Information Hazards as Activity and Content: a Grounded Account of Dis/Misinformation

The study of dis/misinformation is more popular than ever—but what exactly is the problem, and how should we define it?

Join Omar El Mawas, Postdoctoral Researcher at École Normale Supérieure, as he clarifies the dis/misinformation problem, broadly defining it as anything that undermines the ‘epistemic aim of information.’ Building on this refined definition, he will present a new, grounded account of dis/misinformation.

In this talk, El Mawas will critically engage with three leading approaches:

• Harm-based
• Misleading-based
• Ignorance-based

He will then introduce an information hazard-based account, which distinguishes between misinformation as content, misinformation as activity, and disinformation as activity. This new framework, grounded in stronger conceptual and ontological foundations, addresses the limitations of previous models and promises to bring greater clarity to the study of dis/misinformation.

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