The Spread of False Information
We are able to view the world through thousands of different lenses. The ability to have different opinions circulating through our media day in and day out gives us the ultimate power of knowledge. As I’ve said before, technology has progressed our communication abilities to unimaginable heights. With the accessibility, there is no information we can’t find through the tips of our fingers. I recently wrote a blog post about understanding what makes a source reliable. Underneath the same tree comes the concept of false information. Though similar, we can take a step further and try and understand how and why false information is able to spread so easily throughout media.
The new day in age media has created an environment in which false information can thrive and spread just like a disease. This seems like common sense but how does the spread of false information truly work? Noah Tavlin gives a short lesson on a phenomenon called circular reporting. Tavlin states this as “when publication A publishes misinformation, publication B reprints it, and publication A then cites B as the source for the information” (Noah Tavlin). When one is looking for a reliable source, having many other sources reporting on the same topic can give a sense of verification to the news being reported. But, when all these sources are citing one specific source that brings false information, this creates the spread of misinformation across all of these sources even though they can seem true because many sources are stating the same thing. Now this is not always done on purpose as this kind of spread can feel like authentic news since multiple sources report on it. There is always a way to verify information and come to a conclusion if the source is full of false information or the truth. But, as Tavlin states, “our desire for quick answers may overpower the desire to be certain of their validity” (Noah Tavlin). We as humans are always looking to make our lives faster and more efficient. With this also comes to lack of logical thinking as we accept what comes to us first rather than taking a step back and gathering the information that is being handed to us to decide whether it be true or false information.
Now, technology is always going to be a looming factor for false information as the accessibility to information has never been so quick and easy. But I think as always, the true cause of false information has always come down to us as people. I agree with Tavlin completely as with quick and easy methods to the internet, we have become greedy for information whether it is true or false. Myself included have fallen victim to wanting information as quickly as possible without even thinking about if it is false information or not. False information surrounds our lives daily and we have become and will continue to be victim to its accessibility. The spread of false information will not slow down as how we gather information has become a continuous spiral and mix of verifiable and false information intertwined.
