By Andy Brack | With so much misinformation, disinformation, fake news and outright untruths floating around these days in cyberspace, it’s easier than ever to get misled.
And because information jacklegs are trying to jack you up with bad information, something needs to be done about it. Otherwise, our democracy will suffer.
In the past, the news media have been the conduit for providing vetted, objective news and information to Americans so they can make decisions in our democracy. The newsgathering and reporting process disseminates information to help people pick candidates, decide on referenda, and hold their elected and appointed officials accountable. This is a fundamental responsibility of real news organizations not obsessed with clickbait.
But when the internet came along, all of the sudden individuals had the power to espouse information – and opinions – to the world. In the years since Al Gore invented it (that’s sarcasm, by the way), countless platforms have arrived that allow people to build new electronic communities – websites, Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, just to name a few that are popular now.
With these communities, there are people who use it for good, legitimate reasons to spread information and others (such as Russians and non-democratic authoritarians) who want to interfere with democracy and elections by spreading lies to undercut faith in truth and the American system of checks and balances.
So these days from the comfort of a laptop or a phone in a mall, anyone is a publisher who can spread anything you want. And now, there’s so much information to sift through that it’s almost impossible to figure out what is real and what is Memorex.
That’s why voters and consumers of news should take a basic media literacy course. Doing so will help them avoid being punked by bad actors on the Internet. And it will provide them with resources so they can discern the truth.
The nonprofit Poynter…
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