Lesson no.8: HOW TO RECOGNIZE A DISINFORMATION
Disinformation (when it is intentional) intentionally consists of false information whose aim is to manipulate the public.
Unlike the unintentional disinformation, the aim of the source of the intentional disinformation is to deceive, mislead or confuse the public, in accordance with their personal, ideological, political, religious or other attitudes and opinions.
A disinformation may be an entirely fabricated false information, i.e. entirely fictitious information and events. In that case, we talk about fake news.
However, the disinformation may also include real facts, i.e. it may be a mix of true and false information.
Examples of disinformation:
During the presidential election campaign, Lider published an article in which it intentionally manipulates the public. According to the unsigned authors of the text, the presidential candidate of SDSM and DUI, Stevo Pendarovski, included his family in the election campaign. Namely, according to the claims of the medium, Pendarovski employed his brother Vojche in the Agency for Intelligence, while the event is from 1999. The published data are not checked, nor are they confirmed by Stevo Pendarovski, or Vojche Pendarovski as interested parties.
In its press-release in which it condemned the attack on the colleagues from Television 21, the Macedonian Association of Journalists MAN has also included one disinformation. The threats, attacks and pressures increase on a daily basis. The Macedonian Association of Journalists, together with EFJ and IFJ conducts intensified monitoring of the media in the country, especially during elections, when journalist crews are often target to attacks, threats and violence from political activists. – this disinformation was denied by the mentioned associations.
The origin of the work “disinformation” is from Russia, more concretely from a Russian word used by KGB. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia it is defined as “false information whose aim is to manipulate the public opinion”. More information about the origin of the word “disinformation” can be found in the following F2N2 video.
Disinformation can appear in various forms. Depending on its aim and target audience, we distinguish the following categories:
Fake news
Conspiracy theory
Spin
Click-bait
Hate-speech
Regardless of the form, the aim of disinformation is to manipulate the public. That can have serious consequences upon the public in regards to the formation of attitudes and opinions, taking into consideration the fact that disinformation spreads easily and quickly, while for the general public it is very difficult to detect the manipulations.
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This project was funded in part through a U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the implementers/authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government.
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