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I have always believed that disinformation is one of many critical issues in the field of media
and communication. Though I have little to none of the background information relating to
this issue, I am writing this adventure journal to record what I have found on the internet and
I hope you will learn from my findings after reading this journal. According to (American
Psychological Association, 2022), disinformation is false information which is deliberately
intended to mislead, intentionally misstating the facts. Although the issues surrounding
disinformation are not new, the digital era has increased their scope and influence.
Propagandas and misleading information have historically been employed as weapons in
conflicts over politics and ideologies. But the development of social media and the internet
has fundamentally changed how information is created, shared, and used. There are several
techniques to spread disinformation, one of those includes the usage of bots. Bots are
software programmes that carry out automatic tasks on the Internet. They are frequently used
to bombard a targeted audience with specific messages with the purpose of influencing them
(How Does Disinformation Work? - Crisiscenter, n.d.). The following contents of this
adventure journal aims to examine the impact of fake news on public opinion and democracy.

Here is one example of a news article about the impact of fake news on public opinion. On 25
May 2021 at 11:45pm, a housewife of five children was fined for deliberately spreading fake
news about the Covid-19 vaccine on her Facebook account, causing public concern. It was
reported that the woman was charged under Section 4(1) of the Emergency (Essential
Powers) (No 2) Ordinance 2021 which carried a maximum RM100,000 fine or three years
imprisonment or both. After the case was taken to court, the 46-year-old housewife was fined
RM12,000 in default six months' jail sentenced by the sessions court judge. Through this
news article, we can learn that disinformation can lead to serious legal actions being taken
which could result in paying fines and even jail time on the line (Khairulrijal, 2021). In
another news article, it was reported that people could create fake AI images about
presidential elections using artificial intelligence tools. Despite four of the largest
public-facing AI platforms: Midjourney, OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus, Stability.ai's DreamStudio
and Microsoft's Image Creator prohibit generation of misleading images as part of their terms
and conditions, researches were still able to override the terms and conditions to create
potential images that could confuse viewers about presidential elections. However, Reid
Blackman, founder and CEO of ethical AI risk consultancy Virtue and author of the book
Ethical Machines, said watermarking photos is another potential technical solution
(Wendling, 2024).
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With that being said, I have also explored a few academic journals about the causes of
disinformation and I found out that two main motives involve financial and ideological
reasons. One real example was the 2016 US presidential election. Tens of thousands of
dollars were made by a group of teens who created over 100 (some reports claim over 140)
websites that were used to deliberately produce fake content, mostly in support of Donald
Trump. To elaborate the ideological motivation of disinformation was the voting of Britain’s
exit from the European union. During that time, a lot of proven false and misleading
information was spread on social media with the aim to influence the outcomes of the public
voting. Scholars had stated in their journals that the three motivation factors of disinformation
were to make money, to have political influences both domestically or internationally and for
causing problems due to the sake of being problematic itself. Like infectious diseases, the
spreading of false information was due to social contact which was why many scholars
believed them as being viral. Unlike the truths, false information was spreaded faster and
retained more permanently. Potential means to tackle this issue involves returning to
traditional ethical and professional values of journalism. This practice was difficult to achieve
because with widespread internet access, anyone can publish information, leading to a decline
in the role of editors and journalists as gatekeepers. However, scholars believed that partial
implementation of this practice could lead to great positive outcomes (Levak, 2021).

In another journal article I came across, I learned about how social media users respond to
fake news. The study involved a survey of 2501 participants from Singapore, along with
in-depth interviews of 20 individuals from that group. The researchers used the Uses and
Gratification Theory to explain why people choose specific media based on their needs. For
instance, college students often use Facebook and Instagram to make new friends, host social
events, and network with peers, juniors, and seniors. Some scholars concluded that social
media serves purposes such as effective communication, reinforcing relationships, becoming
popular, and satisfying curiosity. The table below shows the responses of participants to fake
news.
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Interestingly, the study found that when asked, "What do you do when you read false news on
social media?" the majority of respondents (73%) said they would ignore the post if it
contained incorrect information. The analysis also examined factors like gender, age,
educational level, and income. Using a Chi-square association test, the researchers found a
significant association between gender and response to fake news, but no association with
other variables (Tandoc et al., 2020).

The article also delved into the reasons behind these responses. There were three main
factors. Firstly was the relevance of the issue. If the fake news was about a major issue that
could affect their family and friends, respondents were more likely to report it. If it was
considered a minor issue, they would often just let it slide. Secondly was interpersonal
relationships. Respondents were more likely to correct misinformation if it was shared by a
close friend or family member. The last factor was personal efficacy. Some participants felt
that correcting misinformation online is challenging and unlikely to be effective. They
believed that fake news articles often reflect the individual's opinion, and thus, they did not
feel it was necessary to impose their own views by correcting others (Tandoc et al., 2020).

