Disinformation Awareness

What Works to Build Mental Immunity - #1 (of many)

This is the first post in our “What Works” series for educators and researchers.*

Kids need to be aware that disinformation and manipulative content await them online.

They need to think about why people post things. Who is behind the information? Why are they sharing it? Are they trying to influence me? When we don’t ask such questions, we remain vulnerable; when we do, we grow more independent and resilient.

Teachers can help students develop “disinformation awareness” – a healthy level of skepticism about online content. 

Applications

1. Use questions to cultivate disinformation awareness. For example: Do people put things online to get us to do stuff? Like what? Are they trying to help you or fool you? How can you tell when someone is trying to fool you?

2. Have students find and discuss online examples. Would you trust this source? Why?

3. Teach students to recognize the Tactics of Disinformation.¹

Source: How to Mitigate Misinformation (PNAS)

Notes

It’s important to understand the motive(s) behind the message. Signs of manipulative intent can be subtle, but resilient people pick up on them. Monitoring for underlying intent should become second nature. It’s important, though, that kids not become cynical or indiscriminately skeptical; there are many genuinely honest and helpful sources out there.

Many find these categories useful: “Misinformation misleads. It is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm. Disinformation deceives. It is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate... Malinformation sabotages. It is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” - CISA² 

Learn More

“Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it's learned may be crucial to Western democracy”³ 

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*We are open to incorporating feedback into these modules before we publish them on our website. Please use the commenting function below to provide suggestions. We are particularly interested in additional applications, resources, and readings. Even if we don’t add your suggestion to the finalized version we put on our website, your feedback may positively influence our approach to other work and we may share any resources or readings you suggest elsewhere. Thank you for engaging with our work!

1. https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/tactics-of-disinformation_508.pdf

2.   These are the definitions from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Information Manipulation infographic - https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/information_manipulation_infographic_508.pdf

3.  https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/europe/finland-fake-news-intl/