Name: Why Misinformation Matters
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NOVA Science Studio

Learn the science behind misinformation–how it’s shared, why it's believed, and what we can do to address it.

The spread of misinformation is influencing human behavior.

Alex Clark is the Digital Video Producer for the NOVA Science Studio. He produces original videos for the program and leads video production training for site coordinators and students. Alex is a video journalist, cinematographer, and instructor of documentary filmmaking and he holds a degree in journalism from Columbia University. He has created TV and digital content for PBS, NBC, and NowThis. A lover of all things science, he produced and co-hosted Vox’s Emmy-nominated YouTube series, Glad You Asked.

Learn the science behind misinformation–how it’s shared, why it's believed, and what we can do to address it.

Why Misinformation Matters

The spread of misinformation is influencing human behavior.

Tech & Engineering

Why Misinformation MattersPublished: February 11, 2021Alex Clark: 2020 was a year packed with challenges in the United States as the COVID-19 virus, national uprisings over police brutality, and a presidential election all took over the news cycle. And through all of these events, the spread of misinformation played a role in raising the tensions, from conflicting messages about masks.Louie Gomert: When I have a mask on, I'm moving it to make it comfortable, I can't help but wonder if that puts some germs in the mask.Clark: To fabricated stories on the victims of police brutality, but things came to a head on January 6th, 2021, when supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow the election results, resulting in the deaths of five people. While people across the country have been struggling to understand how something like this happened, a look at the events and rhetoric over the past few months or years reveals that many of the warning signs were right in the open, and I'm not just talking about the image boards and forums like 4Chan, Reddit, Parler, where plans were being made to assemble and march on the Capitol. I'm talking about the interviews I had with people on the day of the election.Voter 1: I've heard lots of information about ballots being discarded. Some polling centers are throwing them in the garbage.Voter 2: To the president, fake news is news that he doesn't agree with.Clark: You see, there is a science to how we interpret information about the world around us. Our brains try to make things align with our existing reality and basically try to make sense of it all, but this has become more of a problem in the last decade, simply because we have more choices of where to go when we seek information, and all President Trump needed to reach the supporters was a Twitter account. So misinformation, which is a blanket term for inaccurate communication, can take us further from what's actually going on in the world.And when misinformation is spread intentionally in order to disrupt political movements, or sow division among groups, that's called disinformation and disinformation is not going away, because bad actors can profit from it and push their causes by sharing it with a click. So that's why Nova is starting this new series.It's called "Misinformation Nation." We'll speak with experts and news-makers and give real-world examples that explain how misinformation spreads, why it's believed, and how our brains strive to make sense of it all, as part of the Nova Science Studio program, where dozens of young science communicators across the country learn the basics of science storytelling.I'm Alex Clark. I invite you to subscribe to NOVA and NOVA Science Studio, and stay tuned for the episodes. Thanks for watching.

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Support Provided By

Explore More

Fake News is Spreading Thanks to Information Overload

The NOVA Science Studio Goes National

Radical ideas spread through social media. Are the algorithms to blame?