LaVonne Maupins's List: Disinformation

• Noun

  False information that is intended to mislead, esp. that released by a government to a rival power or the media.

• Deliberately misleading information announced publicly

• What is disinformation? How news media manage to deceive and lie? What you and I can do to recognize mislea
• ources
• misleading sources

• Disinformation is carried out in different ways. Here are some examples:

   
  • A potentially dangerous news story may be ignored by mass media. Most people believe that something which has not been reported just does not exist.
   
  • A news story may be presented as a "wild accusation", especially by someone authoritative. People that have a large consensus or cover important positions in politics, economics or the military may leverage their reputation to label a a fact as false and preposterous.
   
  • A big media coverage of an important event may create enough distraction to deviate the attention of people from a real issue.
   
  • A rumor that is neither confirmed or denied may generate confusion and doubts in a large audience.
   
  • An individual or group of people may be forced or payed to provide false information that generate fake news storie

• Now that I have presented you some examples of how disinformation works, let me share with you some practical advice to protect yourself against misleading information:

   
  • Ask: Always ask yourself lots of questions when you hear a news story. Where is the news from? Is it a reliable source? Is somebody else reporting the same story? Question everything and take nothing for granted.
   
  • Verify: Search on the web or discuss with your friends and family any piece of news that comes from media sources. You may discover valuable information that put the entire story under a different light.
   
  • Keep position: Never underestimate your opinions and do not be afraid of authority. Beware "the guy who knows" who puts his credentials on the table. Everyone has the same level of reliability until they prove to be trustworthy.
   
  • Investigate: Be very careful with news stories claimed to be too complex to solve. No analysis of the story has probably been done and you are consuming information which has not been investigated or verified.
   
  • Focus: Do not try to split your attention to multiple news stories. Choose one and stick with it. Then move on. There is always a bigger news story screaming for attention that may distract your investigation.

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