It is known and studies show that the impacts from the spread of misinformation or disinformation online have a serious negative effect on our society as a whole. The spread of misinformation and disinformation are all becoming more and more widespread and harder to spot, causing a lot of mistrust and confusion. It is important that we all take an active role in our own digital media literacy and luckily, there are quite a few good resources out there, both educational and fun, geared up at teaching us how to recognize it.
The intended audience for this Infographic about spotting and stopping the spread of Misinformation is for anyone using social media or other digital information outlets who may be interested in learning more about having an more informative and safe digital media experience. It could also be used in a school setting as a quick reference tool about misinformation or digital media literacy.
I chose to create an infographic because it is a simple and easy to read and understand format. There are minimal graphics and the information is short and to the point. It can be saved to a computer, to your phone or even be printed as a poster, for quick reference. On the first page, the infographic highlights key points to look for and gives brief explanations for each. The second page gives important fact-checking website resources, a quick rundown of how to use Lateral Reading and an overview of the 8 Trust Indicators.
The main references I used in addition to the information learned throughout this course were The Trust Project Website, to highlight the 8 Trust Indicators; a webpage from the site of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism which gives great Fact Checking Resources as well as an article about Lateral Reading from the ScienceofBoosting.org – website that discusses a policy approach that targets people’s competences and thereby helps people make good, informed decisions by and for themselves.