Spread Fact Not Fiction

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Is all information good information?

With so many resources all over the internet, in schools and in our hands at any given moment is all information available viable? It depends on the source. A source is any median that information travels from but a credible source is "written by authors respected in their fields of study (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/establishing_arguments/research_and_evidence). An example may be a source you find through a yahoo search that gives you a students paper on information that person finds versus finding a case study you find from a company that specializes in that scope of work.

Who is spreading the false information? Everyday people, groups, conspiracy activists or nationalists of a specific party or political affiliation. Groups like the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America, Inc.) find ethical journalistic infractions everyday from some of the for mentioned people (https://www.prsa.org/about/prsa-code-of-ethics).

So why is this important?

The PRSA found that mis-information, dis-information and mal-information is harmful information that can be leading viewers, readers and large groups to believe false information. With mis-information spreading false information without the intent to harm, dis-information being told with the intent to harm and mal-information which is spreading information that was originally intended to be private information. According to Claire Wardle, Ph.D and Hossein Derakhshan, all three of the information terms are deemed "information disorders" (https://www.prsa.org/article/countering-the-falsehoods-of-information-disorder).

Information about political leaders, digital images, or health information could be misinterpreted for various nefarious reasons. Some mis-, dis- or mal-information could be something as innocent as misunderstanding but information is generally understood to be misleading for a purpose.

Just like Hanig's Tongue Map, a simple game of telephone could pass along information that has only been slightly tested and repeatedly changed and manipulated into what a newspaper or journalist wants the readers to understand or agree to.

What's being done to get the facts?

Even though there are many professionals that work to catch the mistakes and false information much of the information past along today has to be responded to instead of retroactively dealt with. There are ways to catch the information before all of the public reads the news. The communicators like those at the PRSA analyze posts for fake/false information and see what the intent of the information is and where the target demographic to read the information would be. The PRSA calls "inoculating" the process of eliminating the information before it gets to the public but they are not removing the information from the internet. Rather the PRSA are getting in front of the information source to tell the public the correct information or they "can then establish mechanisms that allow them to report information to our organizations for verification or further action" (https://www.prsa.org/article/countering-the-falsehoods-of-information-disorder).

What can you do about it?

Check your sources, report false information, and read most things with a little bit of skepticism.