Article published by Syracuse University
Understanding misinformation and disinformation is a critical part of digital literacy in today's world.
Think about the last pharmaceutical commercial you saw on television. What did you notice?
Most of them feature smiling people, upbeat music, and a doctor treating patients. But have you ever stopped to think about why these features exist?
Persuasion techniques – like dressing an actor as a doctor or shooting the commercial in a park on a beautiful summer day – play an integral role in convincing people to take an action or adopt a certain belief.
With these persuasion techniques used across all forms of media, it can often be difficult to tell when something is disinformation. Two professors at the iSchool, Lu Xiao and Bei Yu, study these persuasion techniques and the nature of disinformation. Here are some of their top tips for identifying misinformation or disinformation online:
1. Analyze both the content and the source
First, look at the content itself and try to identify any pieces of information that seem too good to be true, that are inconsistent with others you have read or seen, or that seem redundant, dramatic, or lack specific evidence.
"It's also important to look for sensational language," says Yu.
Next, look at the source of the information and ask yourself a few questions. Who is the author of this page or comment? Are they credible enough to speak on this topic? What other content have they produced in the past? Looking at an author’s profile can often reveal a clear agenda when they have repeatedly published on the same topic.
Another method for checking credibility is to do a quick Google search to see if there are any articles that directly refute what you just read. Often, when a particular piece of misinformation starts to become more common, other reputable authors will put together statements and evidence that prove the claim is false, which can help you uncover the full extent of the story.
The URL of a link can also be a signal of trustworthiness. A professional or well-known domain name is more likely to be trusted than a string of numbers and letters. Additionally, the top-level domain (e.g. .com, .org, .gov, .edu) can be an indicator of the type of source the information comes from.
Finally, the order in which information is presented can change the reader’s perception and understanding of the information. Platforms like Twitter and YouTube have moved away from displaying content in chronological order and now rank Tweets and comments by engagement – meaning that widely circulated fake news and information taken out of context can easily rise to the top.
2. Identify whether the information is misinforming or disinforming
Xiao says there are two types of false information: misinformation and misinformation. Misinformation is false information that comes from an honest mistake.
Have you ever made a typo that completely changed the meaning of what you were trying to say? Believed something your friend said online, only to find out later that they were wrong? That's misinformation.
Disinformation, on the other hand, occurs when information is intentionally distorted by an individual or organization to advance a specific agenda. This is where persuasion and the intent to persuade come into play.
However, it is important to note that the distinction between misinformation and disinformation may not always be black and white. For example, science journalists may explain a correlational finding as causal due to misunderstanding or sensationalism. This means that sometimes extra care may be needed to analyze whether a piece of information is misinformation or disinformation.
Common reasons for spreading misinformation include endorsing a political party or candidate, damaging a person's reputation, or inciting a specific action by users – such as clicking on a website that makes money from advertising.
In the 2016 presidential election, for example, a fake news site masquerading as a local television station reported that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump. A few months earlier, another fake news site reported that the Pope had endorsed Bernie Sanders. Neither was true. But both were designed to drive clicks — and therefore advertising dollars — to the fake sites.
3. Try to identify the purpose behind the post or information
Xiao says there are several indicators that can give us clues about a person's intent behind posting.
The increasing prevalence of “bots” means that many of them are being created and used for malicious purposes. Signs of a bot include a high volume of posts, provocative images and phrases, hashtag spamming, and a lack of personal information.
"People are good at hiding their intentions. Others may be more willing to agree with an idea or statement when it is not so easy to identify that it is disinformation," Xiao said.
4. Use authoritative sources
Yu recommends researching and using materials developed by experts in the field to access quality information and says there are many resources like this, especially for evaluating science-based information, which is her area of expertise.
For example, if you are looking for health information, the CDC, Mayo Clinic, and WebMD are all good sources of information that are readily available to the general public. The information on these sites is written for the general public by health experts based on research results published in peer-reviewed journals. If you are interested in reading original research papers, you can search PubMed from the National Library of Medicine to find the most recent research results.
5. Evaluate how the information fits into your belief system
Yu encourages users to evaluate how their belief systems and who they trust influence whether or not they believe something to be true. Cognitive psychology research has found that belief plays a large role in the cognitive process, because individuals often care more about who they trust than the facts themselves.
Sometimes simple facts don’t help persuasion because individuals can rely on their personal belief systems to interpret evidence, according to Yu. She also said that confirmation bias is a significant problem because people are more likely to fall victim to what she calls “Tolstoy Syndrome,” which is when people don’t change their minds about an issue no matter how much evidence is presented. For example, the tobacco industry once promoted research by a scientist who firmly believed that cancer was the result of genetic factors, not the environment.
"We as human beings need to be concerned about how we consume information. It's not just about how we consume facts as black and white, but how we interpret them and how they fit into our individual belief systems," she said.