Identifying Misinformation; How misinformation spreads; Why misinformation spreads; Responses to misinformation

1. FINDING AND RESPONDING
MISINFORMATION
UJJWAL ACHARYA

2. • Identifying Misinformation
• How misinformation spreads
• Why misinformation spreads
• Responses to misinformation
TODAY'S AGENDA
Image by macrovector on Freepik

3. • A word of caution: Identifying misinformation is not easy!
• People who create disinformation makes every effort to make it
believable and hard to identify.
• However, if we have critical mindset and be careful, there are
enough clues to identify misinformation.
SPOTTING MISINFORMATION

4. FIRST THOUGHT, ALWAYS:
THIS CAN BE A MISINFORMATION!

5. Image by macrovector on Freepik

6. TO BE TRUE INFORMATION, 10 THINGS SHOULD BE
CORRECT, COMPLETE AND LOGICAL
1. Fact
2. Data
3. Incident
4. Chronology of Incident
5. Source
6. Person
7. Statement
8. Picture
9. Date and Time
10. Context

7. DISINFORMATION ARE DESIGNED
TO IGNITE ONE OF OUR EMOTIONS
QUICKLY.

8. So after hearing or reading something, you feel extremely:
• Happy, or
• Sad, or
• Excited, or
• Frustrated,
there is a potential disinformation!

9. • Is this the original account, article, or piece of content?
• Who shared this or created it?
• When was this created?
• What account/who is sharing this?
• Why was this shared?
• Who benefits from this?
QUESTIONS TO ASK

10. • Trust worthiness of creator / publisher
• Name of account/site
• Name / identity of creator / author
• Sources of presented facts and statements
• Previous posts / articles
IF PUBLISHED, THINGS TO WATCH OUT

11. • Title and content
• Published time and date
• Fundamentals of news
• Language and grammar
• Length and space given
• Photo
IF NEWS, THINGS TO WATCH OUT
Image by redgreystock on Freepik

12. IF MANY PEOPLE ARE POSTING
EXACT SAME THING, RED ALERT!
IF MANY MEDIA ARE POSTING
SAME THING, IT COULD BE TRUE!

13. HOW AND WHY
A MISINFORMATION SPREADS?

14. DAVID RAPP
• The human brain views accurate, reasonable information as
boring compared to hyperbolic, outrageous information, which
makes it more memorable. Additionally, it becomes easier to
accept information rather than to critically evaluate it.

15. CONFIRMATION BIASES
• Subconscious tendency to seek and interpret
information and other evidence in ways that affirm our
existing beliefs, ideas, expectations, and/or
hypotheses.
• Echo chamber effect as we engage with contents
based on the tendency.

16. PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES
• People are more likely to accept misinformation as fact
if it’s easy to hear or read.
• People deploy skepticism selectively—for instance,
when they’re less critical of ideas that align with their
political beliefs.
• Misinformation appeals to our emotions strongly thus
our capacity to critically examine received information
diminishes.

17. SO WHAT CAN AN INDIVIDUAL
DO ABOUT MISINFORMATION?
Vecteezy.com

18. THINGS INDIVIDUALS CAN DO
1. Be critical: Be aware that thing you are
reading/hearing/seeing can be misinformation.
2. Google to see if credible sources have anything to say
on the information.
3. Don't share until you have verified information as true.
4. Don't engage with suspicious content.

19. THINGS INDIVIDUALS CAN DO
5. Don't write or share misinformation - even for fun.
6. Report suspicious content to platform or fact-checkers.
7. If you wrote something based on misinformation,
correct it immediately with in transparent way.
8. Fact-check if you have time.

20. 1. No misinformation
2. Ensure photo and headline matches content
3. Transparent correction of mistakes
4. Be transparent (publisher, author, bias, funding, photo dates/sources)
5. Responsible use of social media
6. Support to raise public awareness on misinformation
7. All elements of news in the content
THINGS MASS MEDIA CAN DO

21. COUNTERING DISINFORMATION

22. <COUNTERING DISINFO/>
• Building civil society capacity to mitigate and counter disinformation
• Developing norms and standards on disinformation
• Exposing disinformation
• Legal and regulatory responses to disinformation
• Platform specific engagement for information integrity
• Research tools for understanding disinformation
• Understanding gender dimensions of disinformation

23.  Building civil society capacity to mitigate and counter
disinformation
 Developing norms and standards on disinformation
 Exposing disinformation
 Research tools for understanding disinformation
FACT-CHECKING

24. ANY QUESTIONS?
LET'S DISCUSS

25. FURTHER RESOURCES
Recommended Reading from Internews :
• Managing Misinformation in a Humanatarian Context (PDF): https://internews.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/02/Rumor_Tracking_Mods_1-2_Context-Case-Studies.pdf
• What Works: Addressing COVID-19 Misinformation – Lessons from the Frontlines in 100 Countries https://internews.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/04/COVIDReport_20210416.pdf
• Countering Disinformation: https://counteringdisinformation.org/
• FactShala: India's Largest Media Literacy Network - https://factshala.com/