Panelist Anya Schiffrin, director of the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization at Columbia University School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), noted that she is highly concerned, pointing to the spread of misinformation currently occurring in the Middle East. Yamil Ricardo Velez, assistant professor of Political Science at Columbia, shared that while he acknowledged Schiffrin’s concern, he harbors a level of optimism for our ability to limit the negative impact of misinformation, pointing out that professionals and academics are working on solutions to the problems presented by misinformation.
But the scope of the problem isn’t to be underestimated, countered panelist Bradley Honan, CEO and president of Honan Strategy Group. “There’s been disinformation as long as humans have been talking to each other,” Honan said. “Having so many different channels and platforms allows information now to move as never before. Disinformation is becoming more persuasive because there’s so much of it.”
Honan also pointed out that misinformation could wind up being the decisive issue of the 2024 presidential election. In America, there is no regulation when it comes to fact-checking and misinformation, and the fact-checking that does exist has an English language bias, which means that large groups of people who don’t speak the language aren’t able to access the highest quality information because it simply isn’t made available to them.
The panel also discussed the role that local news plays in small, underserved communities known as “news deserts.” While the role of trusted local journalists is critical in combating misinformation, sufficient funding is unfortunately not in place to help grow those smaller newsrooms. Schiffrin mentioned that these local news teams ought to be funded by major tech companies like Google or Meta who have been profiting off these publishers’ work for years without compensation.
In addition to a call for more regulation, the panelists agreed that media literacy is a critical solution to solving the misinformation problem. Schiffrin pointed out that New Jersey just passed bipartisan legislation establishing K-12 information literacy education to help students evaluate and understand the news they encounter—the first curriculum of its kind in the country.
Counter spoke to the potentially problematic nature of AI-generated content. “There’s been content pushed out on social media inflaming things,” she said. “It’s going to democratize disinformation even more than it already does. People will not know what to believe.”
However, generative AI’s impact isn’t necessarily all negative when it comes to misinformation. Panelist Yamil Velez shared that, in isolated instances, generative AI can increase access for minority groups, citing the example of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who used AI to communicate with non-English-speaking New Yorkers. However, both Velez and Counter added that even when used appropriately, content that uses AI should always be flagged.
The dissemination of misinformation is a problem that’s not going away any time soon, the panelists agreed, though they shared the hope that its impact could be limited through educational channels like media literacy—and insightful discussions such as this one.
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The Real Impact of Fake News: The Rise of Political Misinformation—and How We Can Combat Its Influence - Columbia University
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