Information, Misinformation, Disinformation

The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.” –Carl Bernstein

Information is a message from one person to another, from one to many; from someone to somebody; information is a message received and understood from a source; information is the knowledge acquired through instruction, experience, studying, observing, from the media…

What is information age? Also called as Computer Age, Digital Age, New Media age because of the advent of personal computers (laptops, mobile telephones with internet) and the dawn of digital revolution and moving away from traditional industry and industrialization to an economy based on information computerization. Creation of a knowledge based society, the knowledge economy.

Internet is the platform for the uninterrupted flow of information, and internet cannot be disabled at one point. Internet was in 1969 but gained pace with the invention of www by British scientist Time Berners-Lee in1989.

Access to information, and controlling information is also happening in information age. Claude E. Shannon (1916-2001), the father of information theory, was an American mathematician, electrical engineer and cryptographer.

He published a paper predicting that the information can be quantitatively encoded as a series of ones and zeros (encoding information in 1’s and 0’s – binary digit was the fundamental element in all communication, and he showed that the information media from telephone signals to radio waves to television could be transmitted with a single framework!

The opposite of inform x uninform, informed x uninformed. You are informed about what to do in the house by your parents or guardian. You are uninformed about how death comes for no one knows how it comes, and when, and why unless old age brings it or some accident.

Disinformation is the deliberate way of misleading by giving false information such as by a political party, government, or by a character assassin. Propaganda is a form of disinformation.

Then what is misinformation? Misinformation is giving someone a piece information that is not correct, an incorrect information; and the intention to give such information may not be deliberate or deliberate.

Is a mind a galaxy of misinformation? For Djuna Barnes, it is: “The priceless galaxy of misinformation called the mind.”

You went late to the party because you were misinformed by your friend about the time. You are often misunderstood because your friends get misinformation about you. We could make judgements about others due to misinformation or lack of information, or as a result of someone giving us disinformation.