Wardle 2023 Issues Sci Technol
From Bioblast
| Wardle C (2023) Misunderstanding misinformation. Issues Sci Technol 39:38–40. https://doi.org/10.58875/ZAUD1691 |
Wardle Claire (2023) Issues Sci Technol
Abstract: An obsession with gauging accuracy of individual posts is misguided. To strengthen information ecosystems, focus on narratives and why people share what they do.
• Bioblast editor: Gnaiger E
Selected quotes
- Misinformation is the mistaken sharing of the same content.
- Like drops of water on stone, one drop will do no harm, but over time, grooves are cut deep.
- Right now, efforts to monitor disinformation often do overlapping work but fail to share data and classification mechanisms and have limited ability to respond in a crisis.
- Traditional science communication is still top down, based on the paternalistic deficit model, which assumes that experts know what information to supply and that audiences will passively consume information and respond as intended.
- Real improvement will be a decades-long process, and much of it will be spent playing catch-up in a technological landscape that evolves every few months, with disruptions such as ChatGPT emerging seemingly overnight. The only way to make inroads is to look beyond the neat diagrams and tidy typologies of misinformation to see what is really going on, and craft a response not for the information system itself but the humans operating within it.
