How news orgs can innoculate audiences against misinformation

As a journalist, part of the job is countering mis- and disinformation. But unlike breaking news, you don’t have to wait for it to write about it.

Sure, misinformation is getting worse, with AI making it easy to create fake images and customize content for target audiences. But it’s also been around long enough that it has become predictable. In fact, in 2022, the Latam Chequea coalition identified 10 types of misinformation that had been circulating in Latin American and U.S. elections for the last three cycles. 

Most have returned for 2024, including the myth that droves of undocumented immigrants will vote as part of “Great Replacement” strategy to take power. The emergence of Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democrat nominee was a new twist, but the use of racist and sexist attacks to discredit her was so predictable that Spanish-language site Factchequeado last week published three articles refuting them.

In fact, a hefty body of research says that audiences can be inoculated against misinformation through “prebunking.” Practical guides to this strategy have been created by First Draft Media, The Future of Free Speech, and a team involving Cambridge University, the BBC and Google, among others. 

Rather than aggressively arguing facts, the guides recommend staying at a high level, educating audiences on the types of misinformation they may encounter, and convey that a degree of skepticism can be empowering, by helping them identify reliable news and information. 

“Prebunking interventions should focus on establishing intellectual humility” and not foster generalized distrust, the Free Speech guide stresses. Countering misinformation is like the rest of journalism: It’s effective when you respect your audience and give them the information to make up their own minds.