Information education as resistance to disinformation

Abstract

Contents that cause, with or without the intention of their disseminators, deception and confusion are increasingly frequent objects in Information Science analyses. The area has focused especially on the formative aspect of informational subjects so that they can face this disinformative content. The social impact of misinformation is also highlighted in a broader context, especially in debates related to political and health events, such as the Covid19 pandemic, when the influence of misinformation and speeches with hidden motivations gave rise to anti-science. In this scenario, studies such as critical information literacy (CIL) and infocommunication literacy (InfoCom) have advocated the promotion of critical awareness through education. With an approach based on Critical Pedagogy, such studies defend a transformative education, which gives space to local contexts without neglecting the broader political and economic context, with its often-international relationships and linked to logics such as data colonialism, surveillance capitalism, platform capitalism. Stimulated by the debates proposed by the CIL and InfoCom, we seek to outline characteristics of information education that promotes a critical view of disinformation. Information education consists of providing subjects with a healthy relationship with information. Education from this perspective aims to work on the ethical and critical aspects of the production, use and dissemination of information – indispensable aspects in the contemporary world. It can be said that educating about information has proven to be a promising strategy for combating misinformation. Above all because information education involves a set of knowledge that allows subjects to relate informational processes to their personal and social contexts. Education that considers the students' context can be effective in building awareness about dynamics that are often contrary to the development of. Social media, for example, where information and misinformation are abundantly present, have behind them an economy based on data, which generates the modulation of behavior in a way that does not conflict with the objectives of the companies that control them. These characteristics foster informational spaces and dynamics where post-truth tends to find space. The methodological path was mainly bibliographic research of the selected aspects, but it also included material from other aspects (and even areas of knowledge) that focus on related phenomena. The materials consulted directly or indirectly addressed disinformation or post-truth. The results found allowed us to discuss the potential of infocommunication literacy and critical information literacy as basic concepts of information education capable of forming subjects resilient to the phenomenon of disinformation.