Explore the phenomenon: Misinformation

Learning material about misinformation, which is false, incomplete or strongly biased information that the person sharing the information considers to be correct. With the help of the text, video and tasks, find out what the teacher and the student need to know about this phenomenon.

critical thinkingdisinformationmisinformationNew Literaciesphenomenonsocial media
Age group:
AdultsAges 13 to 17
Learning environment:
Secondary schoolVocational school and upper secondary school
Author:
National Audiovisual Institute

cock-up, mistake, supposition, rumour, bias, botch-up, misunderstanding, belief, gossip…

WHAT IS MISINFORMATION?

The truthfulness and motives of the information distributor are described using three concepts:

  • Misinformation refers to wrong, incomplete or strongly biased information, which the distributor considers correct. A person who disseminates misinformation does not do so in order to mislead anyone. Misinformation is often shared due to lack of knowledge or sometimes inadvertently.
  • Disinformation refers to consciously disseminated wrong information and malevolent lying.
  • Malinformation refers to the spreading of truthful information with malevolent intent.

Misinformation is a more common and serious problem than intentional lying (i.e. disinformation). On the internet, disinformation turns into misinformation when people share information that was created with malicious intent without reflecting or checking its veracity.

Misinformation is a problem that social media and the human mind have to cope with

On social media, misinformation spreads six times faster than genuine information. This is because false claims are surprising and therefore have emotional appeal. The architecture of social media accelerates the spreading of unreliable knowledge and rumours since algorithms highlight sensational and appealing content. Correcting false information is difficult since publishing a correction in various networks does not reach all those who saw the original message and even if it does, people tend to remember the original, wrong information better.

The human mind is highly susceptible to misinformation. People make mistakes and also misremember things, particularly when they are in a hurry. Cognitive biases which guide our thinking make people selective about the types of content they trust and strengthen their prejudices and world view. Social media is quick to give us an illusion of superiority: finding information is so easy that people overestimate their own ability to evaluate its reliability. People are also lazy thinkers – they do not bother to check or reflect on what they read. In addition, people have a strong need to belong to a group. Some people on social media share content that they know will appeal to their own reference group without paying attention to the veracity of the information.

Combatting misinformation requires good media literacy, self-knowledge and emotional skills

Wrong information may always have serious consequences. For example, false rumours on social media have sparked numerous persecutions and acts of violence targeted at ethnic groups. Due to misinformation related to health care, many people have refused to get vaccinated. Misinformation exacerbates conflicts between people, destabilises society and weakens people’s trust in news media, politicians and authorities.

Combatting false information is the responsibility of every media user. It requires diverse competences related to critical media literacy. In addition to teaching news literacy, technological literacy and knowledge of the principles of attention economy of social media, students need be taught the ability to understand how people think and how they themselves react as social media users. Since misinformation is designed to target people’s emotions, possessing self-reflective emotional skills is crucial. On social media, combatting misinformation requires self-discipline – the critical questioning of one’s own thoughts and feelings.

Text: Elina Tolonen, Tampere University

Image: Siru Tirronen

The media landscape of children and young people keeps changing, with new phenomena following each other back-to-back. Providing pupils with tools for understanding and processing these phenomena is important. This learning package is part of Pathways to New Media Phenomena – Information and Exercise Materials Series. The series includes information and exercises for the teacher and the pupils. You can explore new phenomena in a meaningful way with the help of the How to discuss new media literacy phenomena through pedagogical means method. 

CC BY 4.0

Material for the teacher

  • In the video, the researcher Elina Tolonen from Tampere University explains what misinformation means, what consequences the spreading of incorrect information may have and how misinformation can be combatted. The video has English subtitles.

    Consider the following questions:

    What should the pupils know about misinformation and why?

    What tools could be provided through teaching to combat misinformation?

     

    Questions to reflect upon: National Audiovisual Institute, KAVI

  • Exercise for the pupil Dolphin video as misinformation

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people shared a YouTube video about dolphins swimming in the Venice canals after tourists had deserted the city. However, the video was shot 750 kilometres away on the coast of Sardinia, which meant that the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio, for example, had to later publish a correction to their story. The people who shared the video believed it to be true, and their intention was not to mislead their followers. This was a case of misinformation.

    Think about why misinformation about the dolphins spread so quickly. Consider the content and timing of the video, the media environment as a whole as well as the various actors in it. Would it have been possible to recognise the video as misinformation? Could a seemingly harmless video cause problems?

