The Role of Social Media
Disinformation agents create emotional content meant to provoke people to click, share, comment or retweet it. Unfortunately, social media platforms’ business models are based on algorithmic promotion of content for engagement and optimization of ads.
“When you prioritize for engagement, you’re not prioritizing for truth.”
Researchers are doing a lot of interesting work around the role that social media plays in the disinformation landscape. Because this tool is for communicators, it is specifically focused on a few aspects that are important for communicators to understand, both to see how your role could actually cause disinformation to spread and also because your communication strategy may include platform accountability advocacy. This should not be considered a complete synthesis of the vast research landscape. This tool includes additional studies in the Resources section if you want to learn more.
01 Misinformation vs. Disinformation.
Explore the difference between misinformation, disinformation and fake news.
02 Why Disinformation is So Hard to Debunk.
Disinformation is particularly dangerous because the falsehoods are often very sticky, meaning they stay in our memories. The module covers the psychology behind what makes disinformation sticky.
03 Narratives and Framing.
As communicators, we can’t effectively combat disinformation without examining the larger communication ecosystem within which it thrives.
04 Harmful Techniques and Rhetorical Strategies.
Disinformation is spread through a variety of techniques to manipulate journalists, social media algorithms and users alike into amplifying it. This module details a few techniques that we as communicators should be aware of so we can prevent that amplification and also discredit the techniques when we see them used.
05 The Role of Social Media.
Disinformation agents create emotional content meant to provoke people to click, share, comment or retweet it. Unfortunately, social media platforms’ business models are based on algorithmic promotion of content for engagement and optimization of ads.
06 Recognizing our Role.
We all play a role in spreading disinformation online and offline, so we all need to learn how to recognize it and prevent its amplification.
07 The Role of the News Media.
The media plays an incredibly important role in society, and their job is not easy. But they also play a role in amplifying disinformation and the harmful narratives that prop it up.
08 Start your Comms Strategy.
Just Truth covers a lot of important background information that will inform an effective communication strategy against disinformation. Now let’s talk about what we as communicators and nonprofit practitioners can do to address disinformation.
