A new nationwide survey has shone a light on the rise of misinformation and the concern New Zealanders have about it.
The research commissioned by the Classification Office has found exposure to false or misleading information is common.
Photo: screenshot - The Edge of the Infodemic
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Around half of respondents believed in at least one false idea among a range presented in the survey, such as "Covid 19 is caused by 5G", "vaccines are ineffective and unsafe" and "climate change is not caused by human activity".
Chief censor David Shanks says we're living in the age of the infodemic, and misinformation is undermining trust in traditional sources of information.
The report did give some cause for some optimism, he told Kathryn Ryan.
“Over 82 percent of our respondents said that they had at least some concerns, some were very concerned about the spread of misinformation in this country,” Shanks says.
And only 2 percent of the group surveyed said they had no concerns about the spread of misinformation, he says.
“The striking thing for me really beyond the predominance of numbers and figures in this report was actually the personal stories from people who were in the survey.
They had an opportunity to fill out some free text areas, they didn't have to, but many of them chose to because they wanted to tell their stories about how this it impacted them and their whānau.”
Impacts included a family member going down a conspiracy rabbit hole and general anxiety about what and whom to trust.
“People talked about the impacts of mistrust across communities, it's pervasive, widespread and complex.”
The top five concerns associated with misinformation were Covid-19, US politics, general vaccine safety, the anti-vax movement, New Zealand politics and conspiracy theories.
This gives reassurance that people are aware of the risks that come with misinformation, he says.
“I think there are a number of elements from this research that we can work with and take some reassurance from, by and large, we're getting a picture of people that are interested in engaging with accurate information.
“They're trying to take steps when they encounter misinformation, they're concerned about it and feeling that that something should be done. That's something we can work with.”
The survey showed the majority did not trust the internet and social media users is a source of information, he says.
“Only 12 percent had high trust in news and information from internet and social media users.
“And yet, the corollary of that is that they are telling us they do go to social media, for example, to get the news.”
Mainstream media scored fairly highly, six out of 10 having high trust.
However, around half of New Zealanders expressed some level of belief in at least one statement associated with misinformation.
“We talked about climate change, we talked about the September 11 attacks, we talked about 1080, we talked about a whole range of areas with vaccines where we knew or suspected that misinformation may play a part.
“And in those categories, we asked some questions which we selected as being associated with misinformation, an example would be the statement vaccines cause autism.”
The research was not intended to lead to any kind of censorship, Shanks says.
“Free and open acceptance of different views and attitudes and testing that is an important part of a democratic society.
“And I'm not proposing that we expand the censorship role of me or my office to saying, well, if something is wrong or misleading then it will be censored.
“But what I'm saying is we need to be looking at the infosphere and what's happening, particularly but not exclusively online, with major moves and directions that can push whole communities and groups and individuals into areas that might cause themselves harm or the communities harm.”