Podcast for the Digital Literacies and 21st Century Skills course at Adelphi University's Educational Technology program.
Dani
Hello and welcome to the podcast for digital literacy. I am your first host, Dani, and I am joined by
Cassondra
Your second host, Cassondra.
Dani
And today we're gonna be talking to you about misinformation. So I guess first we should start with what is misinformation? Because I feel like a lot of people get it confused with disin, uh, disinformation.
Um, so. If you look up misinformation and disinformation on the American Psychological Association, misinformation is more the false or inaccurate information, I believe they worded it, whereas disinformation is like deliberately spreading false information. Right?
Cassondra
Yeah.
Dani
Um, so I guess, you know, going from that.
How does the human brain process the information? And to that, I turn to, there is an author and columnist that we learned about named, uh, Farhad Manjoo. Uh, and he quoted it, uh, in his bestseller True Enough from 2008 as something he called Selective Perception. Um, which, um, as a very, like, TLDR, it's, you know, even if two people or more than two people are witnessing the same thing, their experiences and, um, sort of sensory exposure to that thing will be different.
Cassondra
Right? Because each individual has their own confirmation bias, and we tend to, right? Look at the evidence that supports our own individual or worldview.
Dani
Right? So, uh, one of the examples he gives in his book is, you know, there was a study done between, um, two teams of, you know, the same sport. It was football, I believe. And so like, each, like, fans of each team were told to, um, sort of point out the flaws of that game. And even though each team was watching the same, uh, play-by-play, they pointed out flaws of the opposing team as opposed to their own team because they knew who they were rooting for.
Cassondra
Right.
Dani
Um, which, um, I think is also very interesting because even though these are studies that have been done, um, over, you know, decades now, it’s still very relevant today.
Cassondra
Oh, definitely. And after looking at these things, I kind of noticed it with me too. Okay. And definitely with the people all around me, right? Like, we all have our own individual bias, that we have these, so, such strong opinions and our selective perception on certain, like, uh, social views and, um, political views. Definitely.
Dani
Oh, yeah.
Cassondra
Like, trying to have a conversation with these people. It’s like, no, you didn’t read it this way. And they’re like, no, I did read it this way, but we’re looking at the same things and even though we’re getting different opinions on it.
Dani
Absolutely. And I, you know, to add to that, you know, from my personal experiences, I feel like a lot of it has to do with, um, this idea called, um, amplification. And I say that because we, a lot of times you get your information from a, a third party source, you get your information from the continuous spreading of this information. So I know for me personally, I’m on social media a lot, so I get a lot of my news on like X or Discord or even YouTube.
Cassondra
Right. And I think it was in one of the readings, I was shocked that they said, uh, you know, depending on your age, actually most people who get their information from media and are more likely to share false news on the media are actually older than 65.
Dani
Really?
Cassondra
Yeah. And the people who are less likely, um, are in the younger generation.
Dani
That’s really interesting because, like, again, this is just like my own personal experiences with these social medias. Like if you go on like YouTube and you look up like a conspiracy theory, for example, you’ll see that like, I feel like our generation, like the younger generation is so obsessed with like debunking.
Cassondra
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dani
So like, you know, even if misinformation spreads, like we are dedicated to like breaking it apart and debunking these false theories. And I think that’s especially true in, um, not only literature, but I feel like we see it a lot in Hollywood too.
Cassondra
Oh yeah, definitely. Especially when I was a, um, younger kid and actually looking at this, um, all through this, I was reminded of something as a kid and all growing up and, um, I’m gonna read you a quote from Frankenstein.
Dani
Go for it.
Cassondra
Um, so it goes, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe or how delineate the wretch whom, with such infinite pains and care I have endeavored to form. His limbs were in proportion and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful, great God. His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness. But these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips.”
Dani
You know, I’ve read Frankenstein before. It’s one of my favorites as a classic. And every single time I read it and I read that quote, I forget that he has yellow skin.
