an online book by David Gurteen
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."
In contrast, misinformation refers to inaccuracies that stem from inadvertent error. Misinformation can be used to create disinformation when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated. "Fake news" has sometimes been categorized as a type of disinformation, but scholars have advised not using these two terms interchangeably or using "fake news" altogether in academic writing since politicians have weaponized it to describe any unfavorable news coverage or information.
Credit: Wikipedia - disinformationWhat can we trust? Why is the ‘information ecology’ so damaged, and what would it take to make it healthy? video player The War on Sensemaking | Daniel Schmachtenberger (Rebel Wisdom) Comments Trusting Information The central message of this talk by Daniel Schmachtenberger is that we cannot trust any of the information in our global … Continue reading The War on Sensemaking I Daniel Schmachtenberger (2019)
Gurteen Knowledge Blog December 8, 2020, 11:37I recently came across this quotation that I rather loved, supposedly from Mark Twain. If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you are misinformed. I was a little suspicious of it as there are so many false quotes on the web, so I ran … Continue reading Would You Rather Be Uninformed or Misinformed? False quotations on the web
Understanding our Political Nature: How to put knowledge and reason at the heart of political decision-making Abstract Recognising that advances in behavioural, decision and social sciences demonstrate that we are not purely rational beings, this report brings new insights into our political behaviour and this understanding have the potential to address some of the current … Continue reading Understanding Our Political Nature EU Science Hub (2019)
Technology and Democracy: Understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making Abstract Drawing from many disciplines, the report adopts a behavioural psychology perspective to argue that “social media changes people’s political behaviour”. Four pressure points are identified and analysed in detail: the attention economy; choice architectures; algorithmic content curation; and mis/disinformation. Policy … Continue reading Technology and Democracy EU Science Hub (2020)
If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. … And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think … Continue reading The Consequence of Lies Hannah Arendt
Please stop saying you researched it. You didn’t research anything and it is highly probable you don’t know how to do so. Did you compile a literature review and write abstracts on each article? Or better yet, did you collect a random sample of sources and perform independent probability statistics on the reported results? No? … Continue reading Please Stop Saying You Researched It Linda Gamble Spadaro
Gurteen Knowledge Blog June 10, 2022, 11:38Look at this story about the Himba tribe of Namibia in Southern Africa, posted on LinkedIn. Hundreds of replies have commented on what a beautiful story it is. It IS a lovely story — maybe too sweet. When I read a story like this — I google it and add … Continue reading Himba Baby Song True or false?
Gurteen Knowledge Blog February 12, 2023, 13:18I’m a big fan of Christopher Hitchens, a larger-than-life personality. It’s a shame that he died so young, but his legacy continues on YouTube. I especially like his epistemological razor (a guide for evaluating the validity of knowledge claims.). In other words, the responsibility of proving the accuracy of a … Continue reading Christopher Hitchens’s Razor No not what he shaved with
Gurteen Knowledge Blog May 30, 2023, 10:58I was disappointed not to be able to watch this year’s Nobel Prize Summit on May 24th, which brought together laureates, leading experts and the public in a conversation on how we can combat misinformation and disinformation and restore trust in science and create a hopeful future. But, as I am … Continue reading Nobel Prize Summit 2023 Truth, Trust and Hope, 24-26 May 2023
There are no sources of information we can totally trust. We must conduct due diligence through thorough research and analysis. To make sound decisions and meaningful actions, we must avoid shortcuts and laziness, putting in the necessary effort. Credit: David Gurteen Source: Pollution of the global information ecosystemPosts where this quotation is embedded Embracing the Imperfections … Continue reading There Are No Sources of Information We Can Totally Trust David Gurteen
Distinguishing between misinformation and disinformation is crucial. Misinformation comes from those who genuinely believe what they say, while disinformation involves deliberate deception, cover-ups, or the spreading of falsehoods. Differentiating between them can be challenging, and even trusted sources may inadvertently spread misinformation. Credit: David Gurteen Source: Pollution of the Global Information EcosystemPosts where this quotation … Continue reading Distinguishing Between Misinformation and Disinformation Is Crucial David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge Blog December 29, 2023, 15:20In today’s world of misinformation and conspiracy theories, it can be hard to know who and what to trust. But as Joseph Shieber argues in this fascinating article, our ability to determine the truth may be more limited than we think. He suggests that rather than having an innate lie … Continue reading Finding the Truth in a Post-truth World Why we don’t really care about truth
The web is chock-full of various disinformation, including pseudoscientific disinformation that masquerades as being scientific. It also contains arrant nonsense, primarily about New Age beliefs that I term New Age mumbo jumbo. What is New Age mumbo jumbo? In addition, to pseudoscientific disinformation, there is disinformation on the web and elsewhere that relates to what … Continue reading New Age Mumbo Jumbo Confusing or meaningless language about New Age beliefs
The web is chock-full of various disinformation, including pseudoscientific disinformation that masquerades as scientific. Removing this disinformation may not be possible, but recognizing it is not too difficult. What is pseudoscience? Much written on the web is misinformation or disinformation (fake news) or simply misleading information in the sense that crucial facts have been deliberately … Continue reading Pseudoscience Lacks the rigor essential to the scientific method
The term “signal-to-noise ratio” is a useful metaphor when discussing the pollution of the information ecosystem with misinformation, disinformation, or situations where much of the information available is irrelevant. A signal-to-noise ratio is a measure most frequently used in science and engineering, comparing the level of a signal to the background noise level. But it … Continue reading Signal-to-noise Ratio The ratio of useful or true information to false or irrelevant data
Information pollution is the contamination of information with false and misleading material. Pollution of the info-ecosystem The quality of the information in our global information ecosystem is paramount. To reduce uncertainty and make good sensemaking and decision-making, we need to trust the things we read, the videos we watch, and the people we communicate with. … Continue reading Pollution of the Global Information Ecosystem The contamination of information with false and misleading material
