Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Disinformation, who decides?

Ever since the mainstream media found itself floundering in the new world of internet where anyone can speak to millions with the click of a mouse, we've been warned of "disinformation".

There was a time when separating reliable news from disinformation was easy.

The stuff you read in the newspaper, heard on the radio or watched on TV news was "information". The stuff Mrs Smith from down the road told you over a game of cards was likely just gossip and rumour -- therefore "disinformation".

Oh how times have changed!

Despite the claims of the mainstream news media and politicians, the reality is that you can't always trust what the old-school media is telling you and often, many inconvenient truths are uncovered through social media.

I'm not talking about the myriad of conspiracy theories that simple-minded people embrace and regurgitate without any semblance of fact-checking, I'm talking about whistle-blowers and individuals who become party to information that those affected by it would rather they didn't know.

In the wake of this era of freedom, where anyone can share their beliefs, knowledge and experiences with an audience measured in millions, it appears that mainstream media and governments are doing their best to discredit such sources, lest it impact their own profits or their ability to shape the public's perception of reality.

Take this RNZ story for example which claims "We're on the brink of a "tidal wave" of misinformation".

Is that really true?

To be fair, the story does clearly make the very valid point that "leaving it to the government to sort out won't work" and that's because, some would argue, the government is part of the problem. Over many, many decades, governments have used publicly funded broadcasters to "shape" the public's views and opinions. Given the chance they'll keep on doing that or worse.

It would be foolish to leave the fox in charge of the hen-house, surely?

So how do we deal with sorting valid information from that which is simply created to warp our perspectives and opinions?

Firstly... we must teach and encourage critical thinking within the ranks of the public.

To date, this has been seen as an undesirable thing by must governments -- for obvious reasons. Nobody wants the public to be encouraged to exercise skepticism towards the claims and promises made by their political overlords, do they?

However, now that governments and media-barons have lost the power to shape minds, perhaps it will indeed be in their best interests to wake up the sleeping masses to the need to challenge *everything* you are told and not to take any claims at face-value.

Now that we all have unfettered access to the entire knowledgebase that is the internet, there's no excuse for not carefully researching claims that may be important or crucial to your future. Also check out the bonafides of the sources you use -- because a good disinformation campaign will include the creation of seemingly reliable sources to cite.

The fly in the ointment here will be the proliferation of AI.

As people become increasingly reliant on AI to sort through the immense amount of data and information on the Net, they will also become increasingly vulnerable to the errors and deceptions that AI (or its owners) may choose to impose.

Do I have an answer this problem?

Not really.

Perhaps the wisest advice may be to "Trust nobody and challenge everything you are told until you're satisfied you have found the truth".

Carpe Diem folks!

Please visit the sponsor!

Here is a PERMANENT link to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font