VIDEO: Fighting misinformation during COVID-19 and Election 2020 webinar

Written By Suzanne Struglinski

A pandemic of misinformation has broken out alongside the coronavirus. Communities across the world are dealing with competing information sources that are undermining life-saving advice from public health officials, not to mention rumors about protests and the 2020 elections. In this JAWS webinar, you will learn how to identify and correct the misinformation that you find. 

Moreover, immigrant communities are uniquely impacted by the coronavirus and misinformation that spreads as quickly as the infection. In this webinar, you will also learn how to better connect with immigrant communities by helping them fight misinformation and keep their families safe and informed. 

Watch the webinar here:

Our presenters

Sandra Fish is a past JAWS president working as a 2020 First Draft News fellow while also covering campaign finance and elections in Colorado.

Mazin Sidahmed is the co-founding editor and senior reporter at Documented, a non-profit news site devoted solely to covering New York City’s immigrants and the policies that affect their lives.

Tips

Resources/tips to track disinformation

  • Disinformation is intentionally misleading

  • Misinformation is when people share disinfo without realizing it’s untrue

  • Malinformation is when people share genuine information intending to do harm

7 types of misinformation

  • Satire/parody

  • False connections

  • Misleading content

  • False context

  • Imposter content

  • Manipulated content

  • Fabricated content

How it circulates

  • Social media groups, open and closed

  • Closed messaging apps

  • Memes/visuals are popular delivery methods

  • Often involves a kernel of truth

Tools to monitor

Boolean queries

When searching on Google, Twitter or Tweetdeck:

  • Use connectors AND, OR & -

    • Fireworks AND Denver

    • (Fireworks OR explosions) AND Colorado

    • Fireworks -Colorado

  • Use “quotes for a string of words”

  • Parentheses let you combine AND/ORs

  • Use me, my, I - personal words - for first person accounts

Think about the words you use:

  • Make a list of keywords and expand it

  • Keep in mind that different communities use different terms for similar things (vote-by-mail vs. ballot harvesting)

  • Look at your search results and determine if there are other words you need to add (#pewpew and #pewpewlife are popular among gun people)

An example: (Colorado OR Denver) AND (protest OR riot OR police) AND (me OR my OR I OR we OR us OR our) 

What journalists can do

  • Create evergreen content on topics that might be a problem and keep promoting it when the need arises.

  • It’s a good idea to consider the tipping point before addressing misinformation. Don’t promote content that isn’t going anywhere.

  • Don’t repeat falsehoods in attempting to rebut them. Lead with the truth.

  • Keep content about misinformation as simple and straightforward as possible.

  • Don’t belittle or talk down to people in debunking falsehoods (i.e., mocking QAnon).

Other resources

Suzanne Struglinski
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