The New State of the News: Confronting Misinformation in the Digital Age

Abstract

The circulation of misinformation is nothing new; it has been around for centuries in the form of information manipulation, rumor-spreading, and state-sponsored propaganda. So why now, in the digital age, have we just acknowledged and grown deeply concerned about something that society has always experienced? The answer might be in the question itself: As technology advances and becomes more easily accessible, individuals are able to access unlimited raw information as well as platforms where one can express oneself with the entire world as their audience. Concurrently, the same cognitive processes one uses during information evaluation in the non-digital sphere are also adapted to help individuals contemplate material found online. This phenomenon, broadcasted to a global audience and framed and processed with political and personal motivations, will inevitably produce misinformation. When an individual consumes misinformation, the impacts are not necessarily known in their day-to-day lives, but it can have serious social consequences at the macro level. To confront the spread of misinformation, this report explores its causes and devises solutions to remedy its consequences through three perspectives.