Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review1 August 2021, Volume 2, Issue 4 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Reprints and permissions: misinforeview@hks.harvard.edu DOI: https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-76 Website: misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu
Commentary
Critical disinformation studies: History, power, and politics This essay advocates a critical approach to disinformation research that is grounded in history, culture, and politics, and centers questions of power and inequality. In the United States, identity, particularly race, plays a key role in the messages and strategies of disinformation producers and who disinformation and misinformation resonates with. Expanding what “counts” as disinformation demonstrates that disinformation is a primary media strategy that has been used in the U.S. to reproduce and reinforce white supremacy and hierarchies of power at the expense of populations that lack social, cultural, political, or economic power. Authors: Rachel Kuo (1), Alice Marwick (1,2) Affiliations: (1) Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA, (2) Department of Communication, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA How to cite: Kuo, R., & Marwick, A. (2021). Critical disinformation studies: History, power, and politics. Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review, 2(4). Received: May 20th, 2021. Accepted: July 23rd, 2021. Published: August 12th, 2021.
A critical approach to disinformation Disinformation has been a major scholarly and public area of concern since 2016, spurred by a resurgence of white, right-wing nationalism exemplified by Brexit and Trump’s presidential victory (Kreiss, 2021). The term “disinformation” refers to false or misleading information intentionally spread for profit, to create harm, or to advance political or ideological goals (Freelon & Wells, 2020). While this encompasses many information types, in public discourse disinformation is tied inextricably to social media and technology platforms, and often curiously depoliticized, framed as “polluting” or “infecting” an otherwise healthy information ecosystem. This framing disconnects disinformation from the broader politics of knowledge production and systems of power that undergird it; in other words, who benefits and why? A great deal of research suggests that disinformation narratives build on and reify pre-existing ideologies, frequently involving race and inequality (Freelon et al., 2020; Nkonde et al., 2021; Ong, 2021). Identity-based hierarchies, particularly race, play a key role in the creation, spread, and uptake of disinformation narratives (Kreiss et al., 2020; Marwick et al., 2021). This essay explores how this body of scholarship is central to understanding key issues and debates in disinformation research, including polarization, media ecosystems, and relevant actors.
1 A publication of the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy, at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School
of Government.