A few media competence notes: in the last month or so, I’ve noticed a significant uptick in the number of folks I encounter across social platforms who see something sensational and THEN rightfully ask for receipts BEFORE sharing. Usually re: the pandemic. That’s great!
Also, people seem to be aware from a meta cognitive perspective of the amplification effect. That’s great too. So let’s continue to apply those lessons to information, videos and tweets we see about the protests and unrests. As others have noted, it’s frighteningly easy to..
...spread bad information rapidly, and the motives are often unknown. We can see the direct effects of spreading a false viral video - people take action if they’re angry or engaged enough.
We are literally flooded by sensory inputs ... our brains will try to sort out what’s right by applying filters and heuristics... what seems plausible to us, what tracks w our intuitions or biases. But a lot is wrong because we don’t know the full story and won’t for weeks.
BuzzFeed has a great list of protest-related misinformation: buzzfeednews.com/article/janely….
Apply the same standards you would for coronavirus medical information. Your engagement and sharing DOES influence action. So think of your social media actions in the context of public health too.
So: make sure the video is real. Check to see if there are other accounts. Click through to the see the OP. See if there’s corroboration. Ask yourself what others might do w the sharing or retweeting. Ask the OP for more info. Be mindful of context - where, when -& proportion
I wish you all safety and security and health. -30-
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