How to Contain the Spread of Toxic Misinformation
Sociologist Jennifer Schradie explains what journalists can do to fight fake news
The Covid-19 pandemic and protests against police violence have created endless opportunities for the spread of misinformation. Stuck in their homes, many people spend their days glued to social media, trying to stay informed about all the things happening in our world. Those conditions make us especially vulnerable to what researchers have called an “infodemic,” where we have difficulty sifting through the flood of information to understand what is real or fake, trustworthy or unreliable, evolving fact or settled truth, information or disinformation.
Researchers like Jennifer Schradie, PhD, who is a sociologist and assistant professor at the Observatoire Sociologique du Changement at SciencesPo in Paris, can help us make sense of this challenge. The author of the book, The Revolution That Wasn’t: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives, Schradie looks at how inequalities, ideology, and institutions shape participation on social media and in our new information society.
Schradie spoke with GEN about the connection between information and trust, and what the news media can do to fight back against it.
