Misinformation and Fake News is something that we can possibly encounter on a daily basis. In simple terms, misinformation is information that is outright untrue and fictitious. What you may be wondering is why people tend to spread misinformation within communities, while there is no clear answer to this question, there are some possibilities. One possibility is that the people spreading misinformation simply just want people to suffer from the consequences of it. For example the American Psychological Association states that "Misinformation on COVID-19 is so pervasive that even some patients dying from the disease still say it’s a hoax. In March 2020, nearly 30% of U.S. adults believed the Chinese government created the coronavirus as a bioweapon.". The effect of this misinformation is that people are dying because they are believing that COVID is a hoax, when it quite clearly isn't. The rhetorics that most misinformation spreaders use is bandwagon, as by showing people that a lot of other people believe in the misinformation, people are more likely to believe in it.
[1 image, 1 link, 1 quotation, 173 words]
Comments