(soft piano music) - [Theo] As previously discussed in the series, we've witnessed how misinformation can become socially acceptable by penetrating mainstream discourse and corroding public confidence in the systems that support us.

(soft piano music) After having our lives uprooted by COVID-19, we've learned to coexist with this lethal disease in the information we consume and the way we conduct our everyday lives.

But the question still remains, how do we break from the shackles of COVID-19 misinformation and ignorance within a social climate of dishonest rhetoric?

During interviews with experts and local organizers working to mitigate the worst of COVID-19, we employed these two key terms misinformation and disinformation.

Disinformation is defined as false information deliberately and often covertly spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth, often with the intent to harm.

Misinformation is defined as incorrect or misleading information, usually with the intent to help.

This is "Words of Mass Destruction," part three, "Holding Hope."

In order to combat misinformation surrounding COVID-19, reestablishing confidence between the medical community and the general population is crucial.

This is often done through the work of informed, grassroots organizations.

To comprehensively understand how to confront misinformation directly, we spoke with Jaime Longoria, manager of research and training at the Disinfo Defense League, a national network of organizers, researchers, and disinformation experts disrupting online racialized disinformation.

- We're sort of trying to build out this collaborative space where there are monitors, there are researchers, there are academics, there are organizers, there are narrative specialists cramming everyone into one space and sort of hoping that you know, that this roadmap that we provide is sufficient enough and actually getting in front of people when the time comes.

Like, when they need that information, that they'll have it.

Or when they're confronted with someone who has a doubt or has seen bad information, that they know how to confront it.

- [Theo] We also spoke with Thoai Nguygen, the CEO of SEAMAAC, a Philadelphia-based, nonprofit organization that works to support immigrants and refugees and other marginalized communities to advance their lives.

SEAMAAC has made great strides in spreading factual information and access to COVID-19 vaccines for underserved communities within Philadelphia.

- If you've ever have to work with a new immigrant or refugee to this country, taking a bus you know, to another part of town is no easy task, right?

So what we did was we basically simultaneously advocated for more vaccine access points, working with the city, the Health Department, working with groups like Philadelphia Fight, working with Jefferson University Hospital system, and also knocking on doors.

What was the vaccine desert in March, 2021, by September and November of 2021 became the most densely-populated, adult-vaccinated, population in the city of Philadelphia.

And Philadelphia became one of the highest, if not the highest rate of Asia Pacific Islanders vaccination rate, it was over 90% of API living in Philadelphia, who were vaccinated by September of of 2021.

- [Theo] While working on different scales and platforms the Disinfo Defense League also centers its work around providing communities of color with access to reliable information by advocating for improvements to social media systems that inform us.

During the pandemic, misinformation has dominated narratives around vaccines making their efforts more crucial than ever.

- You can only get so far when you're teaching people how to be online responsibly, when there are algorithms in the background that are pulling the strings and putting that content in front of you.

It's very difficult to get around that when a lot of social media platforms are actually catering different versions of reality to people.

So, another way that I think we can get closer to a solution is by putting pressure on these platforms, right, to get them away from self-regulating, because they haven't done a good job at that, right?

And also applying pressure to our legislators and to the executive branch to, you know, really understand the issue so that they can legislate on it and legislate on it responsibly.

- [Theo] Due to power structures within social media platforms and news corporations, white voices are amplified because they are the target audience.

Should we want an equitable world where information is accessible to all, people of color must be included in conversations and their concerns must be equally contended with.

- We really have to center people of color, working class people in these conversations, not only when it comes to the way that we talk to people and the the way that we frame a lot of the conversations, but also when it comes to legislation.

I think there are a number of really good efforts out there that are trying to center this issue on the most impacted communities.

And so far I have been seeing some movement.

And for me that's progress.

- [Theo] Throughout the series, we have seen the power that information holds, whether it's 100 years ago during an influenza outbreak, or in today's world with our limitless access to social media, words can transform reality, generate power structures, and cause mass destruction.

Collective action is the path forward.

The issues of misinformation and disinformation are too complex to be solved by a single person, and progress can only be achieved by uniting communities.

While this can often feel hopeless, we can find solace in the organizers that have adapted to this era and are ensuring the distribution of factual information, food assistance, and vaccines.

As we have witnessed from the many experts featured during the series, the wicked problems our society faces are solvable so long as we have motivated people working to combat them.

- I wanna quote Mariame Kaba, a incredible advocate living in New York City.

She said that "Hope is a discipline.

Hope is a verb, it's an active verb."

And that you can't just hope for things to get better.

Go to sleep, do some prayers before you go sleep and then wake up and hope for a better result.

No, hope is a discipline.

Hope is action.

If you hope for something, work on that.

Work on that every day, work on that every minute of every day.

If you really want that reality, if you want a better vision, better future for you, your children, your family, you gotta work for it.

You can't just, again, you know, hope and pray for the better, right?

You should do that for sure.

Prayer, if prayer helps, do it.

But also act and be active.

Be active in fighting against this tide of hopelessness.

(inspiring music) - Hey, everyone.

My name is Theo Wyss-Flamm, I'm a rising junior at UC Berkeley and co-founder of VLX Media Collective at BPA and a co-director of "Words of Mass Destruction."

- Hi, my name is Michelle and I am a senior at Temple University, Fox School of Business.

I am also the co-director and founder of VLX Media Collective and of this process called "Words of Mass Destruction."

