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What is Misinformation/Disinformation?'

Misinformation and disinformation have been around for a while. Whether it is someone spreading false information without knowing it is incorrect or knowing it is incorrect but still deciding to spread it anyway. Misinformation is information that is inaccurate for the purpose of deceiving and disinformation is incorrect information that is used to mislead especially by a government organization to gain power. Disinformation is used to influence the public into believing an opinion that is not true but they have the power to control people’s minds into believing it. photo on false info vs intent to harmMedia has been around for decades and people use these media outlets to find out information about any topic. Many people will find out information from the media platforms and will not do their own research on the topic, therefore, they believe whatever information the media companies tell them. Media companies and people that use these platforms know the power that they have and take advantage of this. A form of media that many people use to get information is social media and these platforms have a huge impact on what people think. In the article, “What to Believe? Social Media Commentary and Belief in Misinformation”, the authors state, “Americans are increasingly turning to social media for political information, with approximately two-thirds of American adults accessing news through social media (Shearer and Gottfried [68]). However, the social nature of this information-sharing can have negative consequences, such as exposure to fake news (Lazer et al. [42]; Vosoughi et al. [76]), information distortion (Carlson [18]), and a false confidence in issue-based knowledge (Anspach et al. [ 4]). By accessing news articles on social media, individuals expose themselves to a subset of news that has been filtered by their social connections. Moreover, individuals are able to insert their own commentary on the news articles they post, commentary that may or may not be accurate” (Anspach & Carlson, 2020). Since social media has become very powerful in influencing people’s minds, misinformation has been used to get people to feel a certain way about a topic, especially politically. Misinformation vs disinformation

Who spreads Misinformation/Disinformation and How?

Misinformation and disinformation can give many an advantage in setting up their desired narrative. That advantage can allow people go much further with their motives for sharing false information. Since false information can come in many forms, it is important to detect these methods and who are the influencers/institutions behind them. It is also important to note what objectives or motives are in mind when disinformation is in question. For instance, social media platforms such as YouTube have news commentators that might cover important information such as events in politics, health information, or international news. It is important to cover such news as accurately, and as unbiased as possible due to how impactful they are to people’s lives. However, many YouTube commentators might have the opportunity to present information in a way that it is fitting to their political agenda or social agenda. Some examples of this can include changing public opinion on a certain proposed policy that might go against a desired agenda that can lead to more radicalized content. YouTube's current policies are unable to moderate or cover all forms of false information. This leads to unintentionally promoting it or recommending misinformation/disinformation to certain users. “YouTube’s recommendation algorithm tended to drive viewers toward extremist content by suggesting edgier versions of whatever they were watching—a good way to hold their attention.” Tufekci, Z. (2018)

When disinformation such as deception takes place, it creates an alternative set of information for some audiences that supports an agenda. This creates a space where it is uncertain that any online user will get factually correct information without there being an attempt at deception or influence.  “Despite the fact that the internet provides additional space for political discussion, it is still plagued by the inadequacies of our political system” Papacharissi, Z. (2002). Misinformation in content

In social media, anyone can have the ability to gather an audience and influence them. Many platforms have policies in place that are against uploading false information, and are gaining more enforcement on those policies. However, most moderation methods on platforms are still being improved and do not always have the ability to reach and completely remove certain content that might still promote radicalized content. Content creators will continue to target older generations. “Older adults were not only more susceptible to misinformation, but they also were more confident that their flawed memory was correct.”  (Wylie*, L. E., 2014)

Recognizing Misinformation/Disinformation

There are several preventative measures that one can use to recognize misinformation/disinformation. The following are just some tactics users should keep in mind when gathering information from the web.

• Exercise Skepticism- When taking in new information from social media, news, or from a friend always have a bit of doubt. This doubt will lead you to researching to verify the information and the source.

• Does it Sound Right?- Another way to recognize misinformation is by reading the title of the article/news. Oftentimes articles that contain misinformation or fake news will have funky titles or ones that are super hard to believe.

• See Who is Reporting the Story- Is the author legitimate? Are they even real?.

• Is the information a joke?- News Parody is a thing in the world of Fake News/misinformation. These programs use humor or exaggerations to present the audience with non-factual information.

• Check the Date- Reposting old news stories doesn't mean they’re relevant to current events.
• Are other Media Outlets Reporting the same News- If the information is a big event, often times there will be multiple media organizations reporting the same information.
• Correct your Family and Friends!- When you see misinformation being spread be sure to let the users know! Remember to be respectful when providing them with the correct reputable information.

Types of Fake News (Tandoc, 2017) :

• News Satire-  Mock news programs, which uses humor or exaggeration to present audiences with news updates.

• News Parody-  Having many similar characteristics to news satire, the difference that these two have is that parodies use non-factual information in their programs.

• News Fabrication- Articles that have no facial basis but are published in the style of news articles to create legitimacy.  They do not try to let readers know that the information in the article is false.

• Photo manipulation- Fake News also refers to the manipulation of real images or videos which then are used to create a false narrative.

• Advertising and Public Relations- There have been instances where advertisements have also been disguised and tried to be passed as genuine news reports.

• Propaganda-  are news stories which are created by political entities to influence public perceptions.

Verification

Example of clickbait

Misinformation/disinformation can be verified through various ways. For written content there are three predominant forms of fake news; Clickbait, Conspiracy, and Propaganda (Bara et al., 2019, p. 191). Faked photographs and deep fakes are also common on social media platforms and can be verified as well.

