No news isn’t necessarily good news. News is powerful, and helps us to stay connected and informed. But it’s important we regulate our news consumption - particularly during times of crisis.
‘Prozac leaders’ believe their own rhetoric that “everything is going well”. But this wishful thinking can quickly contaminate organisations, and has been disastrous during the pandemic.
People are drawn to conspiracy theory communities when times are uncertain.
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The Sunday Times, South Africa’s largest weekend newspaper, was used to spread disinformation.
Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
It’s easy to edit video of public figures to make them appear asleep, confused, drunk or cognitively impaired when they are not. The technique is being used to undermine Joe Biden’s campaign.
Protest against lockdown in Michigan, April 2020.
Jeffrey Sauger/EPA
Those opposing vaccinations often mistrust government, science and the news media. There may be better ways to persuade them than by offering facts only.
Amid global chaos and uncertainty, Instagram offers up the world as stable, simple and good-looking. No wonder it is set to overtake Twitter as a news source.
When it comes to COVID-19 misinformation, not all nations are the same. Some are peddling a larger variety of myths than others - and each seems to have its own personal favourite.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump have had different approaches to tweeting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here the two talk during a NATO session in December 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The freedom of the press is important, and of course it must be protected. But the freedom of everybody else and of ordinary citizens is also important.
Unlike the US, Australia hasn’t yet been hit by a large-scale disinformation campaign focussed on meddling with elections. But this is a ‘realistic prospect’ moving forward.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has been one of the targets of misinformation during the pandemic and was falsely accused of helping spread the COVID-19 virus to sell a vaccine.
(Reaching the Last Mile Forum via AP Images)
The World Health Organization says the abundance of misinformation swirling around COVID-19 is as dangerous as the virus itself. There are ways to fight this, however.