Mis Information, Dis Information, and Social Media

Mis information and Dis information is becoming a larger issue in American Society, especially with the advent of social media. Mis information is the accidental spread of false information, like someone mis-remembering what happened in a news story while talking to a friend. Dis information is the intentional spread of false information, like someone creating a fake infographic and spreading it as fact. The purpose of this research study is see try and understand how social media has become a major player in the spread of mis information or dis information and what are the effects of this spreading this altered information. One of the biggest outcomes of how spreading false information can have effects on major society was in case of the 2016 Presidential Election.

In an initial overview of the literature I noticed there were a plethora of studies conducted on the varying degrees of mis / dis information. These studies not only examined the effects of mis / dis information, but also factors that lead to the spread of it, and demographics prone to falling victim to it or most likely to spread the mis / dis information. The Pew Research Center study using surveys to try and measure the effects of social media and its effects on social media and society. They found people in both advanced and emerging economies say that social media is more of a positive than a negative for their country and staying informed about current events is one of social media’s key benefits. Yet, they make it abundantly clear there is a shared sense that social media gives people a voice in politics, but the surveys point to concerns that digital connectivity has made people more susceptible to misinformation, social media has exacerbated political tensions.

Sources such as the Pew Research Center provided clear easy to understand information that any ordinary person seemingly could gather something from. The 2016 Election and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for social media becoming the mis / dis information battleground. In researching literature on related to mis / dis information and the pandemic alot more formal, scientific, and academic research was done. Conversely though, more formal publications rather complex, and I think that can discourage people from truly understanding the findings and the real meanings behind them. An instance of this point can be shown in The International Journal of Communication's panel study. They to wanted to investigate misinformation exposure on social media and its consequences for media trust. Their goal was to grasp how people navigate the blurred line between facts and misinformation in a networked information environment. Additionally how this affects media trust. Although presented in a formal, academic setting, it was rather puzzling data.

What is that? It looks more like abstract art than legible data.

I attempted to do a survey to find out attempt to learn how much “ordinary” people know about this topic, and what are some of the effects they think could result from mis / dis information on social media. I received 14 total responses from this survey. Although I was disappointed with the low number of responses, I was able to learn some important things. My survey showed most people follow the news on social media, and are familiar with the terms mis / dis information. It also showed that most people could tell the difference between something that was clickbait.

I conducted a more qualitative interview to try and learn more about the ordinary's person's view on what possible effects of spreading altered information could be. In this inferview I conducted with a friend who is a college student studying psychology at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. She brought my attention to a factor about social media and mis / dis information that I had considered. How it spread very rampantly amogst the older generation, and foreign communities within this country. Below is a snippet of our interview she told a story about how he parent was mislead on a social media story involving the late Tupac Shakur.

DR: Have you seen any of those effects that you mentioned? Have you seen things become chaotic due to false news personally?

SC: Well, I can say my mom is on TikTok and she's a first-generation immigrant. She doesn’t have the best discernment. She's constantly watching fake news [and] fake things like people dying all the time and me and my siblings are so close to like hiding her phone! And we have to always dispel what she's essentially learning on her phone every day, like every day. I remember a time when she had pulled up a picture of a man that looked nothing like Tupac [Shakur] and the report was saying they found Tupac alive in Cuba. She was convinced that was him. Sometimes they become so strong in that belief that even if you are telling them like no he's gone is not enough. So, imagine people with actual power or and that are like willing to act on the things they see on TikTok, or YouTube, or someone’s random social media page. What if the see something like there is danger or someone's being held here and we must save this person? And they take that upon themselves to do that and harm a lot of people.

DR: That is definitely something that could be concerning. 

SC: Correct. 

I learned alot of things in this research endavor. First, is there is a lot of research on this topic which means this is a topic that is important to pay attention to. Unfortunately research methods from academic institutions were rather complex, and I think that can discourage people from truly understanding the findings and the real meanings behind them. My survey showed many people are familiar with these terms and follow the news on social media. From the qualitative interview I learned that there is a real lack of social media discernment. This was notable because I was under the impression discernment was much more common amongst most people given the events of the 2016 election. 

Works Cited

Silver, Laura. “In Advanced and Emerging Economies, Similar Views on How Social Media Affects Democracy and Society.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 6 Dec. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/06/in-advanced-and-emerging-economies-similar-views-on-how-social-media-affects-democracy-and-society/. 

Wu, M. (2022). What Drives People to Share Misinformation on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Stimulus-Organism-Response Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(18), 11752. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811752

Stubenvoll, Marlis, Raffael Heiss, and Jorg Matthes. “Media Trust Under Threat: Antecedents and Consequences of Misinformation Perceptions on Social Media.” International journal of communication (Online) (2021): 2765-. Print.

Cover Photo courtesy of 3dpete on Flickr

3dpete. “Misinformation.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 Dec. 2023, www.flickr.com/photos/petehogan/6072467398.

Thank you to Thomas Marra who assisted with the research, and Shannon Camille for the interview.

Denzel Rodgers

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