#2 - Misinformation or Disinformation in Mass Media

James Hesterly

Professor Reppert

MM 2003


                                    Misinformation/Disinformation in Mass Media

The concept of Misinformation is a scary one that is very prevalent in today’s media. In the climate of social media, people have many different ways to get their news and their information, but the climate of Social media also creates a heap of misinformation somebody could be seeing and thinking of as real, honest news. This issue of misinformation is not only portrayed in just small articles but is also an issue in politics as well, and it is a huge problem. 


        Misinformation, as defined by APA.org, is false or inaccurate information that is getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is defined as false information that is deliberately intended to mislead. Misinformation, while intended to be harmless just due to lack of research or information is still a problem. Disinformation on the other hand is intended to be misleading and shows bad intention on the part of the provider of said disinformation. There could be many reasons as to why one would choose to spread disinformation, usually they will take some sort of important event or tragic accident and change details to make the story more “interesting” or clickable, this then causes more clicks and views which only increases their viewership and revenue. Misinformation and disinformation is not only present in news sites or social media apps, but also places you may not expect like YouTube. This translates misinformation or disinformation into video form, which gives even more opportunity for eye catching with the bonus of a title and thumbnail.

In the world of social media, these two types of bad news are spread all the time and at some point you yourself have almost certainly seen this before. In my time on social media I know I have seen my fair share of misinformation or disinformation, usually it will involve the death of a celebrity or some other notable event, but I always make sure to look for another source reporting the same thing to try to confirm what is real and what is not. This has made me become suspicious of any news I see that I may not think would be true just on first glance, one instance I remember when this happened is a few weeks ago when artist Ozzy Osbourne passed away, I remember when I saw the story from a post on instagram from just a random user and I made sure to go to google and find a credible source to confirm that it was true, I also got to the news relatively early in its outing but I made sure to double check a credible source to make sure it was true. There are other ways to spot or try to avoid this misinformation or disinformation. As I said I prefer to just check a credible source. I usually look for multiple news sites reporting the same story or details so I know there is a general consensus of the story or what is going on. There are tools in certain apps on social media that can clear up some misinformation sometimes, for example, the community notes feature on X (formerly known as Twitter). The community note feature allows users to tag or label a post with what might be misleading about it. This can be a helpful feature most of the time, but on occasion will be used as a joke, and while funny at times, is not the intended use. 

Misinformation and Disinformation are also a large problem in the political world. Due to the current political climate and with the state of social media and tools like AI, the political world in news is something you have to be very careful with. It would be unwise to trust just any article you see about something going on in politics. Fake stories intending to deceive opinions are very frequent and present in user’s feeds. Even with new developments in AI creating images that appear real, you have to be extra careful in the news you are seeing and that you are trusting. It is important to form your own opinion based on factual and trustful news not disinformation spread by people intending to deceive and maybe even change opinions, all due to a story or image that is not even real. You can avoid this type of misinformation or disinformation by again, using trusted and reliable sources to make sure you are getting trustable and honest news. 

          Misinformation and Disinformation are concepts that are very in today's media. These types of news

            are concerning and are dangerous to the average social media user or just a normal viewer. With the use of

            AI and with disinformation present in the political climate, it is more important than ever that users pay

            attention to the news they are viewing and try their best to double check any suspicious headlines and use

            what tools they can to ensure they are getting honest and reliable news.

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