But What Can we DO About Misinformation?

It’s abundantly clear that misinformation is a dangerous scourge on our society. I’m actually tired of seeing polls and studies that merely quantify and point out how bad of a problem it is. We have abundant evidence. Think of how many people died from both coronavirus and extremist violence in the past 12 months alone due to misinformation, and how the foundations of our democracy have been shattered.

Now it is time to take concrete action to combat it.

People ask me “how do we fix this problem?”

Let me clearly explain what I think are the solutions to this problem and what my company, Ad Fontes Media, is doing to implement them.

First, know that there is not one silver bullet—not one single, easy solution—that will eliminate this problem. No fix of one law (e.g., Fairness Doctrine reinstatement or Section 230 repeal), will provide a complete solution. No unilateral action by entities, even powerful ones like social media companies, will eradicate the scourge.

The truth is that ALL of the following stakeholders in good news media have important roles to play in improving our news media ecosystem. Ad Fontes Media provides services for all of these stakeholders. Here are the concrete steps each stakeholder needs to take to do their part.

Consumers: Need to get better at discerning news sources and not spreading misinformation

Educators: Need to teach media literacy more widely and effectively in schools

Reputable Publishers: Need to monitor and improve their own reputations for reliability and bias, avoiding the temptation of polarization for profitability

Marketers: Need to use their advertising dollars to support good journalism and avoid funding polarizing junk news

Academic Researchers: Need to study the relationships between media diets and social, political, and health effects

Government: Needs to understand the scope of extremist news and disinformation to assess national security risks; needs to implement effective incentives and deterrents for publishers and platforms spreading misinformation

Social Media Platforms: Need to label, monitor, and, when necessary, remove misinformation, and provide users tools to understand can control the types of content they are being fed.

One thing all of these stakeholders need as a baseline are ratings—measurements—of news and news-like sources for reliability and bias to take the actions required. The ratings need to be non-partisan, teachable, granular, and methodologically rigorous. That’s why we rate the news, and that’s why our business is doing news ratings for the stakeholders in good news media.

So if you want to do something about the scourge of misinformation, join us, as an investor, a customer, or both. It is time.

https://wefunder.com/ad.fontes.media