Along with the most open and most staggering expanse of information we have ever seen, has come an equally staggering amount of misinformation. Most of us receive one email hoax after another — from missing children to easy ways to make money.
An effort online is afoot to help people sort through misinformation on the web. Sites such as Snopes, one of the most popular rumor checking destinations online, sort out information ranging from old wives’ tales to current events.
We’ve learned an increasing amount about how to stave off misinformation online. Newer technologies with rapid sharing capabilities, such as Twitter, however, present new difficulties in digital media literacy.
Twitter’s power to inform and connect people is huge. I experience these benefits every day. But let’s face it. Twitter’s power to misinform may be similarly huge. We’ve seen misinformation spread through the network during the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak and the 2009 Moldova riots. Most recently, a study showed widespread confusion about antibiotics is shared throughout Twitter.
I’m currently taking a grad school class on digital media literacy, and for it, I created this video to help people sort out misinformation from good information on Twitter.
