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

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