Picture it. You are a respected, established advocate for agriculture and food production. You might even have a well-recognized brand. You come across a post on Facebook or Twitter that contains information that is:
- Inaccurate (not evidence- or science-based)
- Inflammatory
- Biased
- Not credibly sourced
- One, any or all of the above
What do you do?
[Editor’s note: Cami Ryan is the Social Sciences Lead at Bayer CropScience.]
Those of us who have been around the ‘debunking’ block a time or two have come up with ways to identify ‘sketchy’ information, finding ways to mitigate or debunk it.
…
But here’s another scenario. What if the source of the misinformation comes from another science- or evidence-based advocate or expert just like you?
None of us are immune to misinformation, no matter who we are and where our level of expertise lies …. But let’s step back a bit. Are you dealing with misinformation, or is it disinformation? There is a difference.