"Visinformation": Misleading Visual Information's Powerful Impact on Today's Digital Citizenry

Workshop Presentation
Mark Kelton,  Melinda Booze,  Cecilia Corbin,  Brooke Donaldson,  Jalen Gifford,  Samuel Labertew,  Rebecca Varju  

According to the Pew Research Center, all digital sources—television, news websites, radio and social media—now beat out print newspapers as Americans’ go-to news sources. Others say that hearing a piece of information will result in remembering 10% of it three days later, whereas adding a picture increases the percentage remembered to 65%. A 2018 digital marketing survey revealed that 54% of consumers wanted more video content from brands or businesses with which they engage. But according to one report, 73% of news consumers worldwide worry about false information or other misleading or inaccurate “news” being used as a weapon. Just as the technology makes it easier to deliver visual content to audiences, the technology also has made it possible for users to create, modify or falsify their own visuals, perhaps contributing to the lack of trust in social media content. The distrust that users have in digital sources perhaps reflects dependence on someone else—the content creators, the platform techies, the user community—to do the fact checking. But, who really is? The old adage “buyer beware” has never been more applicable. “User beware” is the watchword of the day, but how to beware is the question. Using the framework of The Washington Post’s Fact Checker’s Guide to Manipulated Video, this workshop will help users identify various ways that video communication can be misleading, use examples that help participants practice identifying “visinformation,” and provide some takeaway strategies to help the 65% of visually-enhanced information retained be 100% accurate.