Clickbait is “written in such a way that it motivates the reader to click on it (hence click-bait) or redistribute it without reading” (Bara et al., 2019, p.191) this type of story can be recognized by its catchy title, lack of attribution to an author, lack of references or content other than the producers other works. These easily accessed stories are usually seen in a person’s social media feed and are often deceptive in their wording (Bara et. al., 2019, p. 191). Stories that appear to have these attributes can be verified by entering their title or plot into a fact-checking site such as Snopes.com or factcheck.org. Both sites are non-partisan and apply a set of fact checking principles to all stories they verify or disprove.

Conspiracy theories have varied writing styles from clickbait-esque to scientific, these mostly false stories feature religious, political, historical and health topics and often have a large following, such as QAnon (Bara et al., 2019, p.191). These types of stories are a form of “News Fabrication” according to Tandoc Jr. et al., who explains that in contrast to their News Parody counterparts, such as The Onion, these stories and publishers are deliberately trying to deceive the reader and often succeed (Tandoc Jr., et al., 2018, p.143). They are frequently posted on a number of sites, often run by bots, to offer the illusion of being widely accepted but are usually the work of the conspiracist themselves. Prior to sharing these ideas, readers should work to confirm the source is well-known and ensure their identity can be verified. Snopes.com and factcheck.org are both widely used for identifying conspiracies as well. Both sites will offer information about how/why the conspiracy came into play and explain the falsehoods behind it, any correct information involved in the conspiracy is identified as well.

Propaganda frequently comes out of conflict zones and “comes into play, due to the multiple actors trying to control the information and the fact that on-the-ground journalistic information verification is nearly impossible” (Bara et al., 2019, p.195). Propaganda is often connected to politics and difficult to call out against repressive regimes. It is utilized by both local and federal level government establishments to encourage citizens to take on a desired position.

Faked photographs and deep fakes are another convincing source of misinformation/disinformation. This deceitful practice is done by manipulating a photographs or videos to make them appear to be something they are not. In 2012, an analysis of The Guardian's datablog of picture stories showed of the top 100 most-tweeted 15 percent were fakes (Schifferes et al., 2014, p.408 via Burgess, Vis, and Bruns 2012). Image verification sites such as Google Reverse Image search and TinEye are great resources for finding out when, where, and by whom a photograph was taken as well as a date for when it first appeared online.

Reporting/Flagging Content

How to Report Content on Facebook [1]

How to Report Content for Instagram

Misinformation in social media platforms can be difficult to detect. However, with enough information to understand what is true and what is misleading, there are ways to support transparency online.

We have to acknowledge the audiences that do not know that some posts shared on their newsfeeds or timelines are not true, but something perhaps motivated the credibility of the user they follow due to power/status. There are strong ties established with face-to-face communication, such as family, friends, and coworkers (Bond et al., 2012, p. 295). Verified users, such as politicians, activists, or celebrities may identify with right, center, or left wing viewpoints, and reach a large vulnerable audience (Warzel, 2020).

For platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, there are warning signs listed under some articles that may have potentially false information. As Bucher (2013) explains, Facebook depends on connections happening based on “findability and compatibility” of users by enlisting algorithmic systems in finding “people you may know”, or “menu driven identities” profiles (pp. 482-483). This method of sharing content has enabled users to share harmful content, and here are some steps for users to combat misinformation based on each platform.

File:Twitter-logo-png-5859 - Copy.png

How to Report Content for Twitter

Reference Section

1. Anspach, N. M., & Carlson, T. N. (2018). What to Believe? Social Media Commentary and Belief in Misinformation. Political Behavior, 42(3), 697-718. doi:10.1007/s11109-018-9515-z
2. Bara, G., Backfried, G., & Thomas-Aniola, D. (2019). Fake or Fact? Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Fake News. Information Fusion and Data Science Information Quality in Information Fusion and Decision Making, 181-206. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-03643-0_9
3. Bond, R. M., Fariss, C. J., Jones, J. J., Kramer, A. D., Marlow, C., Settle, J. E., & Fowler, J. H. (2012). A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature, 489(7415), 295-298. doi:10.1038/nature11421
4. Bucher, T. (2012). The Friendship Assemblage. Television & New Media, 14(6), 479-493. doi:10.1177/1527476412452800
5. Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The virtual sphere. New Media & Society, 4(1), 9-27. doi:10.1177/14614440222226244
6. Wylie*, L. E., Patihis*, L., McCuller, L. L., Davis, D., Brank, E. M., Loftus, E. F., & Bornstein,   B. H. (2014). Misinformation effects in older versus younger adults: A meta-analysis and review. Retrieved from https://works.bepress.com/lindsey-wylie/9/
7. Schifferes, S., Newman, N., Thurman, N., Corney, D., Göker, A., & Martin, C. (2014). Identifying and Verifying News through Social Media. Digital Journalism, 2(3), 406-418. doi:10.1080/21670811.2014.892747
8. Tandoc, E. C., Lim, Z. W., & Ling, R. (2017). Defining “Fake News”. Digital Journalism, 6(2), 137-153. doi:10.1080/21670811.2017.1360143
9. Tips for Students on How to Identify Fake News. (2020, April 22). Retrieved from http://onlinedegrees.und.edu/masters-cyber-security/tips-for-students-on-how-to-identify-fake-news/.
10. Tufekci, Z. (2020, April 02). How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/08/14/240325/how-social-media-took-us-from-tahrir-square-to-donald-trump/
11. Warzel, C. (2020, November 24). What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/facebook-disinformation-boomers.html