{"id":19797,"date":"2020-02-27T22:09:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T22:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=19797"},"modified":"2020-02-27T23:28:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:28:41","slug":"4-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/4-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-disinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"4 ways to protect yourself from disinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Stoycheff<\/a>, Wayne State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

You might have fallen for someone\u2019s attempt to disinform you about current events. But it\u2019s not your fault.<\/p>\n

Even the most well-intentioned news consumers can find today\u2019s avalanche of political information difficult to navigate. With so much news available, many people consume media in an automatic, unconscious state \u2013 similar to knowing you drove home but not being able to recall<\/a> the trip.<\/p>\n

And that makes you more susceptible to accepting false claims.<\/p>\n

But, as the 2020 elections near, you can develop habits to exert more conscious control over your news intake. I teach<\/a> these strategies to students in a course on media literacy, helping people become more savvy news consumers in four simple steps.<\/p>\n

1. Seek out your own political news<\/h2>\n

Like most people<\/a>, you probably get a fair amount of your news from apps, sites and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Apple News and Google. You should change that.<\/p>\n

These are technology companies \u2013 not news outlets. Their goal is to maximize the time you spend on their sites<\/a> and apps, generating advertising revenue. To that end, their algorithms use your browsing history to show you news you\u2019ll agree with and like, keeping you engaged for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

That means instead of presenting you with the most important news of the day, social media feed you what they think will hold your attention. Most often, that is algorithmically filtered<\/a> and may deliver politically biased information, outright falsehoods<\/a> or material that you have seen before.<\/p>\n

Instead, regularly visit trusted news apps and news websites<\/a> directly. These organizations actually produce news, usually in the spirit of serving the public interest. There, you\u2019ll see a more complete range of political information, not just content that\u2019s been curated for you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
If there are numbers, check the math yourself.<\/span>
\nPicsfive\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. Use basic math<\/h2>\n

Untrustworthy news and political campaigns often use statistics to make bogus claims \u2013 rightfully assuming most readers won\u2019t take the time to fact-check them.<\/p>\n

Simple mathematical calculations, which scholars call Fermi estimates<\/a> or rough guesstimates, can help you better spot falsified data.<\/p>\n

For instance, a widely circulated meme falsely claimed 10,150 Americans were \u201ckilled by illegal immigrants\u201d in 2018<\/a>. On the surface, it\u2019s hard to know how to verify or debunk that, but one way to start is to think about finding out how many total murders there were in the U.S. in 2018.<\/p>\n

Murder statistics can be found in, among other places, the FBI\u2019s statistics on violent crime<\/a>. They estimate that in 2018 there were 16,214 murders<\/a> in the U.S. If the meme\u2019s figure were accurate, it would mean that nearly two-thirds of U.S. murders were committed by the \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d the meme alleged.<\/p>\n

Next, find out how many people were living in the U.S. illegally. That group, most news reports and estimates suggest, numbers about 11 million<\/a> men, women and children \u2013 which is only 3% of the country\u2019s 330 million people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just 3% of people committed 60% of U.S. murders? With a tiny bit of research and quick math, you can see these numbers just don\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n

3. Beware of nonpolitical biases<\/h2>\n

News media are often accused of catering to people\u2019s political biases, favoring either liberal or conservative points of view. But disinformation campaigns exploit less obvious cognitive biases as well. For example, humans are biased to underestimate costs or look for information that confirms what they already believe<\/a>. One important bias of news audiences is a preference for simple soundbites, which often fail to capture the complexity of important problems. Research<\/a> has found that intentionally fake news stories are more likely to use short, nontechnical and redundant language<\/a> than accurate journalistic stories.<\/p>\n

Also beware of the human tendency to believe what\u2019s in front of your eyes. Video content is perceived as more trustworthy<\/a> \u2013 even though deepfake videos<\/a> can be very deceiving. Think critically about how you determine something is accurate<\/a>. Seeing \u2013 and hearing \u2013 should not necessarily be believing. Treat video content with just as much skepticism as news text and memes, verifying any facts with news from a trusted source.<\/p>\n