University of Kwazulu-Natal

Fake News Misinformation Disinformation Informed Civic Engagement

Bonisiwe Shabane
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fake news misinformation disinformation informed civic engagement

"Read before you retweet. Remind yourself that there are human beings in the picture." - Danielle Citron Sorting through the vast amount of information created and shared online is challenging even for experts. This page defines terms including and related to "fake news" while offering resources and information to avoid both reading and sharing it. The more aware you are of what false information is and how it spreads, the better you will be at avoiding it yourself - and helping your friends and family do the same. Everyone has heard the term "fake news" - but do you know what it really means?

Do you know the difference between misinformation and disinformation? Understanding the various ways that false information is shared, and the motives and appeal behind it, is important in avoiding and combating it. “deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda.” Deepfakes are a new and particularly challenging type of audio, video, or image disinformation, generally used in malicious ways. They have the potential to rapidly spread false words and actions to a global audience, and can be extremely difficult to distinguish from real content. Targeted, local engagement with communities coupled with civic education are effective strategies to strengthen information ecosystems, alongside national and international efforts focused on laws and regulation.

By Gabriel Marmentini & Jeanine Abrams McLean Sep. 16, 2024 Over the last decade, democracies around the world have seen the steady decay of civic trust, the rise of hyperpolarization, the growth of cooperation among authoritarian powers, and a host of ever-evolving threats to... Misinformation (misleading information) and disinformation (deliberately false information) impede the informed decision-making of voters, but also undermine and erode trust in the media, government, and electoral processes. As countries navigate these challenges, grassroots strategies in combating the spread and influence of harmful and inaccurate information have proven to be a vital and effective complement to policy strategies and interventions. Effective grassroots organizations are trusted voices that are uniquely positioned to identify misinformation that impacts the communities they serve, to implement strategies to combat misinformation, and to build communities that are resilient to future...

These strategies include: (1) using education (civic, democratic, and media) to strengthen information ecosystems; (2) developing long-term civil society coalitions for fact-checking and community building; and (3) conducting localized community engagement activities and amplify... By leveraging direct connections with communities, grassroots efforts complement and enhance the impact and efficacy of policy-based tactics designed to strengthen information ecosystems, during and between election cycles. About this guide: The purpose of this guide is to provide insights and strategies for overcoming confusion around identifying credible information. Over the past decade, our online information landscape has been dramatically transformed. As a result, telling fact from opinion, and identifying credible journalism, has become more difficult. Whether you are a concerned citizen or an educator, this guide is for you.

Misinformation is defined as false, incomplete, inaccurate/misleading information or content which is generally shared by people who do not realize that it is false or misleading. This term is often used as a catch-all for all types of false or inaccurate information, regardless of whether referring to or sharing it was intentionally misleading.Disinformation is false or inaccurate information that is... Wardle created the “7 Types of Information Disorder,” a typology that illustrates and emphasizes the types of information disorder in our media landscape, and this information disorder glossary. This typology was derived from a report commissioned by the Council of Europe. Essential questions to ask when analyzing information center on the authority of the source/author and the purpose of the information: Authority: Who wrote/sponsored it? Purpose: What do they want me to do with the information?

Conspiracy theories and propaganda tap into our deepest fears, emotion, and deeply held beliefs or values. Our tendency toward cognitive biases also helps to make belief in these theories immune to logic. We often wonder how any rational and logical-thinking person could believe in them, but facts don’t win arguments. If you find the tone, language or claims of a piece of information inspire visceral fear or anger, it’s a good idea to investigate the claims elsewhere by cross-referencing them with a variety of... Gherguț-Babii, A.-N.; Poleac, G.; Obadă, D.-R. Challenges for NGO Communication Practitioners in the Disinformation Era: A Qualitative Study Exploring Generation Z’s Perception of Civic Engagement and Their Vulnerability to Online Fake News.

Journal. Media 2025, 6, 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6030136 Gherguț-Babii A-N, Poleac G, Obadă D-R. Challenges for NGO Communication Practitioners in the Disinformation Era: A Qualitative Study Exploring Generation Z’s Perception of Civic Engagement and Their Vulnerability to Online Fake News. Journalism and Media.

