Hi everyone! Welcome to my third blog post. For those who don’t know, I’m doing an inquiry project. My question being “How does misinformation negatively affect someone?” In my last post, I mentioned three questions that I would start off with my research. Here’s what I found for my first question.
- How does misinformation spread and what type?
In the case of my project, all the misinformation is spread and shared from social media. Apps like Facebook, TikTok and Google have been the main platforms many people have been turning to in the last few years or so for news/information. People find it more convenient to just search it up online, even though it’s not very truthful. There are many ways for people to stumble across misinformation. To understand better, its important to know the difference between misinformation, disinformation and mal information.
Misinformation: False information that is unintended to cause harm.
Disinformation: False information that is intended to manipulate and cause harm.
Mal information: Information that’s from the truth but is often exaggerated in a way that misleads and causes potential harm when spread online.
Why it spread
People tend share different information with others online whether their sharing a post to someone or creating that post for others to see. As well as commenting on those post and liking them, making them more popular. Most of the stuff online you hear/see about is not always true, but most of the people sharing post like that don’t know that. For example, there are many celebrity scandals, but all of them are not always true, but people believe it is and tell others about it causing the scandal to grow. It’s easy for people to believe something they see on the internet. Not everyone believe it though. In fact there are many people who are posting about these fake news story’s on purpose, which causes others to believe it and share it to others.
Types
Here’s a list of common types of misinformation people may encounter online without even realizing it:
- Satire or parody: Doesn’t intend to cause harm, but has potential to fool
- False connection: Headlines, captions or visuals don’t support the content
- Misleading content: Frames an issue or individual by misleading the information
- False context: When content has false contextual information
- Imposter content: Impersonator’s
- Manipulated content: When real information is manipulated to deceive
- Fabricated content: Content that is 100% false to do harm
Another name for this is information disorder. Information disorder referring to the different ways our digital environment is imbalanced with MDM (Misinformation/Disinformation/Mal information).
Sources:
Antje. “Disinformation and 7 Common Forms of Information Disorder.” The Commons, 16 July 2024, commonslibrary.org/disinformation-and-7-common-forms-of-information-disorder/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22175621992&gbraid=0AAAAAClqxYggGu6AQQlUO_hIZm16YkB6B&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYLABhD4ARIsALySuCQyorAOI4phCX0Tji0Q0jk6Plb_SaYfDvHjmKGiaGYL2UNbI4BbwYwaAuQUEALw_wcB. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
Harrison, Justin. “LibGuides: Fake News: How Fake News Spreads.” Libguides.uvic.ca, University of Victoria, 9 Dec. 2022, libguides.uvic.ca/fakenews/how-it-spreads.
Jardine, Eric. “Beware Fake News.” Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2 Apr. 2019, www.cigionline.org/articles/beware-fake-news/?utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=grant&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1716904698&gbraid=0AAAAADsVJIdA1ST6Af23oovboljDU8D06&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYLABhD4ARIsALySuCQr4TlSmgK8V1qrQbYuik2MXpSHZlSY2s6FKtDnFdXfIku3VVeRqUsaAojlEALw_wcB. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
Martinson, Trevor. “LibGuides: Fake News: Categories.” Library-Nd.libguides.com, library-nd.libguides.com/fakenews/categories.
