address this gap, we introduce Skeptik, a hybrid framework that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) with heuristic approaches to analyze and annotate potential logical fallacies and reasoning errors in online news articles. Operating as a web browser extension, Skeptik automatically highlights sentences that may contain logical fallacies, provides detailed explanations, and offers multi-layered interventions to help readers critically assess the information presented. The system is designed to be extensible, accommodating a wide range of fallacy types and adapting to evolving misinformation tactics. Through comprehensive case studies, quantitative analyses, usability experiments, and expert evaluations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of Skeptik in enhancing readers' critical examination of news content and promoting media literacy. Our contributions include the development of an expandable classification system for logical fallacies, the innovative integration of LLMs for real-time analysis and annotation, and the creation of an interactive user interface that fosters user engagement and close reading. By emphasizing the logical integrity of textual content rather than relying solely on factual accuracy, Skeptik offers a comprehensive solution to combat potential misinformation in journalism. Ultimately, our framework aims to improve critical reading and protect the public from deceptive information online and enhance the overall credibility of news media.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_18499
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Skeptik: A Hybrid Framework for Combating Potential Misinformation in Journalism
Fan, Arlen
Lei, Fan
Corman, Steven R.
Maciejewski, Ross
Human-Computer Interaction
The proliferation of misinformation in journalism, often stemming from flawed reasoning and logical fallacies, poses significant challenges to public understanding and trust in news media. Traditional fact-checking methods, while valuable, are insufficient for detecting the subtle logical inconsistencies that can mislead readers within seemingly factual content. To address this gap, we introduce Skeptik, a hybrid framework that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) with heuristic approaches to analyze and annotate potential logical fallacies and reasoning errors in online news articles. Operating as a web browser extension, Skeptik automatically highlights sentences that may contain logical fallacies, provides detailed explanations, and offers multi-layered interventions to help readers critically assess the information presented. The system is designed to be extensible, accommodating a wide range of fallacy types and adapting to evolving misinformation tactics. Through comprehensive case studies, quantitative analyses, usability experiments, and expert evaluations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of Skeptik in enhancing readers' critical examination of news content and promoting media literacy. Our contributions include the development of an expandable classification system for logical fallacies, the innovative integration of LLMs for real-time analysis and annotation, and the creation of an interactive user interface that fosters user engagement and close reading. By emphasizing the logical integrity of textual content rather than relying solely on factual accuracy, Skeptik offers a comprehensive solution to combat potential misinformation in journalism. Ultimately, our framework aims to improve critical reading and protect the public from deceptive information online and enhance the overall credibility of news media.
title Skeptik: A Hybrid Framework for Combating Potential Misinformation in Journalism
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18499