BOISE, Idaho — Misinformation is a word that has been used a lot in recent years and is prevalent in discussions of politics, COVID-19, social media and more.
Misinformation is defined as incorrect or misleading information. Often times misinformation is used to intentionally mislead and can be spread unintentionally.
The News Literacy Project and The E.W. Scripps Company, the parent company of Idaho News 6, designates one week out of the year to promote news literacy in communities across the country. This year the focus is to care before you share.
Misinformation will often target a persons beliefs or values in order to get a reaction before logic kicks in. Gravitating to misinformation may be a natural human response especially when there is a rapidly evolving event.
"A lot of us look for information when something like this happens and there is a lot of unknowns, a lot of really good questions and sometimes not a really good or accessible answers we go out and seek information," said Matt Niece, director of Counseling Services at Boise State University. "It's also kind of prime time for us to grab whatever information that is available, whether it's accurate or not and sort of run with it because we want to have some sense of understanding about the event."
There is also some tools to help verify questionable posts. When it comes to images you can always reverse image search to see where else on the internet an image appears.
You can also use a tool called Jeffrey's Image Metadata Viewer that will allow you to upload or paste an Image's URL to see when and how an Image was captured as well as if it has been manipulated or edited.
Can you spot Misinformation? Test your skills by taking a quick quiz.
