In the confusing world we live it can be helpful to spell out the difference between “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
Basically, the difference is this— “disinformation” is a lie, it is straight-out falsehood invented and spread in order to deceive people; “misinformation”, on the other hand is a falsehood repeated by someone who believes it, it is someone passing on information they have heard, not knowing it to be a lie.
Here is a simple example.
The bushfires of 2019-2020 were called “unprecedented.”
They were not.
There were many earlier bushfires that were far worse.
To take just one example, the “Black Saturday” bushfires in Victoria in 2009 were far worse: they killed 173 people (in 2019-20 bushfires 34 people died).
Now 2009 was only ten years before 2019—you would expect journalists to either remember or at least check the newspaper files.
This appears not to have happened.
Instead, news report after news report kept repeating this false, untrue word of “unprecedented.”
How can that happen?
It happened mainly because people kept on repeating a falsehood on the mistaken assumption that it was true.
That is “misinformation”—passing on something false which the person who repeats it mistakenly believes to be true.
But is started somewhere.
Someone, somewhere, invented this falsehood—invented this lie.
That is “disinformation.”
That is deliberately trying to mislead and deceive.
For what it’s worth, here’s my theory: “misinformation” is far more common than “disinformation.”
Most people unthinkingly, and uncritically, just repeat what they’ve heard.
They don’t check the facts; they just repeat the fiction.
So, when false, or distorted, or misleading or deceptive information is flying around the world its source is likely to be 1% malice and 99% stupidity.
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If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
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