I’d like to add that Wikipedia itself, while an amazing resource, can be full of propaganda. I came across a page for an international organisation against chemical warfare and went to the edit history. Sourced additions regarding complaints by scientists on the ground in Syria that their findings were being completely misrepresented to show Assad was using chemical warfare were consistently scrubbed without any reason given.
It’s funny that I was actually looking at that page randomly while considering how to code a tool that would highlight the most recent (and therefore unreviewed) edits on wiki. I got the idea from a Defcon talk on how to counter and deal with misinformation. It’s ironic that in this instance, it was the more established editors that were propagating misnformation.
Grimtuck@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I like the Oxford dictionary definition:
“The systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a particular cause or point of view, often a political agenda.”
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
So, it doesn’t matter what the bias is. It’s still propaganda. The opposite of that would be a balanced view without any bias. So, would that also imply restricting to just factual information?
untorquer@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Beyond a diverse sourcing of information one could consider sources which present their bias up front.
An analysis seated in a well communicated philosophy is better than one with its motive hidden behind a mask.
Furthermore, information being factual isn’t enough to be unbiased. Bias also applies to the selection of information being presented, or more importantly, not presented.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
That’s a good point. The information would have to be factual and compressive, which is a tall order. You could still miss some details unintentionally, with would mess things up.
Stating your biases up front is a reasonable compromise, so let’s go with that. If you’re reading a Nazi blog, you know what their biases are, so you can take that information with the appropriate grain of salt. If you’re listening to a space lizard podcast, a few hefty spoons should do it.