“Something future historians will struggle to explain is that, in the 21st century, all of human knowledge became instantly available to anyone in the world, and the primary effect was to make everyone dumber.” - David Roberts (Independent Journalist)
short attention-spans
prefer simplicity over complexity
willful ignorance (choose not to know)
feel or react first, think second
comfort over stress
Seeing the same messages over and over and over can lead some to tune out, but it may also boost confidence that the content is truthful. Repetition can lead to familiarity, which increases acceptance -- especially when alternate voices are ignored or silenced. - “Why Do People Believe Liars?” - Ruth Ben-Ghiatt
Claire Wardle, a world-renowned expert in this field, has used “information disorder” as an umbrella term for the various types of false, misleading, manipulated, or deceptive information we have seen flourish in recent years.
TEXT VERSION
Misinformation
Unintentional mistakes such as inaccurate photo captions, dates, statistics, translations, or when satire is taken seriously.
Disinformation
Fabricated or deliberately manipulated audio/visual content. Intentionally created conspiracy theories or rumours.
Malinformation
Deliberate publication of private information for personal or corporate rather than public interest, such as revenge porn. Deliberate change of context, date or time of genuine content.
In an information environment shaped by pervasive algorithms, the attention economy, engagement, and polarization, how do we determine truth?
How do we know which sources of information to trust? These questions are becoming increasingly difficult to answer, and even more so as “disinformation that is designed to provoke an emotional reaction can flourish in these spaces” (Wardle).
A 2020 study from Project Information Literacy confirms that the way information is delivered today—with opinion and propaganda mingled with traditional news sources, and with algorithms highlighting sources based on engagement rather than quality—has left many college students concerned about the trustworthiness of online content.
Students reported that it was difficult to know where to place their trust when credible sources are buried by a deluge of poorer-quality content and misinformation.
One student noted that “it’s not that we’re lacking credible information. It’s that we’re drowning in like a sea of all these different points out there” (Head et al. 20).
