The mistake, which Conway later described as a verbal slip-up, even spawned its own local “Bowling Green Massacre”-themed pizza, topped with garlic butter, mozzarella cheese, mac and cheese, blackened chicken, jalapeños and Sriracha sauce, as reported by the Bowling Green Daily News at the time.
Nearly a decade later, as the country readies for another presidential election, that sort of false and misleading information seems almost quaint by comparison. These days, the internet is rife with AI-generated images of fake celebrity endorsements and Facebook-spawned misinformation accusing immigrants in an Ohio town of eating their neighbors’ pets.
Kentucky is no exception and hasn’t been shielded from downright false or misleading election information, as can attest Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, who is tasked with running the state’s elections.
“I still get people every day that yell at me about using Dominion [voting] machines, but we never have,” Adams told the Herald-Leader in an interview last week, referring to unfounded claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
People are often inclined to take information at face value, Adams said.
“They see footage of someone stuffing a dropbox or, you know, they see an image of a truckload of stolen ballots or whatever. They see that image and they think it’s happening here. No. 1, it probably didn’t happen, but No. 2, it didn’t happen here for sure,” Adams said.
To help you discern truth from fiction this election season, we have some tips and insights, including best practices from a University of Kentucky professor who studies information science.
Misinformation vs. disinformation
First, it’s helpful to start by quickly defining some terms. Although misinformation and disinformation are often used interchangeably, experts draw a distinction between the two terms.
According to the American Psychological Association, misinformation is false or inaccurate information. In other words, misinformation is getting the facts wrong.
Disinformation, on the other hand, is false information deliberately intended to mislead. It is an intentional distortion of the facts.
How to identify misinformation and disinformation
As explained by Yvonne Eadon, a professor of information science at UK, misinformation and disinformation often aim to tug on strong emotions, such as fear and anxiety, along with the public’s suspicion of powerful entities.
“A lot of mis- and disinformation activates emotions, especially fear and anxiety, in conjunction with mistrust of powerful entities. Vaccine misinformation, for example, plays on fear of unknown substances in one’s body and (understandable) mistrust of pharmaceutical companies,” Eadon wrote in a Friday email to the Herald-Leader.
“Conspiracy theories — on both the right and the left — that circulated around the assassination attempt on Donald Trump earlier this year similarly activated anxiety about the election and mistrust of the Secret Service,” Eadon continued.
Eadon recommends being mindful of how information online can play on one’s emotions. If you see something online that makes you feel strongly, stop and reflect on your emotional state then take a timeout from the app or platform you’re using.
“Leave the app or platform you’re on (TikTok, X, Instagram, etc.), and fact-check yourself by using a search engine to look up additional information, if possible, from trustworthy sources like Snopes or PolitiFact,” Eadon wrote.
At the very least, read beyond the AI-generated summary you find at the top of search engines like Google, Eadon suggests.
Here are some general, concrete steps you can take to determine if you’re dealing with misinformation or disinformation:
- Verify the source.Determine if the news comes from a credible, authoritative source rather than an unknown website or source.
- Look for supporting evidence. Are other reputable sources reporting the same information?
- Cross-check dates and context. Are you looking at an image, video or article that is current and in context with the time? The misleading use of old content is common on the internet.
- Do a reverse image search.A reverse image search can give you an idea of an image’s online history and where it comes from. The camera icon near Google’s search bar will let you search by image.
- Check for an author.Does the article have a byline? Does it have an anonymous or questionable author?
- Use fact-checking websites. Fact-checking websites will often verify heated online topics. What are websites like Snopes, FactCheck.org and Politifact.
What to do if you encounter misinformation online
If you read or see something online that raises red flags for you or doesn’t seem to stand up to scrutiny, there are several best practices to keep in mind. They include:
- Don’t share it. Sharing misinformation, even to correct it, only amplifies it further.
- Report it. Many social media sites will allow you to report misinformation.
- Educate others.Educate your friends and family and share resources they can use to practice skepticism online.
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