EOTO 2 Reaction

Disinformation and Misinformation

Harry’s presentation on dis and misinformation really interested me and hooked me in to learn more about it. According to the APA, it describes the difference of mis and disinformation by stating, “Misinformation is false or inaccurate information—getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the facts.”Mis and Disinformation in news has been around in news as early as the 1890’s and has become more common in today’s modern era of journalism and pop culture.

Misinformation in the media has been a longing issue when it comes to things like Politics and pop culture as a whole as well. For example in 2016, there was a spreading rumor about Hillary Clinton and one of her associates being a part of a sex ring which caused a mass social media outbreak during the election. “ The hashtag #pizzagate went viral as thousands of accounts tweeted “evidence” both for and against the story. Many of these tweets originated outside of the United States, with disproportionately large clusters coming from the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Vietnam. Shortly after the election, this fictitious online tale made a sinister cross-over into the physical world, as one of the story’s followers, Edgar Welch, drove to Washington with an assault rifle. He entered the pizzeria, demanding to see the basement (the building does not have one) and fired off three shots. What began as online disinformation had taken a terrible turn (Fisher, Cox and Hermann 2016).” 

Disinformation occurs almost every single day when it comes to social media or magazines and different celebrities of the modern era and the drama that comes with them and their so-called superstar status lifestyle. It can mainly be seen within stores with magazines with wild titles expressing fake stories about different celebrities and their love life, family life, etc making it more exaggerated than it already is. 

These types of popularity contests depict and break down the view of the celebrity in a positive or negative light just to receive sales for their newspaper or social media gig.

Mis and Disinformation exhibits the immaturity of many journalists and news reporters because they are itching to get a rise or kick out of  the public and get the speculation to rise and spread across the entire country. With this , it can spark more and more unnecessary rumors to spread and get to the point where the celebrity themself can get in the mix and speak on the rumors and issues regarding the writings and news stories written about them within the contents of different magazines. 

As the years go by, Mis and Disinformation has been around for years and years and has been an issue since newspapers were introduced. With the modern era, more people are more attached to an eye popping title than the actual truth and it is truly very sad to see.