Cassondra
You know what? And you know, we’re all growing up and, you know, crazy when you’re going through this as a kid and you’re looking at all these things, where you forget that like Hollywood had this own like miscommunication or, you know, their own way they wanted to perceive, make you perceive this monster because he’s supposed to be a monster. So that’s how they wanted to communicate it. So they made him green with bolts in his neck and he had like stitched-up lips and short black hair. But when you think about the quote that I read from Mary Shelley, he is yellow-skinned with long black hair and he is built with these muscles and these arteries, and he’s supposed to be, in my opinion, kind of like a, um, punk rocker.
Dani
You know, it’s funny you say punk rocker ‘cause I was thinking, I was thinking he was supposed to be more of like a slightly spookier, like Fabio, you know? Like the guy, the guy had really long, like flowing, lustrous blonde hair. Um, yeah. So I know it’s like, Hollywood in itself has like this way of like taking certain points or taking certain information and like twisting it in a way where it becomes amplified, it becomes something it wasn’t supposed to be. And I wouldn’t call it disinformation because it’s not that they’re doing it intentionally, they’re just kind of remixing it into something they perceive as new and original. Um, but yeah, it definitely gets like misconstrued. Like the longer it stays that way.
Cassondra
Yeah. And then because of the media and kids growing up, like it just keeps getting spread. And spread and spread, like all the Frankenstein Halloween costumes that we see are green with bolts in the neck.
Dani
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Frankenstein costume with yellow skin. It’s always like they sell it in like a kit. It’s like the makeup kit.
Cassondra
With like the green makeup.
Dani
Yeah.
Cassondra
And long black hair.
Dani
And the, yeah.
Cassondra
But the also interesting thing about social media and the spread of all this misinformation and stuff is that we can also solve this problem, uh, with the media.
Dani
Right.
Cassondra
And frankly, um, I’m 29. I still haven’t read Frankenstein, and I wouldn’t have come across this quote if it wasn’t for somebody on social media being like, you know, he is not supposed to be green.
Dani
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like, I mean, when I am looking for new things to read—‘cause I’m an avid reader, I love to read.
Cassondra
Yeah, me too.
Dani
Um, so like the same thing, like someone will send me like a particular quote, like from the book that they know will hook me and then I have to go and find the original source, the original information.
Cassondra
I think, uh, that’s also another thing about social media, like where they have like these, um, fancy quotes and stuff, book quotes on like, you know, and pretty graphics.
Dani
Like the markup.
Cassondra
Yeah. Um, then I guess that makes some of us get like sucked into it more and then maybe go and look it up for ourselves. Mm-Hmm. Whereas if we were watching it on the news, we might not go and look it up because we’re just watching regular news anchors. They’re supposed to be feeding us information.
Dani
Right. Um, which I can go into a whole other discussion about how the news might be, uh, misinforming, but like, getting back to your point about like, you know, the way, how we would pay attention to it if it was on social media versus like a news anchor. You know, I think this really goes back to just like the, um, what we are talking about with, uh, Manjoo, the selective perception in a way because it’s how the information
is presented to us and how we as individual human beings receive that information and how we retain it.
Cassondra
Yeah. And also like, um, certain people are on different social media platforms for maybe different reasons, like—
Dani
Mm-hmm.
Cassondra
I’m always on Instagram ‘cause I wanna see everybody’s art and stuff.
Dani
Right.
Cassondra
So, um, I would not have come across that quote from Frankenstein if I wasn’t following an artist or a, um, book reader—
Dani
Who happened to like feature that quote?
Cassondra
Yeah.
Dani
Yeah, for sure.
Cassondra
Like I would’ve never come across that on Facebook, I don’t think.
Dani
For sure. I mean, a lot of what I see on my social media as well is just also because of my own hobbies. I’m a very big gamer, you know, I like to game and I like to, um, get into sort of the technological aspect of it. So like if someone had sent me something about like the fashion world for, for example, I wouldn’t even know where to start with it because that’s not my domain.
Cassondra
Right?
Dani
Yeah. So I feel like aside from like the different, you know, options we have for these platforms, you know, in and of itself they have their own subdomains of like, you know, this information is part of like this fandom, for example, or this information is part of like this interest group. And I think it’s a beautiful thing that they can meld together. But I think it’s almost like a game of telephone. Like the more something is said, the less to its true nature that it was.
Cassondra
Right. And I think that was in one of the readings for Spies context of misinformation where he was talking about like, even though everybody has like these different public spheres—
Dani
Spheres, yeah.
