Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1083976
4 UCW FEBRUARY 20-26, 2019 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ EDITOR Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly. com ASSISTANT EDITOR Leslie Pyo leslie@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR Kimberly Herndon kim@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, Karl Merritt, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor SALES ADMINISTRATOR/ DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the pub- lisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2019 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. For many, social media has, unfortunately, become their sole source of information. ey scan, read, like, comment and then share like mindless robots that are void of critical thinking and coerced into being a participant in the cycle of misinformation. Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash PUBLISHER'S PEN Artificial intelligence and fake news by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. At first, I thought arti- ficial intelligence was the panacea for stupid people. Nope — although heaven knows we need one. Read the headlines of any news- paper or tune in to any radio news cast and you would swear we are living in Bizarro World. For those who are not familiar with Super- man comics of the '40s and '50s, Bizarro World was a fictional universe where people, places and situations were weirdly opposite of their normal posture or expectation. Sort of like Pitt Dickey's articles on any given day. Just kidding, Pitt. Seriously, it should con- cern all Americans when the truth becomes subjec- tive and elusive. It should concern all Americans when wordsmithing be- comes a finely tuned skill used to redefine justice and when it becomes an instrument used to side- step the truth. Social media is probably the mother of fake news and the worst thing to hap- pen to humanity when it comes to communicating and disseminating trust and integrity. And, unfortunate- ly, it's here to stay — regard- less of consequences. Today, we spend way too much time on social media. Computers, iPads and iPhones rudely intrude on our lives so fre- quently that we are becoming conditioned to it. Last week, I attended the funeral of a dear friend. e church was filled with friends and family. e service was beauti- ful and touching. en, the benediction was interrupted by not one, not two, but three cellphone alarms going off simultaneously. You could feel the collective sense of em- barrassment. at's the world we live in. For many, social media has, unfortu- nately, become their sole source of informa- tion. ey scan, read, like, comment and then share like mindless robots that are void of critical thinking and coerced into being a participant in the cycle of misinformation. It's this misinformation that shapes our opinions, manipulates our actions and influences our decisions. is should concern us all. Fake news manipulates our point of view, influenc- es our values and compro- mises our morals. Re- cently, I found out there are companies that specialize in developing AI that can create fake news, making it difficult — if not impossible — to fact-check content. Fake news is becoming an unregulated, profitable, dirty business. So, this begs the question: who can you trust? Well, I don't have that answer. I, for one, will advocate for laws that forbid and punish the perpetrators of any proven manipulative and illegal actions disseminated via social media. And, since you are reading this article, I can only as- sume you have keen critical thinking skills and are a re- markable judge of character. So, this being the case, thank you for reading Up & Com- ing Weekly. No fake news here — and we are surely not anonymous. HIGH 67 LOW 42 HIGH 77 LOW 44 HIGH 55 HIGH 59 HIGH 62 LOW 47 LOW 55 LOW 45 FEBRUARY 25 FEBRUARY 24 FEBRUARY 22 FEBRUARY 23 FEBRUARY 26 AM Thunderstorms Partly Cloudy Cloudy Showers Showers Mostly Cloudy FEBRUARY 21 HIGH 73 LOW 51