Misinformation research aims to transcend politics in favour of objective scientific analysis. The broader its definition of the term “misinformation”, the less realistic that ambition is. New blog post: www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/what-is-mi... - ThreadSky

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danwphilosophy.bsky.social • 89 days ago

Misinformation research aims to transcend politics in favour of objective scientific analysis. The broader its definition of the term “misinformation”, the less realistic that ambition is. New blog post: https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/what-is-misinformation-anyway

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danwphilosophy.bsky.social•89 days ago

Most discussions of the challenges of defining misinformation neglect an important distinction: (1) the challenge of defining the concept; (2) the challenge of reliably and impartially *applying* the concept (i.e., identifying which information satisfies the definition).

danwphilosophy.bsky.social•89 days ago

For example, although it's obviously correct that true information can be misleading (e.g. if it's cherry-picked), it doesn't follow that "misinformation" should be defined to allow for this possibility unless researchers can reliably and impartially detect true but misleading content.

danwphilosophy.bsky.social•89 days ago

The blog post responds to and comments on recent reflections about challenges for misinformation research: https://www.science.org/content/article/five-biggest-challenges-facing-misinformation-researchers

rbnmckenna.bsky.social•89 days ago

Was wondering if you think this sort of criticism works against philosophical attempts to define "misinformation" that just aren't engaging in the project of applying the definition?

danwphilosophy.bsky.social•89 days ago

Good question. I think in principle that project can focus just on satisfying what I call the "definitional constraint" but that in practice philosophers also tend to be quite naive about the challenges of applying an adequate concept objectively. (With exceptions, ofc).

rbnmckenna.bsky.social•88 days ago

yeah I have in mind people who aren't really interested in the applications.

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