All disinformation is not fake news – The Times of India Blog

Earlier this week, a false news report from an Indian news agency was widely published in the Indian media. It spoke of the chances of an upgrade for Indias first medal clincher at the Tokyo Olympics, weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, from silver to gold. The report, citing an unnamed source, said that the Chinese athlete Zhihui Hou who had lifted her way to gold in the 49 kg category was being put through another dope test two days after the event, and if she failed, Chanu would be the gold medalist in her place.

For a country hungry for Olympic gold the last one came in 2008, thank you Abhinav Bindra the report was lapped up by newsrooms without verification. Perhaps because it was connected to the hopes of millions of Indians.

But thats what disinformation does. It plays on our emotions or biases, even desires. The report would classify as a specific category of disinformation: Fake News.

Two days later, the news agency clarified that the news was not correct, there had been no more dope testing and Hou would remain the gold medal winner. The clarification stopped short of apologising but said there had been an inadvertent error while reporting the news.

It was letting people know that the first report was based on false information. By definition, it was fake news: misinformation coming from a news outlet.

But the news agency clarified it was based on an error. And carried a report declaring it. (Because it felt accountable for the confusion it had caused, unlike most of the social media users who had circulated the information in different forms). So, it was just misinformation, not disinformation or fake news, that the agency released. A matter of nuance some would say, but it is not.

In the last three years, I have held over 30 training sessions or workshops mostly on fact-checking and news information, and a handful on media literacy for journalists, journalism students and members of civil society. And one thing that bothers me is that even journalists use the phrase fake news to refer to misinformation or disinformation.

It is a catchy phrase no doubt, but it simply scapegoats journalism for all the disinformation floating around us.

Fake news is either false information spread by the media or pseudo journalistic content masquerading as news. Disinformation is false information that is spread or distributed with the intent to deceive. Misinformation is false too, but the person or entity circulating (or forwarding it) believes it to be true and is misled into doing so.

So a grandmas health tip circulating on closed messaging apps talking about how turmeric or garlic will save you from Covid-19 is not fake news, unless it came from a news outlet. Neither is a flood video from Japan passed off as devastating scenes from Himachal Pradesh. It is likely just misinformation passed on by possibly well-meaning and unsuspecting people with poor information consumption habits.

Fake news was a term first used around five years ago and then made popular by the likes of former American president Donald Trump to discredit the US newsrooms or journalists raising questions on behalf of their readers, viewers and consumers. It became popular in no time because vested interests like Trump who would gain from discrediting the media often have large followings and deep networks.

The scene is not very different in India. Several of our own politicians and by extension, their followers have imbibed Trumps a journalist is a public enemy ideology, if the journalism she is doing does not propagate their version of the truth (or lies). Thats because the daily oversight that the organised media offers over those in power on behalf of the people who put them there can limit their otherwise unbridled powers.

Without an accountable media, which social media is not, there would be no reliable and verifiable daily scrutiny of people in power. The legislature, executive and courts at every level would become even more powerful and not necessarily in the most democratic way.

So each time you refer to a piece of disinformation or propaganda, or falsehood as fake news, when it is not, you are becoming an unsuspecting agent of the vested interests that want that oversight mechanism, the fourth estate, discredited to the point of becoming useless.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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All disinformation is not fake news - The Times of India Blog