Misinformation Guide

Tips and suggestions for being an informed consumer of social media and the digital world

Misinformation is false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive.

Disinformation is false information...disseminated by a government or intelligence agency in a hostile act of tactical political subversion. Or deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda.

Malinformation is when genuine information is shared to cause harm, often by moving information designed to stay private into the public sphere.​ This includes private or revealing information that is spread to harm a person or reputation

Fake news

1. False news stories, often of a sensational nature, created to be widely shared or distributed for the purpose of generating revenue, or promoting or discrediting a public figure, political movement, company, etc.
2. A parody that presents current events or other news topics for humorous effect in an obviously satirical imitation of journalism.
3. Can sometimes be used facetiously as a conversational tactic to dispute or discredit information that is perceived as hostile or unflattering. (from dictionary.com)

To make sense of the information streaming to and at us through media and social-media, we need to be able to detect and identify misinformation, misleading information, and disinformation. This talk shares key tools and practices we can learn that can help us navigate what can seem like a minefield of misinformation, so we can better sift valuable information from what could be harmful.