Information about the publisher of the book "Journalism, Fake News & Disinformationn", available below, is provided here. This may help readers to better evaluate the contents of the book.
"The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was born on 16 November 1945. UNESCO has 195 Members and 8 Associate Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board. The Secretariat, headed by the Director-General, implements the decisions of these two bodies. The Organization has more th 50 field offices around the world and its headquarters are located in Paris.
UNESCO’s mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.
UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.
UNESCO focuses on a set of objectives in the global priority areas “Africa” and “Gender Equality”
And on a number of overarching objectives:
- Attaining quality education for all and lifelong learning
- Mobilizing science knowledge and policy for sustainable development
- Addressing emerging social and ethical challenges
- Fostering cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace
- Building inclusive knowledge societies through information and communication"
(from the website of UNESCO)
Journalism, Fake News & Disinformation
First three paragraph of the summary of a UK House of Commons report titled "Disinformation and ‘fake news’"
"This is the Final Report in an inquiry on disinformation that has spanned over 18 months, covering individuals’ rights over their privacy, how their political choices might be affected and influenced by online information, and interference in political elections both in this country and across the world—carried out by malign forces intent on causing disruption and confusion.
We have used the powers of the Committee system, by ordering people to give evidence and by obtaining documents sealed in another country’s legal system. We invited democratically-elected representatives from eight countries to join our Committee in the UK to create an ‘International Grand Committee’, the first of its kind, to promote further cross-border co-operation in tackling the spread of disinformation, and its pernicious ability to distort, to disrupt, and to destabilise. Throughout this inquiry we have benefitted from working with other parliaments. This is continuing, with further sessions planned in 2019. This has highlighted a worldwide appetite for action to address issues similar to those that we have identified in other jurisdictions.
This is the Final Report in our inquiry, but it will not be the final word. We have always experienced propaganda and politically-aligned bias, which purports to be news, but this activity has taken on new forms and has been hugely magnified by information technology and the ubiquity of social media. In this environment, people are able to accept and give credence to information that reinforces their views, no matter how distorted or inaccurate, while dismissing content with which they do not agree as ‘fake news’. This has a polarising effect and reduces the common ground on which reasoned debate, based on objective facts, can take place. Much has been said about the coarsening of public debate, but when these factors are brought to bear directly in election campaigns then the very fabric of our democracy is threatened."
Disinformation and ‘fake news’ (UK House of Commons)
Executive Summary of a book titled "Australian Perspectives on Misinformation":
Concerns about the health of democracy and the public sphere are increasing due to the ease with which foreign and domestic malign actors can spread misleading and manipulative claims. Misinformation, or misleading information spread unwittingly, is often distinguished from disinformation, which is misleading information spread with the intent to cause harm. Yet many successful disinformation campaigns contain true information, covertly disseminated to embarrass political targets: the quality of the information matters less than the nature of the operation it is part of. Although the content of messages need not be false to deceive, the ability to identify and protect true claims remains critically important. Misinformation and disinformation and their effects are complex and interwoven with countless socio-political and psychological issues. The Australian Perspectives on Misinformation report brings together several sources of data. The background to the report is the results from two existing N&MRC reports: Digital News Report: Australia 2020 and Covid-19: Australian news and misinformation report, both of which tracked perceptions of misinformation in the Australian news consumers in 2020. The report next profiles two case studies: an analysis of campaigns by Russian Internet Research Agency “troll” accounts in the Australian Twittersphere in the leadup to the 2016 Australian Federal election, and an interview with a young ABC Digital journalist about how misinformation affects her work practice. The fourth chapter replaces misinformation in a historical context and reviews psychology and networked communication approaches to understanding it. The report also features expert comments by three leading Australian journalists and researchers. Finally, the report relays a set of practical messages to help teachers and politicians communicate about information literacy, and outlines a series of experimental steps for how people might establish a fact-based common understanding with a conspiracy believer."
Australian Perspectives on Misinformation
First section of the Executive Summary of a paper titled "Misinformation and news quality on digital platforms in Australia - A position paper to guide code development" published by the Australian Communications and Media Authority:
"Digital platforms are a key source of news and information for many Australians. However, Australians remain concerned about the accuracy and trustworthiness of news and information they consume online. Research from 2020 found that 48 per cent of Australians rely on online news or social media as their main source of news, but 64 per cent of Australians remain concerned about what is real or fake on the internet.
Australians rely upon a range of indicators to assess the quality of their news and information, including the source or outlet of a news piece. On digital platforms, the widespread use of algorithms, the proliferation of sources and the dissociation of content from its source can make it challenging to assess quality and make informed decisions about which news and information to read and trust.
Difficulty in discerning the quality of news and information can lead to the increased spread of harmful misinformation. This includes disinformation—false and misleading information distributed by malicious actors with the intent to cause harm to individual users and the broader community.
International regulatory approaches to date have largely focused on countering deliberate disinformation campaigns.
Disinformation campaigns can engage ordinary users to inadvertently propagate misleading information. However, misleading information shared without intent to cause harm can still lead to significant harm. From the consumer perspective, all forms of false, misleading or deceptive information can have potentially harmful effects on users and the broader community.
This paper uses ‘misinformation’ as an umbrella term to cover all kinds of potentially harmful false, misleading or deceptive information, with deliberate disinformation campaigns considered a subset of misinformation."