(upbeat music) (film reel clicks) - I think the main sort of issue that we were trying to address from the start is vaccine hesitancy.

- Yeah.

- That was something we were encountering a lot during late 2020 and then going into 2021, sort of questions about the vaccine.

Is it safe to take?

Why did it come out so quickly?

And so, we were seeing a lot of issues about hesitancy and we sort of wanted to sort of tell the story as objectively and as truthfully as we can using perspectives of experts and all of that to sort of encourage people to get vaccinated.

- Yeah.

And especially from a youth perspective, it's more impactful because you can relate to them.

When you have someone like a medical doctor talk about misinformation or disinformation it might not come across as what everyday people might see or understand.

And so, if we have the ability to do that, why not do that?

- Yeah.

So, it definitely spawned from sort of like, the tumultuous state of politics - Yeah.

- and health in 2020.

That sort of inspired us to like, do some good for the world because we saw a lot of things going poorly and we were like, you know, we're storytellers, we're problem solvers, let's work and use our art to sort of do something productive for the world.

So, like I mentioned earlier, we were encouraged by our mentors and our coworkers in VLX to sort of pursue this topic, and weren't really sure where to start.

- I remember we sat down and we had to think of the project as a whole.

So, we didn't start episode one yet, it took three months of research in order for us to understand, grasp the concepts of misinformation, disinformation, everything as a whole, and then pull back and see, okay, how do we wanna navigate this process?

So the first episode was like, okay, let's set the scene with a historical example.

The second one we knew was gonna fluctuate because COVID's fluctuating back in 2020, 2021, you know, you have the vaccines and all that.

And then the third episode, we wanted to end it more on like a sweet, not uplifted note, but more of like, we either accept COVID and deal with it, or we have to learn to collectively be okay and understand how we're trying to combat this.

- Yeah.

So, sort of on a broad scope the timeline sort of got started towards the end of 2020.

It is now somewhere in 2022.

- Yes.

- It's over a year and a half going on two years.

It's been a long process, primarily because Michelle and I are full-time college students, we work.

I go to school in California.

So we had our time difference too.

- I would say this process has been very eye-opening and being able to not only understand like, keep your perspective but understand someone else's perspective.

'Cause going in, you might not think, oh, why are people hesitant to have the vaccine?

You might think, oh, anti-vaxxers, they just don't wanna do this.

They're thinking it's a hoax or whatnot.

But there are actual reasons why some people may have mistrust within the community of the medical field.

And so, being able to take a step back, put aside my beliefs and look forward and say, "Okay, break down why this individual, or this group of individuals are having such a struggle or why this population is not getting vaccinated, or what's going on in the world."

We went through many rabbit holes, I will say that.

Especially with the second episode.

- Yes, especially.

'Cause we were trying to talk about everything and we just couldn't.

We were trying to talk about history.

We were trying to talk about sort of - QAnon.

- QAnon, mass media, news corporations that were dealing with- - Politics in there.

- Yeah, and politics, which are all interlocked, but what is relevant and to tell our story.

I think also we relied very heavily on our interview subjects.

- Yes.

- Who were proven experts in each topic we asked them to talk about.

For example, for our first episode, we interviewed a curator at the Mutter Museum, who at that point had just put out an entire comprehensive exhibit about the flu pandemic in Philadelphia, which was a story that we were trying to tell.

So, we sort of used her interview as a framework for the entire episode.

And sort of relied on her commentary to sort of guide our story.

So, we don't claim to be experts ourselves, we're storytellers, and so we sort of use the experts to craft a story around it.

And I think we did similar things with the rest of the episodes.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I think a lot of my favorite moments are just sort of like, we would meet every Tuesday morning 8:00 a.m. my time, 11:00 a.m. your time, and Bettina was always there and I had always woken up like five minutes before.

I was brewing my green tea.

I would get up halfway through the meeting to go, you know pour my tea into the mug.

You know, we wouldn't always meet for very long, but it was always just so great to see you, to see Bettina in the morning, to update each other on our lives.

I'd get updates from Bettina on her film, all of that, yeah.

And I mean there were definitely some moments when she was like, "You guys look terrible.

You guys need a vacation.

- We had like dark circle under our eyes.

- And I mean, we're so grateful to Bettina.

She definitely put our mental health first.

- Yeah.

- In a way that I don't think a lot of other people would.

So much love to Bettina.

- But having a crew that was there for you, 'cause we were honestly a family, you know, our film family.

So a lotta times we knew we could count on each other.

And like, none of us wanted to let each other down.

So it was always like, we knew we had to be there.

We were tired.

We were probably having mental breakdowns half the time.

But we showed up, we were there.

And I think that's honestly what kept us going was because the purpose and the sense of community, the family we had was so strong and to have that, I don't know, for me it was just everything.

- Yeah.

Looking broadly, this project has given me such a, as hard as it's been, this project has given me such a sense of purpose over this past year and a half.

I knew every Tuesday morning I had this meeting.

I knew I always had this sort of looming over my head, which is kind of a daunting thing, of course, but you know, it did gimme purpose.

It gave me something to do whenever I had some downtime.

And I don't think I had enough downtime because of it.

But yeah, it's given me such a sense of purpose.

And I'll miss that.

- Yeah.

Episode four.

I'm joking.

(Michelle laughs) - What a thought.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (film reel clicks)