Navigating the Misinformation Maze: Engaging Communities Amid Disinformation Challenges
At a recent consultation, an engaged community member left me startled by saying that ‘15 minutes cities were a gateway to the Chinese Communist Party ruling the world’. Many of you will have had similar situations where the conversation has been hijacked by something which feels so outlandish you are not sure how to respond. We have entered a world where misinformation and disinformation are steadily growing, and cannot be ignored. It has got me thinking about how the nature of our work is transforming. After reflecting on this moment and many similar, I believe our best path is to continue to show up in these fringe spaces, and listen because the consequences of being absent pose a threat to the broader community and how big decisions are made.
The spread of misinformation and disinformation is a major factor in our social and political landscape today. As we have observed in recent years, misinformation can have significant impacts on our ability to make decisions and organise ourselves as a cohesive society. This has affected our ability to communicate and work together on some of the big issues we face; supporting public health, addressing climate change, maintaining a stable democracy, ensuring rights and responsibilities.
‘Misinformation is false or inaccurate information—getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the fact’ (APA 2024). We have seen a lot of this lately in Melbourne for example; false claims about Covid-19 vaccines posted by people who intended to mislead are shared by people on social media who believed them and thought they should pass the message on. Disinformation and misinformation feed each other, often leading to confusion and disharmony. It’s very hard to get things done and be nice to each other in this kind of environment.
A couple of weeks back, Conversation Co attended a panel discussion for the Global Health Summit entitled ‘Misinformationitis’, on the role of misinformation in health messaging. The panel discussed how misinformation and disinformation have become a pervasive factor in our current global context and what we can do about it. We were inspired to go along to the discussion because as engagement practitioners, we are also navigating this murky world where finding the facts and communicating the truth with communities is becoming more and more challenging. As community engagement practitioners we are responsible for communicating messages from the public to decision makers and vice versa. Building trust, navigating diverse worldviews, managing conflict and facilitating collective approaches to the issues we face; from a bike lane to the care of our elders are things we try to do daily. Navigating this world is tough enough without the spread of mis/disinformation.
This phenomenon is showing up in our work more and more. To share an example; in a recent engagement event, I was chatting with the community in a park about how they like to use play spaces and public green space. Participants were mostly engaged in conversations about slides, sandpits, plantings and the things they love about their local parks. One participant raised the idea of the ‘15 Minute City’, to which I was pleased; we had an urban planner to offer some interesting insights about walkable neighbourhoods. To my surprise, the participant then launched into discussion about how the 15 Minute City is a tool of surveillance and will eventually lead to the total world domination by the Chinese government. This was a difficult conversation to manage and steer back to ‘reality’, particularly when other participants decided to weigh in. Situations like these that I have encountered have led me to question:
What is reality?Is it my place to make assessments about someone else’s reality?How does one person’s reality impact others and what are the implications of this?
The rapid spread of mis/disinformation is wrapped up in a lot of things: our complex, changing and unregulated media environment, technology advancement, a (not unfounded) declining sense of trust in institutions and authorities, disenfranchisement, disenchantment and a ‘post-truth’ era in politics. This cultural moment has seen the decline in the traditional ways of doing politics and civic engagement. This presents a wonderful opportunity but also many risks.
Mis/disinformation is pervasive and each day we navigate many instances where we have to make up our minds about what constitutes fact or reality. The panel members pointed to the concept of ‘pre-bunking’; improving media literacy and critical thinking, particularly in young people, to support navigating this landscape to make informed choices. Panel members also suggested the codesign of new and retrofitted media and information spaces to support rigorous conversation and fact-checking. What I am stumbling upon here as an engagement facilitator, is how to support that codesign session with such a fragmented room of people. How do you get to the heart of an issue for folks travelling in such different worlds? How do you keep others in the room safe? How can we engage in respectful debate with contribution from all sides?
Mis/disinformation spreads easily because often the information presents simple answers to complex problems, with confidence (Brody 2024). It is no surprise that people find these worldviews easy to adopt when facing 2024 and the beasts of climate change, inequality, cost of living, conflict to name a few. Perach et al (2024) note that most people share misinformation unknowingly and about 1 in 10 people share disinformation on purpose, many of which for the reasons that it affirms an existing belief or ‘it might as well be true’. This is a harmful practice, but it is good for engagement facilitators to keep in mind, it’s often well intentioned. People genuinely believe sharing this information will make the world better. This prompts me to think about how we can foster confidence among people to sit in discomfort and not run to easy answers. Where is the line of accepted variation from mainstream narratives? Do people with alternative and sometimes worrying views need to be silenced? What are ways that we can practise empathy and inclusion in this grey area.
Naomi Klein, in her book Doppleganger (2023) reflects that the ‘conspiracy’ many people believe in, is in a way real; the unequal system that we live in. She argues these feelings are built on genuine grievances, but misidentify the root causes. Polarisation and the muddle of dis/misinformation could be a result of the very real impacts of inequality. Klein also talks about the absence of ‘the left’ from these spaces and the tendency for liberal-minded people to cancel, discount, alienate or humiliate those who share ‘out there’ views or claims. She argues the acceptance of diversity within conspiracy culture can be something to learn from and that we cannot continue to be absent from these spaces, as this is where decisions are being made. On the other hand, experts say that repetition of false claims can lead to a sense that these are true, even if the person has prior knowledge of what is being spoken about or if repetition of claims seeks to debunk them. This is called ‘Illusory truth’. Here, we are faced with the challenging task of shutting down a rogue discourse to protect sensible conversation alongside listening and empathising with someone who is feeling real feelings that are the result of real world decisions.
The spread of mis/disinformation presents a lot more questions than answers. As a community of practice, engagement facilitators need to work together to develop new approaches to work meaningfully within this environment and strike a balance between stemming the spread of false information and maintaining relationships and continuing to work with people who have alternative views. This needs to be an ongoing conversation between engagement practitioners and our partners.
Some things that I’m working on:Deepening my understanding of the role of dis/misinformation and what it says about the people and contexts I’m working in
Considering what communities have engaged in prior, hot topics and opportunities for pre-bunking
Looking for subtext to arguments, searching for the feeling behind statements but being careful not to assume
Empathising, being kind to people and listening, not writing things off as junk but asking further questions and seeking clarifications
Setting up spaces so that we can hear quieter voices, respectfully asking louder people to hold the thought so we can move on
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