In a world without correct information, where the news outlets you thought you could trust are spreading lies and modern democracy is dead, only one thing is for certain; no one is safe. The Media of Misinformation have turned all U.S. citizens into mindless robots and their last mission is taking over the world. Our only hope left lays in the hands of two clumsy college girls. Can they save us all or is this the beginning of the end?
Okay, so perhaps the increase of misinformation in today’s modern mass media won’t cause evil media producers to take over the country, but it still should be an area of great concern for the U.S. and the world.
The United States is a country run by the people for the people, but yet how can a democracy work when there is a surge of misinformation, leading citizens to believe false claims? The answer is quite simple; to stop misinformation in its tracks, we need to arm people with the tools to pick out untrue statements in their day to day lives.
From political science researchers Swire, Berinsky, Lewandowsky, and Ecker, misinformation can be defined as incorrect information or falsehoods that is crafted to mislead. Misinformation’s entire job is to steer people to believe things that aren’t true by giving them false claims and facts.
This is a major problem for the United States since a democracy relies on educated and well informed voters to understand what the country needs and who to vote for. Misinformation is a deterrent from having voters who up to date on the current correct information because of falsehoods being distributed by the different forms of mass media, e.g. social media, televised debates, talk radio, etc.
On those mass media platforms, misinformation tends to exploit people’s pre-existing beliefs and biases by wording sentences to solidify their incorrect political opinions. Knowing that posts online are purposely created with falsehoods, citizens need to be wary about what they read and where they get their news from.
If the U.S. doesn’t have an educated general public, the elections cannot work as they are intended to; relying on voters with opinions backed up by true facts.
Researchers from Imperial College London, Data Science Institute and Universidad de Granada found that the misinformation on Twitter during the U.S. 2016 presidential election may have directly affected the outcome and who is currently running the country.
One might ask, why don’t we just create more messages that counteract and debunk the false claims? Results from a study showed that when people are presented with a counteracting message after the falsehood, they will continue to believe their pre-formed opinion based on the incorrect statements.
So how can we end the growth of modern misinformation when counteracting messages don’t work? Well first we need to stop trying to debunk the posts that have already spread like wildfire. As scientific data has shown, those messages are a lost cause. We instead should focus on equipping people with the tools they need to be able to tell if something is untrue when confronted with false claims.
For the future of the country, citizens need to be able to pick out misinformation in mass media on their own. Then and only then can the U.S. have a more educated public that bases their opinions on correct information. With the 2020 presidential election on the horizon this is now more important than ever before.
Great thoughts on your democracy story!! I can only hope many people agree with your ideals !!
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ReplyDeleteGreat store on Democracy. Well informed !!
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