Disinformation, Propaganda, and the Hyper-Politicization of the LA Wildfires + Tips & Tools for Analyzing the News
Melissa Jun Rowley
Media & Impact Entrepreneur | ex. World Bank, BBC News, CNN | Climate Justice Columnist | Communications Strategist | Author | Filmmaker
Everyone has a threshold for misinformation, disinformation, and the hyper-politicization of current events. Throughout the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires—the most destructive in the state’s history—I’ve hit mine. A part of me doesn’t even want to write about the right-wing commentary that’s been flooding the news because any spreading of disinformation breeds distraction. But my brain will come close to unraveling if I don’t write this out.
Whether it’s unfounded weather control conspiracies touted by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, false claims suggesting that the removal of hydroelectric dams in Northern California resulted in water shortages, or my favorite—blaming DEI (Diversity Equity & Inclusion) policies on the disaster—some of the propaganda around the wildfires is so preposterous it has all the makings of a fabulous SNL skit.?
Fortunately, a number of groups such as the USC Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication are publishing tips on how to identify misinformation regarding the LA wildfires along with climate change misinformation overall. Big thanks to Allison Agsten, the center’s director for flagging this IG post that highlights simple and practical action to take against misinformation. Allison, a long-time LA resident, former CNN coworker of mine, and dear friend also wrote this post on the importance of media outlets connecting climate change to the exacerbation of the wildfires.??
Now, back to my rant on disinformation and propaganda.?
Questions Behind Every Story: What is Propaganda and what can we do to spot it???
I follow the school of thought that propaganda is the dissemination of information—whether true, exaggerated, or outright false—designed to influence people's opinions, beliefs, or behaviors to achieve a specific goal. There’s helpful propaganda and there’s harmful propaganda. Helpful propaganda aims to inspire, educate, or mobilize people toward positive societal outcomes. Harmful propaganda seeks to manipulate, deceive, or control people for oppressive or divisive purposes.
While some outlets aim to provide balanced, factual information and serve the public interest, even the best of them exhibit degrees of propaganda, carrying subtle biases or unexamined assumptions, or unconscious propaganda, reflecting cultural norms or dominant ideologies without explicit intent to manipulate. My perspective on the recent right-wing commentary about the LA wildfires could be defined as propaganda, as it’s laced with my personal views, and I wrote it in a tone that I hope evokes emotion.?
Propagandist Practices Behind Some Stories?
When wanting to determine if a piece of news or commentary is propaganda, you can keep a look-out for the following:??
One-sided of Simplistic Narratives: When an issue is presented as black and white with no recognition of nuance or competing perspectives, this is typically propaganda.?
Clear Villains and Heroes: When characters or groups are described as either entirely virtuous or entirely evil, this leaves no room for nuance.?This is propaganda.
Emotional Manipulation: Content that strongly appeals to emotions, aiming to provoke fear ("threats are everywhere!"), anger ("they are the enemy!"), or guilt ("you are complicit if you don’t act!") is propaganda.
Lack of Evidence or Misuse of Facts: This can show up as unsupported claims such as assertions that are made without citing credible sources or evidence, cherry-picked data, or facts that are selectively presented to support one side while ignoring contradictory information. Additionally, out-of-context quotes or statements that are used in ways that distort their original meaning is a form of propaganda.
Repetition of Key Phrases: Slogans and buzzwords repeated frequently to implant ideas in an audience’s mind (e.g., "freedom is under attack" or "save the nation") are a type of propaganda. We see this in echo chambers across multiple platforms and media outlets.
Anonymous or Questionable Sources: Reliance on vague phrases like "experts say" or "insiders report" without identifying the sources can be propaganda.?
Demonizing Opponents: Criticizing individuals or groups personally rather than addressing their arguments or actions, and overgeneralizing groups or portraying them as dangerous, incompetent, or immoral is often propaganda.
Practices and Tools for Analyzing Every Story
Across today's hyperbolic, media, social media, and AI-infused landscapes, staying skeptical and informed is vital to protecting ourselves from manipulation. That’s why fact-checking, seeking alternative perspectives, and Identifying biases, including our own, is important. While we’re consuming content we can always be asking these questions:?
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Here are some helpful tools to support you.?
Fact-Checking Platforms
Critical Analysis Tools
Image and Video Verification
Stories I’m Following
Stories I’m writing:?
Events:?
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human expression x climate change
1 个月Thank you for mentioning me and especially thank you for all of your work as a climate communicator and beyond! You're amazing!