Misinformation
By Richard Burke
It seems I’ve been grappling with information-misinformation-disinformation most of my adult life. These days, the fight over the three forms is rampant.
In my early 20s, a counsellor at the University of Calgary identified from some testing I might have an aptitude for public relations. I accepted that as useful information and pursued that at a different university, in Southern California, at a time when the Vietnam War dominated. In a very short time, I realized it was not PR, which with advertising focused on a nuanced message, but journalism.
One of the tugs-of-war at the time was information people could see on TV in living colour about the atrocities of war and the massaged message from those of a political persuasion, justifying the war on the one hand, or countering the message. That all had a profound affect on how I understood information as I took on a career in journalism after graduating.
Journalism plays a vital role in a democracy and in how we live our lives. It provides information from which people can make rational, intelligent decisions and distinguish between truth and fiction. Part of the discipline involves a persistent effort to report the facts, even if it means going back to the same source of information several times and to others to verify the information.
These days, we have access to more information than we can possibly consume, much less decipher. We seem to have evolved to believing what we choose to believe, not necessarily what is believable fact.
Some definitions help in knowing what we’re dealing with:
One of my struggles, despite my education and career as a journalist, is knee-jerk reacting to misinformation and disinformation. I still ask myself, or anyone who happens to be in the same room,”How can anyone believe that? Don’t they check the facts?” I don’t come up with a satisfactory answer.
Recalling my journalism roots helps. Faith provides me with ways to cope otherwise.
Pope Francis gives us guidance on how to wade through it all.
People have a responsibility to check the source of what they share on social media to ensure it is not "fake news" designed to further prejudices or increase fear, Pope Francis said in a World Communications Day message in 2018, as reported on the Vatican website (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/papa-francesco_20180124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html).
Fake news, as you may recall, was a term used a lot in 2018, and is still prevalent, to discredit the traditional media, which had long-established credibility for reporting facts. What went with that effort was an inclination for those who believed the fake news label not to like what they were hearing or reading.
Fake news in another sense can also be called lies. I’m generally suspicious when I hear the fake news reference by someone with an obvious ulterior motive.
Father Derek, in his homily the Sunday before Lent, walked us through 11 Sins of the Tongue. Of relevance here is the first: “The Lying Tongue, speaking falsehoods with the intention of misleading others.” I’ve long wondered why anyone would do this.
There’s also “The Rash Tongue: speaking before one should, often without having all the information,” and “The Quarrelsome Tongue: speaking in an overly opinionated way, attacking others personally, and/or provoking unnecessary division.”
Pope Francis, said, “We need to unmask what could be called the 'snake tactics' used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place" like the serpent in the Garden of Eden did. This reference would fall into the disinformation category: fake news used to deceive and manipulate.
Fake news grabs people's attention "by appealing to stereotypes and common social prejudices, and exploiting instantaneous emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration," Pope Francis wrote.
One way to know if something should be checked and not be shared, he said, is if it "discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict.”
True discernment, the pope said, means examining information and keeping what promotes communion and goodness, while rejecting whatever "tends to isolate, divide, and oppose.”
Pope Francis used his own adaptation of the "Prayer of St. Francis" for those who report the news and those who read or watch it: ”Where there is shouting, let us practice listening," the prayer said. "Where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity.”
Lent seems as good a time as any to work on this.
In my early 20s, a counsellor at the University of Calgary identified from some testing I might have an aptitude for public relations. I accepted that as useful information and pursued that at a different university, in Southern California, at a time when the Vietnam War dominated. In a very short time, I realized it was not PR, which with advertising focused on a nuanced message, but journalism.
One of the tugs-of-war at the time was information people could see on TV in living colour about the atrocities of war and the massaged message from those of a political persuasion, justifying the war on the one hand, or countering the message. That all had a profound affect on how I understood information as I took on a career in journalism after graduating.
Journalism plays a vital role in a democracy and in how we live our lives. It provides information from which people can make rational, intelligent decisions and distinguish between truth and fiction. Part of the discipline involves a persistent effort to report the facts, even if it means going back to the same source of information several times and to others to verify the information.
These days, we have access to more information than we can possibly consume, much less decipher. We seem to have evolved to believing what we choose to believe, not necessarily what is believable fact.
Some definitions help in knowing what we’re dealing with:
- Information: facts provided or learned about something or someone.
- Misinformation: false information that is spread, regardless of intent to mislead. People who spread information that is wrong but don’t know it is wrong are technically spreading misinformation.
- Disinformation: deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda.
One of my struggles, despite my education and career as a journalist, is knee-jerk reacting to misinformation and disinformation. I still ask myself, or anyone who happens to be in the same room,”How can anyone believe that? Don’t they check the facts?” I don’t come up with a satisfactory answer.
Recalling my journalism roots helps. Faith provides me with ways to cope otherwise.
Pope Francis gives us guidance on how to wade through it all.
People have a responsibility to check the source of what they share on social media to ensure it is not "fake news" designed to further prejudices or increase fear, Pope Francis said in a World Communications Day message in 2018, as reported on the Vatican website (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/papa-francesco_20180124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html).
Fake news, as you may recall, was a term used a lot in 2018, and is still prevalent, to discredit the traditional media, which had long-established credibility for reporting facts. What went with that effort was an inclination for those who believed the fake news label not to like what they were hearing or reading.
Fake news in another sense can also be called lies. I’m generally suspicious when I hear the fake news reference by someone with an obvious ulterior motive.
Father Derek, in his homily the Sunday before Lent, walked us through 11 Sins of the Tongue. Of relevance here is the first: “The Lying Tongue, speaking falsehoods with the intention of misleading others.” I’ve long wondered why anyone would do this.
There’s also “The Rash Tongue: speaking before one should, often without having all the information,” and “The Quarrelsome Tongue: speaking in an overly opinionated way, attacking others personally, and/or provoking unnecessary division.”
Pope Francis, said, “We need to unmask what could be called the 'snake tactics' used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place" like the serpent in the Garden of Eden did. This reference would fall into the disinformation category: fake news used to deceive and manipulate.
Fake news grabs people's attention "by appealing to stereotypes and common social prejudices, and exploiting instantaneous emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration," Pope Francis wrote.
One way to know if something should be checked and not be shared, he said, is if it "discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict.”
True discernment, the pope said, means examining information and keeping what promotes communion and goodness, while rejecting whatever "tends to isolate, divide, and oppose.”
Pope Francis used his own adaptation of the "Prayer of St. Francis" for those who report the news and those who read or watch it: ”Where there is shouting, let us practice listening," the prayer said. "Where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity.”
Lent seems as good a time as any to work on this.