An example of this is when Russian agents hacked into emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and leaked certain details to the public to damage reputations. The term describes genuine information that is shared with an intent to cause harm. The third category we use is malinformation. They want to feel connected to their “tribe”, whether that means members of the same political party, parents that don’t vaccinate their children, activists who are concerned about climate change, or those who belong to a certain religion, race or ethnic group.Īgents of disinformation have learned that using genuine content - reframed in new and misleading ways - is less likely to get picked up by AI systems. The sharing of misinformation is driven by socio-psychological factors. Often a piece of disinformation is picked up by someone who doesn’t realise it’s false, and shares it with their networks, believing that they are helping. Misinformation also describes false content but the person sharing doesn’t realise that it is false or misleading. When disinformation is shared it often turns into misinformation. It is motivated by three distinct factors: to make money to have political influence, either foreign or domestic or to cause trouble for the sake of it. Disinformation, misinformation and malinformationĭisinformation is content that is intentionally false and designed to cause harm. Collectively, we call it information disorder. We also prefer to use the terms disinformation, misinformation or malinformation. Words matter and for that reason, when journalists use ‘fake news’ in their reporting, they are giving legitimacy to an unhelpful and increasingly dangerous phrase.Īt First Draft, we advocate using the terms that are most appropriate for the type of content whether that’s propaganda, lies, conspiracies, rumours, hoaxes, hyperpartisan content, falsehoods or manipulated media.
The term is now almost meaningless with audiences increasingly connecting it with established news outlets such as CNN and the BBC.
#Warped reality disorder professional#
The other, more powerful reason, is because of the way it has been used by politicians around the world to discredit and attack professional journalism. The failure of the term to capture our new reality is one reason not to say ‘fake news’. It’s good old-fashioned rumours, it’s memes, it’s manipulated videos and hyper-targeted ‘dark ads’ and old photos re-shared as new. And most of this can’t be described as ‘news’. Most of this content isn’t even fake it’s often genuine, used out of context and weaponised by people who know that falsehoods based on a kernel of truth are more likely to be believed and shared. The term ‘fake news’ doesn’t begin to cover all of this. Words matter and for that reason, when journalists use ‘fake news’ in their reporting, they are giving legitimacy to an unhelpful and increasingly dangerous phrase. Over and above this, conspiracy communities on 4chan and Reddit are busy trying to fool reporters into covering rumours or hoaxes. Sock puppet accounts post outrage memes to Instagram and click farms manipulate the trending sections of social media platforms and their recommendation systems.Įlsewhere, foreign agents pose as Americans to coordinate real-life protests between different communities while the mass collection of personal data is used to micro-target voters with bespoke messages and advertisements. Imposter websites, designed to look like professional outlets, are pumping out misleading hyper-partisan content. But this idealised vision has been swiftly replaced by a recognition that our information ecosystem is now dangerously polluted and is dividing rather than connecting us. The promise of the digital age encouraged us to believe that only positive changes would come when we lived in hyper-connected communities able to access any information we needed with a click or a swipe. We live in an age of information disorder.
They are also supporting materials for our new CrossCheck initiative, fostering collaboration between journalists around the world. Covering newsgathering, verification, responsible reporting, online safety, digital ads and more, each book is intended as a starting point for exploring the challenges of digital journalism in the modern age.
#Warped reality disorder series#
This is the third in a series of new Essential Guides published by First Draft.