Early access to script - identifying misinformation (Patreon)

Feedback requested! Imagine some fun visual transitions for this one.

Ground News hasn’t seen or signed off on this yet, but they’re supposed to be sponsoring this video. They might come back with requested revisions, but hopefully not.

I also recommend work (research & substack blog) by Matthew Facciani on this subject!

Falling for misinformation and propaganda is UNDERSTANDABLE. Some of the most DECEPTIVE messages have a kernel of truth to them, which makes them perfectly engineered to distort your judgement. We all need to be using LATERAL READING to protect ourselves from bad actors, so you have room to form your own ACTUALLY EDUCATED opinions.Let’s say you see a crazy headline. WOAH, RESHARE (hold on.) 

• Who posted this, where did this information come from originally?

• [flip right] New browser tab - google this motherfucker - what are people saying about their credibility? 

• [flip left] Back to the article. What’s their *goal here?* who are they targeting, and why? Are they trying to bait me into an emotional reaction?? [red flag eyes] 

Something I ALWAYS do when evaluating a piece of news is LATERAL READING. I NEVER stop at just one source, or even one GENRE of source. At minimum, I always skim through at least 2 or 3 DIFFERENT reports of the same thing. Ground News is an app that automatically aggregates all the articles about a given subject via AI– and source aggregation is one of those genuinely good uses of AI. They sponsored this video and I wouldn’t have accepted if I didn’t genuinely recommend this. 

I want to emphasize that it’s not shameful to make mistakes. I’m a PhD and I’ve been PLENTY duped by talented manipulators. Pick yourself up, learn from it, and keep it moving.