COMM 110: Fundamentals of Journalism

Let's start by talking about the type of misleading content. Information in news articles can include a spectrum of false content and harmful intentions.

Mis-information 

Information that is false, but the person reporting the information believes that they are telling the truth. 

This often is in the form of a legitimate news outlet reporting a story that is proved=n false when these news outlets discover more information. There is no intent of harm with misinformation, but regardless facts are reported incorrectly. 

Dis-information

Dis-information, on the other hand, is false news that the person reporting the story knows is false.

This is the type of misleading news that can be accurately called "Fake News". 

Mal-information 

The last type of information is technically not false information, but it is news that is used in a way that is harmful to the person, organization or country identified in the story. Typically this news serves own motivation of the person reporting the story rather than serving the public interest. 

Some leaks of classified information, harassment, and hate speech fall into this category. 

While Mis-information, Dis-information, and Mal-information broadly describe the main categories of misleading information, there are many different forms that make up these categories. This chart describes just some of the types of misleading information and describes their impact and motivation.