In the news: NLP experts on navigating Mideast war misinformation

The Israel-Hamas war has opened a floodgate of misinformation, with even standards-based news outlets struggling to verify facts on the ground. In this confusing information landscape, journalists across the country have turned to our News Literacy Project experts for help explaining how to find credible information.

EducationWeek

“Misinformation flourishes in times of breaking news, especially on social media,” said Pam Brunskill, senior manager of education design at NLP. “There’s going to be a lag in what’s happening and when it can be verified.” Read the story here.

NBCU Academy

“There are literally hundreds of falsehoods going around,” said Dan Evon, senior manager of education design at NLP. “So, one of the things that people have to keep in mind, especially during these breaking-news events, is making sure they know where they’re getting their information from.” Read the article here.

WBEZ Chicago’s Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons

“Taking things out of context and presenting them in a new, false context is far and away the most common type of mis- and disinformation. It’s very easy to produce and in breaking news events it proliferates quite quickly,” said Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president for research and design. Listen to the program here.  

CSPAN’s Washington Journal

“Anytime you have a situation like that, and people’s biases are strongly invoked, that is a perfect recipe for people to lean into information that they like or they prefer and to dismiss information they don’t. The more strongly people feel about the situation, the more vulnerable they are to falsehoods, half-truths, to quick takes that they see online,” Adams said. Watch the segment here.  

NewsNation

“The first thing we tell people is just number one, remember that misinformation does thrive during breaking news events, including wars, and we absolutely have to be cautious about what we share. Just because something has [a] huge amount of views or likes does not mean it’s credible,” said Hannah Covington, director of education design at NLP. Read the piece here.  

Boston Globe

In a front-page story, John Silva, senior director of professional and community learning at NLP, said: “It is so easy to create things, especially with these new generative AI tools, or even with basic Photoshop.” Read the article here.  

Cap Radio’s Insight with Vicki Gonzalez

When we are processing information emotionally, it is far easier for misleading and false information to manipulate us into believing that it’s true. So, especially in breaking news situations, especially issues where lots of people are talking about it, that’s when we need to pause and wait, and try to think, ‘OK, where can I get credible information?’” Silva said. Listen to the program here.