2025; 6(3):136. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6030136 Gherguț-Babii, Alexandra-Niculina, Gabriela Poleac, and Daniel-Rareș Obadă. 2025. "Challenges for NGO Communication Practitioners in the Disinformation Era: A Qualitative Study Exploring Generation Z’s Perception of Civic Engagement and Their Vulnerability to Online Fake News" Journalism and Media 6, no. 3: 136.

https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6030136 Gherguț-Babii, A.-N., Poleac, G., & Obadă, D.-R. (2025). Challenges for NGO Communication Practitioners in the Disinformation Era: A Qualitative Study Exploring Generation Z’s Perception of Civic Engagement and Their Vulnerability to Online Fake News. Journalism and Media, 6(3), 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6030136

Received 2022 Oct 20; Revised 2023 Jan 7; Accepted 2023 Jan 12; Issue date 2023. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Online social networks (OSNs) are rapidly growing and have become a huge source of all kinds of global and local news for millions of users. However, OSNs are a double-edged sword. Although the great advantages they offer such as unlimited easy communication and instant news and information, they can also have many disadvantages and issues.

One of their major challenging issues is the spread of fake news. Fake news identification is still a complex unresolved issue. Furthermore, fake news detection on OSNs presents unique characteristics and challenges that make finding a solution anything but trivial. On the other hand, artificial intelligence (AI) approaches are still incapable of overcoming this challenging problem. To make matters worse, AI techniques such as machine learning and deep learning are leveraged to deceive people by creating and disseminating fake content. Consequently, automatic fake news detection remains a huge challenge, primarily because the content is designed in a way to closely resemble the truth, and it is often hard to determine its veracity by AI...

This work aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic review of fake news research as well as a fundamental review of existing approaches used to detect and prevent fake news from spreading via OSNs. We present the research problem and the existing challenges, discuss the state of the art in existing approaches for fake news detection, and point out the future research directions in tackling the challenges. Keywords: Fake news, Disinformation, Misinformation, Information disorder, Online deception, Online social networks Fake news, disinformation and misinformation have become such a scourge that Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, is quoted to have said (making an implicit reference to... Indeed, although online social networks (OSNs), also called social media, have improved the ease with which real-time information is broadcast; its popularity and its massive use have expanded the spread of fake news by... Fake news may refer to the manipulation of information that can be carried out through the production of false information, or the distortion of true information.

However, that does not mean that this problem is only created with social media. A long time ago, there were rumors in the traditional media that Elvis was not dead,2 that the Earth was flat,3 that aliens had invaded us,4, etc. What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation? That was among the key questions considered at the recent Strategies for Combating Political Misinformation panel hosted by the Columbia University School of Professional Studies (SPS) Strategic Communication and Political Analytics graduate programs. The discussion centered on the varying factors that determine the influence of misinformation on beliefs, and what strategies can be used to combat it effectively. Dr.

Kristine Billmyer, program director of the M.S. in Strategic Communication, and Dr. Gregory Wawro, director and founder of the M.S. in Political Analytics program, welcomed attendees and introduced the panel’s moderator, Josie Cox, author of Women Money Power and an associate faculty member at SPS. Jennifer Counter, vice president of cyber security solutions company Orbis Operations and an associate faculty member at SPS, shared a succinct distinction between misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is like a game of telephone among family members who try to relay information accurately, she said, but don’t necessarily get the facts entirely right.

Disinformation, on the other hand, is the intentional dissemination of false information. Cox asked panelists how concerned they are about the state of misinformation and disinformation, the power and influence it has in our lives and communities today, and where they see things going over the... “We’re seeing higher levels of distrust in our elections, how they’re run and the validity of their outcomes,” USC Price’s Mindy Romero says. (Photo/iStock) With misinformation on the rise and American voters increasingly losing faith in elections, USC experts explore strategies to restore confidence in democracy. Public trust in our free and fair elections — a fundamental pillar of American democracy — is eroding.

We don’t need polls to tell us Americans are losing faith in democracy, though the numbers back it up: Recent survey data shows that almost 60% of Americans are dissatisfied with the current state... The flow of misinformation and coordinated disinformation campaigns are generating alarming levels of doubt among voters, USC experts say. From narratives around contentious issues like abortion and immigration to unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, the damaging effects of misinformation on democracy are increasingly evident. Even misinformation surrounding federal responses to crises such as Hurricane Helene show how public perception can be swayed and the consequences that can follow. Public Education Forum a NAFO Initiative Fake news is not just an abstract issue that concerns politicians, journalists, or fact-checkers.

It is an immediate and personal problem that affects our families, our communities, and the very fabric of our democracies. The spread of misinformation is no longer confined to fringe conspiracy circles or underground propaganda networks—it is embedded in the very platforms we use to communicate daily. The moment we scroll through social media, engage in discussions, or share an article, we become part of the information ecosystem.

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