“All 325 students have been rescued” read the headline that has come to be one of the biggest pieces of misinformation in Korean Media history. Nearly seven years ago, a ferry named Sewol sank off the coast near Jindo Island. There were 476 people on board, 325 of which were teenagers. When this headline was published and broadcasted, the public was relieved to hear that all passengers were rescued. Four hours later, their relief or hope was crushed — the article turned out to be inaccurate. In reality, 250 high school students had died or gone missing in the accident. Many people blamed this false report for creating the impression that the passengers were safe, arguably causing rescuers to miss the golden hour to save them. In this extreme case, misinformation may have been a matter of life and death. As a result of this incident, there has been an uproar in Korea regarding misinformation in the media. However, this isn’t just a Korean issue; misinformation, disinformation, and distortion are prevalent and harmful all over the world.
To understand these concepts, it’s helpful to think about them like this. On a bright and dazzling day, you see an apple hanging on a tree on your way home. You tell your sister about the apple, but when she goes to confirm, she takes a closer look and sees that it’s actually orange. Your vision has deceived you! Ooops, you just created misinformation. However, if you knew it was orange the whole time and you purposefully lied to your sister, that is disinformation. By the way, if you tell her that it is a “genetically altered orange”, this is a distortion because although it really is orange, you have no reason to believe it is genetically altered.
As you can see, false information comes in many forms and it is especially prevalent in the media. Misinformation is false information published by an entity that believes it to be true, while disinformation is knowingly and blatantly false. Distortion, or fake news, takes information that is technically true but presents it in a way that manipulates or deceives the reader. Regardless of intention, all of these lead to the same result: they spread false information and harm society.
Why do reputable media sources put out information that is so clearly false? Misinformation has many underlying causes. For example, the need to write articles in haste leads to misspelling and misinterpretation. Furthermore, intense competition between media outlets has spawned/created the necessity for news to be rushed out immediately. As a result, many news outlets are forced to publish information before it is thoroughly verified in an effort to be the first one to “break the news.” According to the Korea Communications Standards Commission, the Korean news channel, MBC was the first outlet to release the misinformation that the Sewol victims were safe, prompting a domino effect where seven other broadcasters followed suit. The table below shows that within 25 minutes of MBC’s broadcast, seven other outlets broke the news to be over ___ viewers.
Company Time of Report
The lack of professional knowledge is another cause of misinformation. Although the age of the media has increased the quantity and accessibility of information, the prudence in delivering correct information seems to have diminished. As the wall to the writer has been lowered and easier, anyone can create information. Sharing information not just what the media companies can only do. The news which requires objective and adequate verification procedures has been ignored, and unconfirmed information is left unchecked and thoughtlessly consumed by the public. If the unprofessional writer believes that the information is true, even if everyone claims it to be an obvious fake, it is not categorized as distortion but a misrepresentation. The writer’s subjective view is inevitable, however,
As similar contents from different media overflow, writers attract people with stimulation rather than accuracy which is the most important purpose of the delivery of information. Regardless of the type of media, sensational contents would be rapidly propagated without the fact-check. For example, rumors of celebrity romantic relationships are easy prey to journalists and a big interest for the public. If the person who is directly involved doesn’t promptly respond, speculative reports and misinformation continue to be reported, and then the story goes beyond where the couple has a hidden child that they do not even know. There are too many discrepancies and inconsistencies between misinformation and reality. (1more sentence)
[When I read an article with a provocative title, the actual information in the article is often just an advertisement. The title may read “This is what you are looking for!” but the actual information in the article is to fool readers.]
We have looked at what misinformation is and its cause and effect. As technology advances, information has been poured out, and we get useful knowledge in our lives through the media. However, the rapidity of media generated by the competition accelerates misinformation, the lack of expertise is being produced indiscriminately, and provocative information is being spread. There is no perfect way to prevent the first misinformation, but you should be careful not to be the center of the spread. The press must keep trying not to lose its credibility, and we need to selectively read and always be cautious when accepting information.
dichotomy 