8 | MAY 16 • 2024
J
N
T
he last presidential
election took place in
the midst of a deadly
pandemic that killed more
than a million people and
profoundly impacted every
aspect of our lives. This elec-
tion year brings a different
type of epidemic: the escalat-
ing spread of disinformation
that compromises our ability
to distinguish fact from fic-
tion.
The average person with
a smart phone, computer
and television is bombard-
ed every day with messages
from email, texts, “snail”
mail, social media feeds,
TikTok scrolls, advertise-
ments, websites, online news,
podcasts, television, radio,
newspapers, magazines,
blogs, billboards and more.
And, the upcoming election
turns the usual daily deluge
into a tsunami.
In addition to managing
the information overload,
we are faced with the dif-
ficult job of finding truth
in a haystack of falsehoods,
a challenge exacerbated
by advanced AI (Artificial
Intelligence) technology
that enables malicious indi-
viduals to generate realis-
tic yet bogus content and
sophisticated social media
algorithms that spread the
disinformation to millions of
people with lightning speed.
Neither the left nor the
right — neither liberals
nor conservatives — have a
monopoly on the truth.
“There is no truth in
advertising for political cam-
paigns,” said author, profes-
sor and mental health advo-
cate Erik Bean. Ed.D. “We
need to become
experts on the
candidates we
want to support.”
While this is a
worthwhile goal,
how can voters
make informed
decisions in an environment
where falsehoods skillfully
impersonate truths?
In his prize-winning book
Bias is All Around You: A
Handbook for Inspecting
Social Media & News Stories,
Bean provides a step-by-
step guide for scrutinizing
How to distinguish fact from fiction.
The
Disinformation
Epidemic
Erik Bean,
Ed.D.
RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
OUR COMMUNITY
COVER STORY