There’s a ton of misinformation out there these days — and there’s also more people than ever talking about the news, politics and what’s going on in Australia.
A side effect of this: it’s become a lot harder to navigate what's real and what might be being done to mislead or misinform the public.
🕺 Breaking it down: A key goal for the National Account over the last year has been to break down the news and do reporting in a way that brings awareness to key issues, while also showing people how they could be led down the wrong path.
There’s no better example than the reporting around the anti-immigration marches held earlier this year.
🚩 The march: A lot of media and commentators were quick to talk about the rallies.
In their haste, they weren’t deeply considering whether they were amplifying dangerous messages by constantly mentioning the date, or specifically where to go, or using insults to stoke the flames (or give exposure) to a group that clearly wanted the attention.
✋ Stop and think: At the National Account, we asked ourselves:
How should you talk about something like this without potentially amplifying hatred or extremism?
We saw a lot of people who were angry about these protests, unintentionally feeding the fire, covering it the wrong way, and doing just about everything I mentioned earlier.
🧐 Your understanding : Our coverage of the event, linked below, was just one example of how we’ve tried to approach sourcing the news we dig our teeth into to help you understand things better.
Basically, when it comes to anything you see on the National Account, the questions we’re constantly asking are:
Should we share or talk about this at all?
Can we give better analysis or nuance?
And can we explain it better than other outlets have already tried to?
👀 On watch: We’ve also made an effort to point out what people should look out for when it comes to misinformation. Things like:
When someone uses coded language to send a hidden message to a specific group, while appearing harmless to everyone else, also known as dog whistling.
Looking into what the person's background is, where their info might be coming from and whether it’s reliable.
🥅 The goal: At the end of the day, this is what the goal of this publication is:
Tackling mis and disinformation.
Keeping the bastards honest.
Calling out bullshit when we see it.
Whether it’s this protest, fossil fuel propaganda, or the crap our politicians can come out with, the more debunking we get to do the more we hope you will be better informed, and also learn how to spot the bs.
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