Disinformation: Dealing with the Disaster is an accompaniment to an online course with the same title. The first four chapters provide an overview of fundamental concepts and phenomena that have led us to our current online information environment. Chapter 1, Information Disorder, examines information and its evolution, looking briefly at historical and contemporary trends in the areas of misinformation, disinformation, online propaganda and more. Chapter 2, Information Distribution, provides a simple overview of the news industry including journalism and editing, as well as the progression of fake news–a politicized concept which is leading us into a post-truth world. Chapter 3, Information Automation, takes readers through the automatic aspects of information exploration, examining search engines, algorithms, and associated concepts. Chapter 4, Information Manipulation, explores human interactions with information, focusing on how humans share, consume, and interact with information on social media. Each chapter provides the reader with a base level of a specific literacy (information, media, digital and meta) making them better equipped to confront disinformation. The final chapter provides readers with various frameworks and tools for effectively evaluating information and suggests that readers integrate them into their online search behaviors.
