02 - Misinformation or Disinformation in Mass Media - Isaiah Calvert

 

       I thought it would be good to start with the actual definitions of Misinformation and Disinformation. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive. Disinformation is false information that is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power or the media. So while they are similar, they do have some key differences. "Misinformation is false or inaccurate information—getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the facts." (American Psychological Association). With both misinformation and disinformation so prominent today. It is extremely hard to decipher what news is real and what news is intentionally misleading you. However, there are some good resources you can use to fact-check media, and on the website (Spot Fake News), they go over some of the ways you can fact-check media, and they have a short video going over it too. They suggest things like considering the source, reading beyond the headline, checking who the author is, checking their sources, checking the date, and asking an expert. Some of these things might seem simple or like they would be common knowledge, but the truth is not enough people do these things because misinformation is being spread at such a rapid pace that now people aren't checking the actual news they are sharing or spreading. 

    I think it's important to ask why people try and spread misinformation or disinformation. There can be thousands of reasons or even more to why someone might try and spread information that is not true, but if you can find that reason it may make it easier to spot the misinformation faster. 

This is just to give some historical context to disinformation. this came from the book (A short guide to the history of ’fake news’ and disinformation). They are just trying to show you that disinformation goes back all the way to 44 BC, where Octavian’s started using a propaganda campaign against Antony by etching "twitter worthy" slogans onto coins to smear Antony’s reputation these slanders were aimed to depict Antony as a weak, un-Roman figure corrupted by his affair with the Egyptian queen, undermining his public support and justifying a war against them. I think it's important to know the history of disinformation 

just to realize that it is not a new concept. Since humans first began speaking or writing

things down, misinformation and disinformation have been around in some form 

and have been used for countless reasons over the course of history.

I think that it's important to know that today is no different from 2000 years ago, while the

way we get our media is different, people's mindsets haven't changed at all. The most common

use of misinformation and disinformation you will see is political. This is because being

A politician gives you a lot of power, and the people running for office will do whatever it takes

to get there. So when looking for misinformation and disinformation, you especially have to 

be suspicions of political news. This is the case for any government, in any part of the world,

at any time in history or the future. You will inevitably run into it, and hopefully, if we use 

some of the strategies we talked about, you can decipher real news from fake news.