5/21/2023 0 Comments Nytopinion 6 party quizRumors, conspiracy theories and hoaxes are nothing new. What is an ‘infodemic’ and why is it a problem?Īs a species, we’re hardwired to gossip. Did you verify it, or pause to consider the likely impact on everyone who saw it before you shared it? Don’t worry if you didn’t, that’s what this guide is all about. Think about the last thing you shared online. As publishers, we have a collective responsibility to make sure that the information we put out is accurate and based on facts. If we share something that inadvertently causes panic and sends someone out stockpiling for example, and that inadvertently deprives someone in greater need, our good intentions can backfire. And, without meaning to, we can cause harm. At the moment we have to think of ourselves as publishers because what we share can influence as much as any article or news report. But if we all do it, those ripples can become a tidal wave. When we’re sitting alone with our phone, reading WhatsApp messages or social media, hitting the share button feels like it would cause barely a ripple in the great scheme of things. Understanding the infodemic The impact of sharing How can I keep my head at a time like this?.How can I check if something’s credible or cooked-up?.Where does false information come from and why does it spread?.Just what on earth is an ‘infodemic’ anyway?.But if you do want to cover it all, you can expect to find answers to questions like: You don’t have to take it from start to finish, we’ve tried to make the guide snackable, so you can pick what feels most useful to you and dive in. So we’ve pulled this guide together to help you understand why misleading information gets shared so much and give you some practical tips, tricks and tools to help you double-check what you see online. Even though most of us have the best intentions, if we share the wrong thing then we could wind up doing more harm than good. It’s clear that we need good information now more than ever, and it’s never been more important to pause and consider what we see online – whether it’s a fake cure, funny meme or out-and-out conspiracy theory. There is a whirlwind of speculation, hoaxes, false information and misleading content at the moment, and we know that it can be very hard to know what to trust. The team at First Draft has pulled this guide together to help you separate the helpful from the harmful and find the reliable in the rumor mill during the current coronavirus crisis. We trust each other less, we fear each other more, and we struggle to understand how those on the other side of the political fence could possibly hold so many wrong-headed views.īut with today’s personalized social media feeds and our tendency to live in bubbles of like-minded friends, are we getting each other wrong? As part of its ongoing investigation into the root causes of political polarization, More in Common wanted to find out whether Republicans and Democrats could separate perception from reality.Īlmost two-thirds of Americans describe themselves as either Democrats or Republicans, and with every passing year each side seems to dislike the other more and more.Welcome to ‘Too much information’ – our guide to navigating the coronavirus ‘infodemic’. To learn how well Americans understand each other, we partnered with global research firm YouGov to survey 2,100 Americans. On issues including climate change, patriotism, sexual assault, police conduct and more, we asked Americans what they themselves believed and what they estimated people on the other side believed. We were then able to calculate the difference between the predictions and reality. The conclusion? Americans have a deeply distorted understanding of each other. We call this America’s “Perception Gap ”. Overall, Democrats and Republicans imagine almost twice as many of their political opponents as reality hold views they consider “extreme”. Even on the most controversial issues in our national debates, Americans are less divided than most of us think. This is good news for those worried about the character of this country. The majority of Americans hold views that may not be so different from your own. In one of the largest national studies of America’s polarization ever conducted, More in Common’s Hidden Tribes report identified seven political “tribes”: The Hidden Tribes of America Widest Perception Gap at Political Extremes So who has the largest Perception Gap? What factors might explain why one person has more distorted perceptions than another? Does this actually make us more hostile to each other, and what can we do about it? These are the questions we sought to answer. The Perception Gap study builds on these insights.
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