Mis, Dis, and Mal Information

As many of you know, last week was the National Week of Conversation, a week of rich and varied events designed to help us reduce toxic polarization and become informed voters. One of the events I found most interesting was hosted by Deanna Troust, founder of Truth in Common. At this week’s Crossing Party Lines Conversation, we’ll explore one of the distinctions brought to light at that event: the distinction between mis-, dis-, and mal information.

• Misinformation = false or misleading information shared because someone believes it to be true or thinks it would be interesting/important if it were true.
• Disinformation = false or misleading information shared with the intent to create chaos or harm or to divide us
• Malinformation = information that’s based on reality but used to inflict harm on a person, organization, country etc.

In this week’s meeting, we’ll explore these different types of harmful information asking such questions as How can we tell the difference? and How should we deal with it all?