Subject Guides: Evaluating Social Media Information: (DIS)/(MIS)INFORMATION

Information Vs. Propaganda Vs. Misinformation Vs. Disinformation

Information

Information is probably what you’re looking for. It is data and facts to create knowledge.
Information is the data or knowledge that you may acquiring for research.
It can be represented as facts, statistics and/or analyzed raw data.

Propaganda

Propaganda is information presented with an intentional agenda or cause.

An example of propaganda:

This tweet is an example of political propaganda posted on President Trump's Twitter account.

What do you think is the agenda or cause that this tweet is trying to convey?

Misinformation

Misinformation is information that is false or wrong.

Business Insider reported numerous false information posts on social media.

This is a Facebook image of the group Southern War Cry that displays a false post about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez banning motorcycles nationwide.

What do you think is the purpose of this misinformation?

Disinformation

Disinformation is information that is deliberately created to mislead.
Disinformation and misinformation are used interchangeably, but disinformation is intended to be false whereas misinformation is unintended.

The previous image was used by the Trump campaign to discredit Joe Biden, the democratic nominee for president.