    Links:
    Dolphin video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv0DLTVfwIc

    Yleisradio’s dolphin story: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11265342

     

    Discussion support on the dolphin video for the teacher

    Why did misinformation spread so quickly?

    • Video content: The video was surprising and aroused various emotions. People want to offer interesting and fresh content for their friends on social media. The people who share content get pleasure from the likes and attention they receive.
    • Time of release: A lot of both positive and negative misinformation has been shared during the pandemic. That is why the Covid-19 pandemic has sometimes been called an information epidemic. During the pandemic, people have been anxious and craving for hope and positive news. They wanted to believe in the dolphin video, because they needed to think that something good could come out of the pandemic. When people believe in misinformation, it may not be because the information is presented in a particularly convincing way but because people may, for one reason or another, have a desire to believe in incorrect information.
    • The video was shared in peer networks – on social media, people tend to believe the content their own friends share. Recommendations by friends are automatically considered a guarantee of the truthfulness of the information.
    • The information was nice fact checked. Most people did not check other source to see whether the information was correct. On social media, a lot of content is shared as a knee-jerk reaction and based on emotions.
    • Social media services highlighted the video. Algorithms that analyse the activity of social media users identified the video as popular and began highlighting it in the users’ feed. This led to the video getting even more attention.
    • The video was picked up by the news media. The news media often picks up topics that receive a lot of attention on social media. This is how the dolphin video ended up on Yleisradio’s web pages. Through these pages, the video reached an even wider audience, and the news media was seen as a guarantee for reliability.
    • Something else?

     

    How could the content have been recognised as misinformation before it was shared?

    • Google’s reverse image search: tracing the digital footprint of an image. The search returns a corresponding picture from Sardinia.
    • Google’s word search: are there any other news or discussions about the topic? For example, when using the search terms Venice, dolphins & video, the first search result is a website that mentions that the video is not genuine.
    • There are fact checking services online that combat misinformation.
    • Misinformation is often questioned on social media, so it is a good idea to keep an eye out for related discussions elsewhere.
    • Comment sections on videos. Many people leave comments on the misinformed original post, so tips on misinformation can be found in the comments section.
    • Miscellaneous: Always check at least the date and source of a story. Lots of old news are shared online, and their use as justification in a new discussion can be interpreted as misinformation. It is important to keep in mind that the fact that there are many stories about a particular subject is not necessarily an indication of its veracity. Ten articles about a topic may still be wrong.

     

    What problems can sharing a seemingly harmless video about dolphins cause?  

    • The sharing of positive misinformation also weakens people’s trust in the communication of information. In the current media environment, many people mistrust all kinds of information production. Even harmless videos like the dolphin video may increase people’s trust in the news media and communication. They promote the idea that “you cannot trust anything anymore” or that “the news media is full of fake content”. Therefore, no misinformation is completely harmless.
    • Vulnerability in a crisis. Particularly in a crisis like the pandemic, fostering false hopes can be detrimental. Many people felt insecure and vulnerable. When a piece of good news turns out to be misinformation, it can lead to a sense of disillusionment. A person may feel even more hopeless than they would have, had they not heard about the news at all.
    • Something else?

    Text: Elina Tolonen, Tampere University

  • Teachers do not need to be experts and skilled at everything. Having a good control over one’s own speciality and pedagogics and being curious and enthusiastic about learning new things provide a great starting point for tackling new media phenomena. Approach to processing new media literacy phenomena encourages you to use your own expertise and competence when working with various phenomena.

    Examine the model and consider the following questions:

    • Based on your experience, what challenges does discussing new media literacy phenomena entail?
    • What things support the discussing of new phenomena in your own work?
    • How would you utilise the model to discuss the phenomenon at hand?

  • Media literacy is a transversal competence, whose promotion is required by the core curriculum of basic education (2014).

    The objectives based on the core curriculum have been expressed separately for each school grade in the national descriptions of media literacy (the New Literacies development programme 2021). Basic education concerns the descriptions of good and advanced competences. The descriptions clarify the meaning of media literacy and the related objectives expressed in the core curriculum texts. The descriptions have been divided into three main areas: media interpretation and evaluation, media production and acting in media environments. You can learn more about the descriptions here.

    Consider the following questions:

    • How is the phenomenon under discussion structured in the media literacy competence descriptions?
    • What kind of media literacy skills do the pupils learn in connection with discussing the topic?

