We get an awful amount of information online that helps shapes our opinions and the decisions we make. It is important to get a good base for our opinions and decisions if we are going to be using information we find online as a source. It is important to ensure what we are reading / watching is in fact truthful. First, lets break down the difference between disinformation and misinformation
Disinformation
- False information
- Intended to mislead
- Propaganda
- Deliberately intended to mislead
Misinformation
- Incorrect information
- False or inaccurate
- Getting the facts wrong
Identifying Disinformation
Disinformation usually tries to trigger an emotional response, usually making a bold statement on a controversial issue. We saw quite a bit of that in the last federal election, during Covid and we will continue to see it. Remember disinformation is misleading information, they are trying to trick you into believing something. Also, it is important to note that the more we see the same disinformation, the easier it is for us to accept it as truth.
Identifying Misinformation
Misinformation is incorrect information being shared. There is a difference between disinformation and misinformation, and that is that misinformation is not intentional. We did see a lot of misinformation being spread as well during the last Federal election and it was everywhere during Covid. This could be people hearing something enough, that they believed it to be true, or wanted it to be true and were sharing the information without doing or accepting the research that they did find.
Practice Makes Perfect
During Covid we saw a lot of disinformation through the Freedom Party and other right-wing groups stating that the Covid 19 pandemic was caused by a chemical weapons leak, to the vaccine containing wireless tracking chips that were implanted in everybody who got the vaccine so the government could track them. Both of these would be very hard to prove for the average person. But, it was unavoidable to not hear this information from somewhere. You either heard it on the news, or the Chief Medical Officer’s briefings, where they were reporting that the disinformation was being spread, to the lineups at the grocery store, to YouTube videos shoving the lie down your throat with every YouTube search trying to find the truth.
We have heard the saying ‘practice makes perfect’, that is the repeated effort and learning through trial and error lead to improvement and skill development. Well, if we hear the same information over and over, our brain starts to accept it. Same thing happens when you see somebody for the first time, you may not even notice them, or you may judge them unfairly. However, the more we see somebody’s face, the more used to it we become, and naturally, we start to warm up to them, gaining trust. Even if we have never spoken to that person before, if we see them everywhere, we start to ‘know’ them mentally.
Ways to Fact Check
It is up to us to do the fact checking in order to change our minds. We are unlikely, or least less likely to have our opinions changed unless we do. There are several resources to help combat disinformation and misinformation, and we really should do our due diligence before we go spreading it around.
Snopes.com
Snopes.com has been around for almost as long as the Internet. There is a good reason for that since the birth of the public Internet, everybody can have a soap box that is world reachable. Snopes is a great resource for fact checking because they back their proof with articles and examples. Every ‘fact’ that they investigate is bias free, bipartisan and fact checked with the source, scientific papers, media and other resources to collobrate the story or to debunk it. It has just over 30 years experience doing this and are the leading debunkers on the internet
You can access Snopes.com here
Media Smarts
Media Smarts is Canada’s Centre for Digital Media Literacy, and again has been around for just over 30 years. It started with as a child of the National Film Board of Canada and became independant in 1996. Remember the House Hippo, that was them.
You can access the Media Smarts search here
Other Fact Checking Sites
It is important that you make up your own mind on what you see and hear is real, specially in today’s age. Not only by what is going on in the world today, but by all the sources of information and media we digest daily. Choosing good sources of information, that is trustworthy is key. If you are unsure, use one of the above sites to check.
Always Check Before Sharing
It is crucial that you don’t add to the problem by sharing something that you read online, or a friend has shared without doing a little bit of research first. Remember disinformation is trying to get an emotional response from you to start with, don’t let it, stop and pause and think about it. Misinformation is information spread by not knowing if it is real or not.
If Your Friend is Sharing Misinformation
We have all come across it, but how do we help correct them without them taking offense. Remember, they might not know the information that they shared is not factual. Remember though to make sure your information is before correcting somebody.
- Take it to a private conversation, don’t share the correction publicly.
- Provide examples of the correct information
- Be polite and respectful
Here are a few great starters I have found…
“I noticed you shared this article about [topic]. I wanted to share that fact-checkers have proven it to be inaccurate. Here’s why…”
“That’s not something I’d heard before. What’s the source for that information?”
“I was curious about the thing you posted, so I did some Googling and here’s what I found…”