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NEW YORK: Misinformation, as opposed to misinformation, was chosen as the word of the year by Dictionary.com on the torn tails of "toxic," chosen earlier this month by Oxford Dictionaries for the same honor.
Jane Solomon, a Linguist resident of Dictionary, said in a recent interview that the choice of her site between "put" and "dis" was deliberate, in order to serve "call to action" to be vigilant in the fight against false news, flat Earthers and anti-Vaxxers, among other things.
It is the idea of intent, whether inadvertently misleading or intentional, that the company based in Oakland, California, wanted to put forward. The company decided that the price would be high when the others have spent a good part of 2018.
"The widespread proliferation of false information poses new challenges to navigate life in 2018," Solomon told AP before the announcement of the new year. "Misinformation has been around for a long time, but in the last decade or so, the rise of social media has really changed the way information is shared. We believe that it is essential to understand the concept of misinformation to identify it as we encounter it in nature, which could ultimately help to reduce its impact. "
While studying the site searches that tended this year, Dictionary noted that "our relationship with the truth is something that has come up again and again," she said.
For example, the word "general public" has come a long way, appearing in January when the term "traditional media" or MSM has taken on gigantic proportions, as an insult on the part of some of the political right. Other words evoking the same problem included a search thrust in February for "white lie" after Hope Hicks, then director of communications at the White House, admitted to having spoken to a few for President Donald Trump.
The word "Orwellian" was the subject of heavy research in May, after a statement attributed to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, accusing the Chinese government of "Orwellian foolishness" by trying to impose its views on US citizens and private companies Airlines, American Airlines and other foreign carriers must refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as an integral part of China in public documents, such as their websites.
According to Solomon, disinformation "frames what we have all experienced in the past 12 months". In the same vein, the site, which has 90 million monthly users, is busy adding new words for "bubble filter", "false information". "Post-fact", "post-truth" and "homophilia", among others. Other word entries on the site have been refreshed to reflect new, timely meanings, including "echo chamber".
Among the company's finalists for the highest honor are 'Representation', motivated by the popularity of 'Black Panther' and 'Crazy Rich Asians', as well as the victories won in the mid-term US elections for Muslim women, Native Americans and LGBTQ candidates.
But the rise of misinformation, says Solomon, extends well beyond US borders and the role played by Facebook in spreading false information and propaganda in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The use of Facebook and other social media to incite violence and conflict has been documented around the world in 2018, she said.
"Hate speeches and rumors on Facebook have facilitated violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Riots erupted in Sri Lanka after false news pitted the country's Buddhist majority against Muslims. .
Distinctions must be emphasized between misinformation and misinformation.
"Misinformation would also have been a very interesting word this year, but our choice of misinformation was very intentional," she said. "Disinformation is a word that looks to the outside to examine the behavior of others. It's a bit like saying behavior and saying, "It's misinformation." With misinformation, there are still some who say it, but it may also seem more internal to help us evaluate our own behavior.
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