  • You can refer to the materials of KAVI and the New Literacies development programme for support in the promotion of media literacy.

    Media Literacy School (mediataitokoulu.fi) The Media Literacy School website brings together various learning resources and materials for the media education purposes of different age groups also in English.

    The page Media Literacy School – New Literacies brings together a range of materials that were created within the development programme to support the media education of basic education. The materials produced in the programme can be found on the open learning materials website at AOE.fi.

Material for the pupil

  • cock-up, mistake, supposition, rumour, bias, botch-up, misunderstanding, belief, gossip…

    WHAT IS MISINFORMATION?

    Misinformation refers to false or incomplete information, which the distributor of considers correct or which they share by mistake. A person who disseminates misinformation does not do so in order to trick or mislead anyone. Misinformation is shared due to lack of knowledge or sometimes inadvertently.

    Misinformation is not the same thing as disinformation, which refers to intentional lying and malicious spreading of false information. The terms fake news and disinformation are often heard in public discourse, but on social media misinformation is a more common problem than conscious lying.

    Misinformation is a problem that social media and the human mind have to cope with

    On social media, misinformation spreads six times more quickly than correct information. Social media services accelerate the spreading of unreliable knowledge and rumours since the algorithms that track the users’ activity highlight sensational and appealing content. Misinformation makes sharing appealing, because the false claims are surprising and appeal to our emotions.

    Many people on social media share content quickly, almost as a knee-jerk reaction. They do not check other sources to see whether the information they share is true. People also crave acceptance: people on social media often share content that their followers like. Social media thrives on competition over attention and not everyone cares about the veracity of the content they share as long as the post gets lots of likes.

    The human mind is highly susceptible to misinformation. People make mistakes and also misremember things, particularly when they are in a hurry. Cognitive biases which guide our thinking make people selective about the types of content they trust and strengthen their prejudices and world view. Social media is quick to give us an illusion of superiority: finding information is so easy that people overestimate their own ability to evaluate its reliability. After reading a couple of articles, some people may think that they know as much about a topic as an expert who has studied and educated themselves in the topic for several years.

    Combatting misinformation is the responsibility of every media user.

    Even though sharing strange claims or social media gossip may seem harmless, misinformation may always have serious consequences. False rumours on social media have sparked acts of violence and persecutions targeted at ethnic groups in several countries around the world. Due to misinformation related to health care, many people have refused to get vaccinated. Misinformation exacerbates conflicts between people, destabilises society and weakens people’s trust in news media, politicians and authorities.

    Combatting misinformation requires critical media literacy skills and self-knowledge Because misinformation appeals to your emotions, you need to be able to recognise and control your feelings and learn how the human mind works. On social media, combatting misinformation requires self-discipline: before sharing content, stop to think why you want to share something and how likely it is to be true. You need to be careful when it comes to sensational social media content, because heated and quick discussion increases the likelihood of misinformation.

     

    Text: Elina Tolonen

  • Dolphin video as misinformation

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people shared a YouTube video about dolphins swimming in the Venice canals after tourists had deserted the city. However, the video was shot 750 kilometres away on the coast of Sardinia, which meant that the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio, for example, had to later publish a correction to their story. The people who shared the video believed it to be true, and their intention was not to mislead their followers. This was a case of misinformation.

    Think about why misinformation about the dolphins spread so quickly. Consider the content and timing of the video, the media environment as a whole as well as the various actors in it. Would it have been possible to recognise the video as misinformation? Could a seemingly harmless video cause problems?

     

    Links:
    Dolphin video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv0DLTVfwIc

    Yleisradio’s dolphin story: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11265342

     

    Text: Elina Tolonen, Tampere University

  • Think about your social media use during the past week.

    Is it possible you accidentally shared misinformation with your followers?

    In what situations could you be susceptible to sharing incorrect information?
    Do you get angry quickly? Do you get excited by strange claims? Do you want to gain a lot of social media followers? Do you like to provoke others? Do you share content that your friends share first?

    After answering these questions, create a list of instructions for yourself. It should include three warning triangles which will help you avoid sharing misinformation in the future.
    Begin the list with words such as Do not… Remember to… Be careful about…

     

    Text: Elina Tolonen

    1. What is happening in the picture, in terms of misinformation?
    2. What feelings can you notice in the picture? Which types of situations are the feelings related to?
    3. Identify various symbols in the picture. What do they signify in the picture?

    Image: Siru Tirronen

    Text: National Audiovisual Institute KAVI