While browsing through some online resources, I found out that many people may confuse
the term misinformation and disinformation. In summary, misinformation is the sharing of
false or misleading information despite intent whereas disinformation is the deliberate
sharing of wrong information. Misinformation may be spread without knowing and
disinformation is usually spread to influence public thoughts and to hide the truth.
Misinformation could begin with a misleading headline and disinformation often hide false
information among some true information to make the entire writing less obvious for
identification (MISinformation vs. DISinformation | Infographic, Propaganda, Life Lessons,
n.d.)
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Online disinformation can be in 3 forms. According to (The Seven Categories of Online

Disinformation, n.d.), fabricated contents are entirely false news content, designed to deceive
and do harm. Manipulated contents are another form that involves manipulating a real photo
through photoshopping to deceive the reader. The last form is imposter content. These are
genuine sources that are impersonated to fool the reader and/or discredit the supposed source.

In a TED-Ed report video by Noah Tavlin, a phenomenon of how circular reporting may
spread false information was discussed. Circular reporting occurs when misinformation is
published by one source, reprinted by another, and then cited back by the original source. It
also occurs when the same fraudulent material appears to be validated across many
publications. A real life example presented in that video was the 1998 publication of a single
pseudoscientific paper that argued that routine vaccination may cause autism, which was
repeatedly cited despite being discredited, fueling the anti-vaccination movement. Noah
suggested avoiding sensationalist media may help slow down the spread of false information
(TED-Ed, 2015).

One way to prevent disinformation is to be doubtful of what you notice on the internet. For
instance, go through the whole article from head to bottom because sometimes, the headline
might not match the body of the contents. Observe the URL as the branding might match but
the URL itself would not if the content is imitating a legitimate website (CBC News, 2019).

As I sit here about to wrap up this adventure journal, I would like to express my thoughts on
this issue and the knowledge I have learnt. Firstly, I would like to discuss the challenges I
faced when writing this journal. I found it difficult to look for industry reports to support my
research. Websites like Statista and ProQuest contained the information that I needed but it
required purchase to have access to the information. Nielsen’s Insights on other hand had free
industry reports but it did not have the information that I needed. I remember I was on a trip
with my family to Genting Highlands and another problem I faced was not having access to
the internet so I had to wait until I got home before I could continue my research expedition.
Surprising discoveries I found along this journey was that disinformation is a complicated
phenomenon that involved historical, psychological, technological and societal dimensions.
Propaganda's historical foundations and its contemporary digital amplification highlighted
how technology has revolutionised the distribution and consumption of information. One of
the most useful takeaways was discovering easy-to-implement strategies for countering
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disinformation. Everyone can help stop the spread of incorrect information by reading articles
carefully, avoiding sensationalist media, and double-checking URLs. In a time when anybody
can publish content online, undermining the traditional gatekeeping responsibilities of
journalists and editors, these approaches are essential. To whoever is reading this far, my
adventure journal has officially come to an end and I hope you find the insights I gathered
useful for you when you come across these situations in the future.
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References
American Psychological Association. (2022). Misinformation and disinformation. Apa.org.
https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-disinformation#:~:text=Misinfor
mation%20is%20false%20or%20inaccurate
How does disinformation work? - Crisiscenter. (n.d.). Crisiscenter.be. Retrieved June 7,
2024, from https://crisiscenter.be/en/how-does-disinformation-work
Khairulrijal, R. (2021, September 6). Housewife fined RM12,000 for sharing fake news on
vaccine [NSTTV] | New Straits Times. NST Online.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2021/09/724795/housewife-fined-rm12000-shari
ng-fake-news-vaccine-nsttv
Wendling, M. (2024, March 6). AI Can Be Easily Used to Make Fake Election Photos -
Report. Www.bbc.com. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68471253
Levak, T. (2021). Disinformation in the New Media System – Characteristics, Forms,
Reasons for its Dissemination and Potential Means of Tackling the Issue. Medijska
Istraživanja, 26(2), 29–58. https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.26.2.2
Tandoc, E. C., Lim, D., & Ling, R. (2020). Diffusion of disinformation: How social media
users respond to fake news and why. Journalism, 21(3), 381–398.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884919868325
MISinformation vs. DISinformation | Infographic, Propaganda, Life lessons. (n.d.). Pinterest.
Retrieved June 11, 2024, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/713609503449376824/
The seven categories of online disinformation. (n.d.). RSF Resource for Journalists’ Safety.
https://safety.rsf.org/the-seven-categories-of-online-disinformation/
TED-Ed. (2015, August 27). How false news can spread - Noah Tavlin. YouTube.
https://youtu.be/cSKGa_7XJkg?si=l1ku0DWPpvMMbV3g
CBC News. (2019, September 11). Why it’s so easy to fall for fake news and how to spot it.
YouTube. https://youtu.be/UF3TrTIZbCA?si=Jx96rj9OeYBrUXgx

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