The “Disinfodemic”
A survey conducted by the Journalism and the Pandemic Project identified that journalists across the world have been dealing with financial hardships and lack of support, while being a part of a wave of disinformation since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Journalism and the Pandemic Project is a collaborative research initiative from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) — and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. ICFJ is a nonprofit that aims to establish and empower a global journalistic network in order to produce news reports which build better governments, economies, and societies. The Tow Center for Digital Journalism’s main mission is to examine how technologies are interfering and changing today’s journalism in terms of reliability, standards, and credibility.
The vast amounts of disinformation being spread across all news platforms had caused a polarized and enraged micro-societies to emerge across the globe. These societies have negative outlook on a major number of topics related to the pandemic. Their negative outburst has had a devastating effect on truthful information in times where it is worth as much as gold. The surveyed journalists had identified Politicians and Elected officials alongside with State-linked “trolls” to be one of the most major spreaders of disinformation.
The wave of false or incorrect news has costed a lot to the public across the world, and a report by UNESCO has introduced the term “disinfodemic”. It combines all of the negative aspects of false information spreading and is considered more toxic and more deadly than just simple disinformation.
UNESCO has identified four key types of the disinfodemic which alter the understanding of COVID-19 related information and lead to blurring the consciousness of the normal person. The organization has pointed that the individuals or groups of individuals can be spreading disinformation in several ways. They range from emotive narrative constructs and fabricated websites or identities to altered or decontextualized images and videos, and disinformation infiltrators or orchestrated campaigns.
The severity of the disinfodemic has caused not only polarization and hate but in some situations UNESCO reports that people had died. This can be attributed to many reasons, such as desire for complacency or trying out “false cures”, yet the general reason is just as frightening. Both the Journalism and the Pandemic Project and UNESCO’s reports identify that the disinfodemic kills people by “duping” them and making them believe things that are neither scientifically backed nor approved.
However, an article by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) notes that regulating false information is not going to be an easy task. Even though in the past 7 years the number of journalists imprisoned on the accusation of “fake news” has risen, the interpretation of the term itself can be based on subjectivity. This is one of the main reasons why government officials will need to have an in-depth understanding of the topic in order to be able to regulate it.
Journalists from over 125 countries had reported that they have been working in a stressful environment, and over 30% of them had not even received the protective gear needed by their employers. The disinfodemic has had a negative impact on journalists’ reputation and credibility, and the economic recession has led them to financial hardships, however the ICFJ believes that the aftermath of the pandemic will lead to journalism being mission-driven and audience-centered public service.
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