 | A WRITER'S WIT |  E. Wilson |
MY BOOK WORLD
McQuade, Barbara. Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America. New York: Seven Stories, 2024.
This book combines both anecdotal and hard evidence to define disinformation (deliberate misrepresentation of facts), provides a number of ways in which authoritarians use disinformation, and finally, gives a number of steps citizens and government can take to reduce the effects of it. If readers have studied the first two ideas, the book may seem like an excellent review. The last part—ways to combat disinformation—are the most informative for me.
One way is To Reduce Disinformation from the Supply Side. Germany, for example, REQUIRES “digital platforms to monitor and remove illegal content for face civil penalties” (251). To Regulate Online Publishers Like Other Industries is another. Prohibit Anonymous Users and Bots. Require Disclosure of Funding Sources. Strengthen local journalism by having the government provide partial funding. Local sources are less likely to disinform their friends or in a situation where it comes back on them.
McQuade furnishes numerous other ways in which to combat disinformation, locally, nationally, and on digital platforms. She concedes that these methods will not entirely make disinformation go away, but they could certainly reduce its effects. This read is well worth the time if you’re at all interested in the topic. Any one of us can be duped at any time. Oh, and I really admire McQuade’s prose in print. She, a former copy editor, is meticulous to get the correct subject/verb agreement, in, say, using the word “media.” The media are responsible for content. Too many people in journalism use media as a singular noun. Wrong.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Angela Carter
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis Wheatley
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Candice Bergen
FRI: My Book World | David B. Agus, The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life
This book combines both anecdotal and hard evidence to define disinformation (deliberate misrepresentation of facts), provides a number of ways in which authoritarians use disinformation, and finally, gives a number of steps citizens and government can take to reduce the effects of it. If readers have studied the first two ideas, the book may seem like an excellent review. The last part—ways to combat disinformation—are the most informative for me.
One way is To Reduce Disinformation from the Supply Side. Germany, for example, REQUIRES “digital platforms to monitor and remove illegal content for face civil penalties” (251). To Regulate Online Publishers Like Other Industries is another. Prohibit Anonymous Users and Bots. Require Disclosure of Funding Sources. Strengthen local journalism by having the government provide partial funding. Local sources are less likely to disinform their friends or in a situation where it comes back on them.
McQuade furnishes numerous other ways in which to combat disinformation, locally, nationally, and on digital platforms. She concedes that these methods will not entirely make disinformation go away, but they could certainly reduce its effects. This read is well worth the time if you’re at all interested in the topic. Any one of us can be duped at any time. Oh, and I really admire McQuade’s prose in print. She, a former copy editor, is meticulous to get the correct subject/verb agreement, in, say, using the word “media.” The media are responsible for content. Too many people in journalism use media as a singular noun. Wrong.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Angela Carter
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis Wheatley
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Candice Bergen
FRI: My Book World | David B. Agus, The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life
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