When you write news, you’re supposed to provide your readers, viewers and listeners with useful and reliable information. Have you noticed that the information you get on television, in the newspapers and on websites is not always either useful or reliable? Some of it is biased, some incomplete and too much of it is just hot air.
To help clarify matters, I have identified four categories of information as it relates to the news business: 1. There is straightforward, factpbased information, 2. misinformation, 3. disinformation and 4. spinformation. I will more fully define each category.
1. Information. This is what most news consumers’ want when they turn on a television or open a newspaper. They want trustworthy facts and pertinent details accompanied with reliable quotes from informed people packaged and presented in an interesting and coherent way.
2. Misinformation. For my purposes, misinformation does not include intentional deceit, although a complete definition of the word does. Here I’m referring to the unintentional mistakes we humans are prone to make. The other day a leading cable TV talking head referred to a U.S. senator as a governor. His informed viewers knew he did not intend to deceive them and quickly overlooked his misinformation.
3. Disinformation. This is the worst kind of information you can ever put out. Disinformation is intended to deceive or distract consumers from the truth. Those famous for disinformation are called liars. They use deception, distortion, hyperbole, propaganda, misstatement, and the intentional omission of significant facts to put forth a false story. The purveyors of false or misleading information are the bottom-feeding low-life of the news industry.
4. Spinformation. You’ve never heard that word, have you? There’s a reason - I just made it up to make my final point. Spinformation is my new word for spin. It is the press release from the politician caught in a scandal. It is the rant you get from the defense attorney after his client is found guilty. It is the hyperbole you get at the press conference where your favorite college team introduces their new football coach. Most of the time spinformation is easily recognized, usually harmless but also, not very useful.
Citizen journalist - what kind of information are you famous for?
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
latest comments