Blog Post #10: EOTO Reactions (Misinformation and Disinformation)

    Awareness is a huge part of being in the media field. Being aware of things that could lead you wrong, like misinformation and propaganda, is an important thing that everyone should do. In my opinion, misinformation and disinformation are the big things to be aware of. 

    The difference between misinformation and disinformation is something that is important for everyone to know because it helps you understand the different ways that false information is spread. Misinformation is just false or inaccurate information that does not have any intention behind it. At the same time, disinformation is false information that is distributed with the intention to harm or mislead another person. Misformation is something that a lot of people do without meaning to. It is usually when people go around saying some information that is wrong, but they are presenting it as fact. The people who spread misinformation either get it from wrong or biased source or never looked at sources and got it from word of mouth. 

    The dangers of misinformation are that it leads to unnecessary fear, wrong interpretations of people, and misleading society. These are all important things that someone should be watching out for. Misinformation leads to unnecessary fear because when you share scary information, like peanut butter, it leads to arthritis. This could make people panicky because they are scared that peanut butter could hurt them. Another thing is that it leads to wrong interpretations of people that come from spreading misinformation. This is because someone who spreads misinformation can be seen as dumb or malicious. After all, they did spread this misinformation. They can be seen as dumb because they didn’t check their sources or look to see if what they said was correct. A person could be seen as malicious because people can see that person as someone who is trying to spread insufficient information and lead people in the wrong way. The last thing is that misinformation can lead to misleading society
. Misinformation can mislead society because it could cause a lot of people to follow inaccurate information. After all, they think it is correct.  

    The way to avoid misinformation is by doing a couple of things to check your sources as well as yourself. You should check the author or writer of the sources to see if they are creditable, basically checking to see if the whole source is creditable. You should watch that you are putting out the right information by double-checking what you are saying.