Disinformation in the City Brief #1: What is disinformation in the city?
This brief is part of a series of three published as part of the Disinformation in the City project, led by the Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne in partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF).
Disinformation impacts cities. In extraordinary times of rapid information-sharing, distrust, and disruption, cities are on the front line. Local authorities are the level of government most accessible to the people and are tasked with leading communities through ever more complex societal and global challenges.
Among those challenges are information manipulation, disinformation, misinformation, mal-information, and information disorder: what’s the difference? The intent of content creators is important, and it distinguishes disinformation from other misleading or harmful information.
In this brief, we refer to disinformation as shorthand for various kinds of information manipulation, acknowledging that such campaigns often contain elements of misrepresented truth (mal-information) and may reach wider audiences where groups or individuals unknowingly—and without intent to harm—share false information (misinformation).
Disinformation is false information that is deliberately created to harm, mislead, or evoke an emotional response within a target audience. Disinformation includes what is sometimes also called “fake news”, and propaganda.
Misinformation is false or misleading information shared without intent to harm, often due to unconscious bias or by accident. This means that innocent and well-meaning people can unknowingly spread false, harmful, and misleading information. The creation and propagation of disinformation, in contrast, is always purposeful.
Mal-information is true information that is used with intent to manipulate or harm. Factual information can be harmful where it is used out of context or combined with mis- and disinformation.
Together, mis-, dis- and mal-information represent what is called information manipulation or information disorder. In a digitally connected world, information manipulation is a highly complex challenge for decisionmakers and practitioners.
Disinformation is often false information. However, through the careful use of mal-information, disinformation can also contain aspects that are truthful. The combination of fake and factual information can be confusing, making it difficult to distinguish between truth and fiction. Weaving small truths within a larger framework of lies can add credibility to disinformation, and makes it more difficult for others to refute