What types of news are available?

• Journalism: Articles by journalists who have a set of professional ethics and whose work is reviewed by editors. Their primary purpose is to inform readers or viewers.

• Promotion: Articles that promote a political agenda or sell something like a product, point-of-view or image. They are generally one-sided. Hyperpartisan websites with false or misleading information fall in this category. Some articles might mix fact and fiction to make it more difficult to fact-check.

• Entertainment:  Articles whose main purpose is to entertain. Hoax sites may be entertainment, but they might also fall into the promotion category if they are trying to obscure the truth and promote an ideology, product, person, etc.

• Raw information: Information that may be unverified, anonymous, and un-edited.

Within these broad categories, we can identify specific types of mis- and disinformation using the typologies developed by Claire Wardle of The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, a Harvard University research center. These categories are evolving so read the original articles using the links below to get the latest on information disorder.

Credit: Claire Wardle & Hossein Derakshan, 2017 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Misinformation is information that is false, but not intended to cause harm. For example, individuals who don’t know a piece of information is false may spread it on social media in an attempt to be helpful. Sometimes people take satire seriously and disseminate it. 

Disinformation is false information that is deliberately fabricated or manipulated with the express purpose to cause harm. Producers of disinformation typically have political, financial, psychological or social motivations. 

Malinformation is the deliberate publication of private information for personal or corporate, rather than public, interest. Revenge porn is an example. The disseminators can deliberately change the context, date, or time of the original content. 

Claire Wardle, 2017 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

7 Common Forms of Information Disorder

• Satire or Parody: No intention to cause harm but potential to fool
  • Example: The Onion
• Misleading Content: Misleading use of information to frame an issue or individual
• Imposter Content: When genuine sources are impersonated

From Get Smart About News, Jan. 25, 2022. News Literacy Project.

• Fabricated Content: New content is 100% false, designed to deceive and do harm

From The Sift, Jan. 10, 2022. The News Literacy Project

• False Connection: When headlines, visuals or captions don't support the content.  Clickbait entices people to click on a link through eye-catching headlines that may not match the content or by withholding information from the reader. Links that say, "You Won't Believe Which Celebrities have Died!" next to a photo of a living actor is one example. 
• False Content: When genuine content is shared with false contextual information

From The Sift, March 8, 2021. The News Literacy Project

• Manipulated Content: When genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive

From The Sift, March 8, 2021, The News Literacy Project

Click on the links below to read the full articles about types of information.