During the past semester, I have been learning more about the concept of disinformation, and the practice of fact checking. I recognise that I was skeptical about the impact of online disinformation at the beginning of the semester, and while some of my cynicism is still valid, I have learned enough to realise what the true impacts of the spread of disinformation. I found the article about Russia and Ukraine (which I wrote about for Assignment 2) particularly alarming.
Do I still stand by my assertion that ‘disinformation’ is a more useful term than ‘fake news?’ I believe that ‘fake news’ is only able to refer to a single variety of disinformation – one that uses a serious tone and uses themes and tropes from traditional news sources. Disinformation, however, is more flexible and can be used for a broader range of pieces, such as doctored photos or videos, and falsified scientific studies; as well as the aforementioned fake news.
I believe that I have made a start on learning the fact checking process, though I feel like I can always benefit with learning more about it in my own time. I still largely use social media to consume the news; but I now make sure I double check the legitimacy of the sources and search for the headline to see if there are other reports on the subject (or to see if the article has already been debunked).
As for reverse-engineering disinformation, that’s a complicated one. I feel like my group used that idea for our concept for the major assignment, but without broadcasting it to a broader audience, I can only speculate on its success. I still believe that it is possible with the right message and messengers.
I feel like I have a lot of room for improvement though, particularly with attendance and keeping up to date with weekly readings and class discussion. While my friends seem to downplay the importance of doing the weekly work – especially when assignments are due, I feel like having a firmer grasp on that work would improve the quality of my assignments (including these reflections), as well as provide me some extra knowledge for after I finish the course.
I feel like I’m not the only one in class who struggles with class discussions though, especially while the course is online. Hopefully it will be easier to practice these things next semester.