Cassondra
Is it, yeah, is it, does social media increase exposure to di—to diverse viewpoints or does it shuffle people into like-minded camps?
Dani
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because. You know, the more you shuffle, it’s almost like taking apart a puzzle. You know, the more you shake the box and you get the pieces all mixed up, it’s gonna take a lot longer to—as we were saying before—like debunk or get to the original source information.
Cassondra
Right. And I feel like those people who are looking for the diverse information or are more likely to go look up maybe the truth or where the original information came from, they’re more likely to look at different, uh, echo chambers or different social media camps, if you will, on their own. Like people who don’t care about debunking information, have no idea how to research their own information, are just gonna keep going to the same old social media platforms over and over again.
Dani
Do you think that’s why in studies we’ve noticed that people who are older, a certain age don’t really like get into the debunking, like, social circles? Like they just kind of accept the information as it’s given to them because they don’t know necessarily how to access those resources?
Cassondra
I think it’s also because they don’t know how to access it, but also because like they also don’t know like how to navigate the technology or where to find it. Like they’ve always found it—
Dani
Hmm.
Cassondra
Information on the TV through the news or through the newspaper. And I feel like those sources, they’re very one-sided.
Dani
Yeah, for sure. And I feel like, you know, as we get older, we almost become creatures of habit. So even though—
Cassondra
Oh yeah.
Dani
Yeah. So like even though like the method of presenting this information on television, let’s say, has evolved over time, people might not necessarily be able to evolve with it. And I think that’s a major like contribution to the spread of misinformation.
Cassondra
And I also think as you get older, your viewpoints on the world kind of like solidify more, especially as you get to like 65 and older. Like it said, the younger groups are more likely to not spread information and to go look up everything.
Dani
Right.
Cassondra
But between the ages of say 18 and 25, you’re changing a lot and your viewpoints are changing a lot.
Dani
Yeah.
Cassondra
So I wonder if that has to do with like, that’s why most of us are able to go back and maybe retract or find different information. ‘Cause we’re exploring ourselves as well.
Dani
Yeah, for sure. Um, you know, like we were—like you said—like, you know, I feel like older people are more sure of themselves, so they’re more confident in their ability to sort of retain and transcribe this information, where someone who’s younger is like, wait, this doesn’t sound right. What if I looked up this? And it’s almost like they’re again, trying to look up the information in a way that fits their viewpoint.
Cassondra
Yeah. And I wonder if that also has to do because they’re still in public, um, education.
Dani
Oh, yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s another topic we could go into. We could go into another like half hour on that topic alone, but yeah, definitely like social circles, political circles, um, but—
Cassondra
Even just like the education system on its own. Now we know the education system sometimes, depending on the curriculum and who’s making the curriculum, that they might leave some stuff out.
Dani
Mm-hmm.
Cassondra
Um, especially when it comes to our history textbooks, which is another form of miscommunication that maybe we haven’t delved into in this, uh, class, but it really is like a big part of miscommunicating. Like choosing to not put certain things in our history textbooks, um, or the curriculums for the children. ‘Cause that’s where they are, seven, eight hours a day.
Dani
Yeah, for sure. And just to very, uh, quickly add, because I actually have friends who are like overseas, and it’s very interesting when you compare, like, let’s say the American Revolution. Like we know what we read in our textbooks and it’s like, ah, America’s great and ah, no tax without representation. And then like you go to like, you know, someone in Great Britain who’s reading about like this, like these American, like upstarts. Like it’s a completely different perception.
Cassondra
Yeah.
Dani
And it’s just very interesting.
Cassondra
And also I think, uh, a lot like you said with overseas.
Dani
Yeah.
Cassondra
Uh, it definitely depends on what soil and what country you’re in and what their go—how the government might be regulating something.
Dani
Well, it’s like that old idiom, the victor’s right. The history kind of—
Cassondra
Yeah.
Dani
For sure. Well, I think that is about all the time we have today.
Cassondra
I think so.
Dani
So we’re gonna sign off here. Once again, my name was Dani.
Cassondra
And I’m Cassondra.
Dani
And we thank you for listening to this podcast.