LibGuides: Fake News &amp; Bad Info: Media Literacy Resources: Prebunking and Debunking Strategies

Pre-Bunking

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Based on Inoculation Theory: exposing people to a small does of misinformation -- in a classroom or other. learning situation - will help them detect misinformation more easily in real world contexts.
- issue-based inoculation -- Covid19, climate change, election integrity
- technique-based inoculation -- focuses on HOW misinformation is disseminated.

False Information is Everywhere. 'Prebunking' Tries to Head it Off Early
Pre-bunking stems from a field of social psychology research called "inoculation theory." The idea [is] that you can build mental armor or mental defenses against something that's coming in the future and trying to manipulate you, if you learn a little bit about it." - NPR. 10-28-2022,
Prebunking is Effective at Fighting Misinfo
Instead of the tedious undertaking of fact-checking every single false claim, proponents of prebunking advocate for mass inoculation. Poynter Institute.
Debunking Handbook
People often look to familiar societal contexts and personal in-group (friends, family, social group) for information. Fact-checking can reduce people’s beliefs in false information. However, misinformation often continues to influence people’s thinking even after they receive and accept a correction—this is known as the “continued influence effect." Even if a factual correction seems effective—because people acknowledge it and it is clear that they have updated their beliefs—people frequently rely on the misinformation in other contexts, for example when answering questions only indirectly related to the misinformation. It is therefore important to use the most effective debunking approaches to achieve maximal impact.

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Definitions

Misinformation - false information that is spread regardless of intent to mislead
Disinformation - misinformation that is deliberately spread to mislead
Fake News - false information made to look like real news content
Continued Influence Effect - continuing to believe false information even after a credible correction has been presented
Illusory Truth Effect - people rely on what's familiar so are likely to judge false information as true simply because it is repeated often

Misinformation Dissemination Techniques

Impersonation
- impersonating a real person or organization, or falsely posing as a real news source or expert
Emotion
- using content that provokes an emotional response such as fear or anger
Polarization
- deliberately diving an audience along lines of ideology (politics, religion, etc)
Conspiracy
- promotes beliefs that some secret group or force is behind specific events
Discredit
- attacks the messenger or the person sharing a claim or argument rather than the message itself
Trolling
- purposefully baiting an audience using emotional triggers