Who has never felt powerless in the face of the volume of fake news? If political agendas were the most targeted, the pandemic was the perfect storm to amplify disinformation on science topics, being also capitalized on by some politicians.
There are few reasons. The news environment has changed and journalism struggles to remain viable. Consumers don’t pay for information they believe they get for free on the internet, and advertisers prefer to invest in the Google Ads system. The media, and to some extent science, are viewed with disbelief, an attitude encouraged by populist politicians. The weight of specialists and the knowledge that passes through traditional rites is relative. Popularity matters more than the legitimacy of the speaker and what he says, even more so if the content aligns with the beliefs and values ​​of the listener.
I do not think, however, that we are facing an unsolved dilemma. First, it is necessary to study the roots of the phenomenon, what sustains it, and how to eliminate its incentives, often financial. And this impels us to investigate and make public who runs these disinformation networks.
Social media platforms also need to engage. They have done very little about it, and only when forced to. Inserting a simple link to the WHO website in all posts that include the word “vaccine” and saying that they are already fighting misinformation is disrespectful to our intelligence.
More than scientific dissemination and immunization to disinformation, scientific and media literacy is often cited among the main strategies to face the scenario. Showing how science and news production work, as well as training young people and adults to think about what they want to share, can eliminate some of the unwitting support for disinformation.
And what about the targets of the attacks? Journalism needs to show why the information it brings is more trustworthy than the often anonymous content from other sources. With transparency, prompt error correction and distance from clickbait sensationalism.
Science, on the other hand, has to tidy up its house and approach the people it wants to gain trust. No one accepts the “because” or, in a more far-fetched version, “because these are the evidence” anymore.
The system of scientific publications is another point, as it can be the engine of disinformation, with journals that publish inconsistent studies and inflated results. In addition to the extreme case of predatory magazines, which publish anything as long as you pay.
Anyway, the disinformation monster can scare for its size and multiplying heads. But he also has his Achilles heels, which we need to explore.
This column was written for the #scienceinelections campaign. The writer is Luiza Caires, journalist, Master in Communication, editor at Jornal da USP and science communicator.
The column is published on Mondays, in Folha Corrida.
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