I expect 2021 will be the year misinformation fatigue sets in — a condition from which I will undeniably suffer and for which I will be partly to blame.
For the last three years, I’ve reported on “misinformation online” for NBC News. There were once slow news days on that beat. They disappeared when the pandemic struck.
Suddenly everyone was online, and the serial misinformers on my beat — folks who had spent the better part of a decade steadily pumping out lies in pursuit of political power or a few bucks — had a whole new audience of bored and confused people to whom they could sell their nonsense.
The pandemic coupled with a presidential election primed as “rigged” by the sitting president made 2020 a boom time for homegrown disinformation agents and the journalists charged with unraveling their constant lies. QAnon supporters won congressional elections, anti-vaxxers grew their movement tenfold, ratings soared for fringe and fact-free alternative news outlets helmed by conspiracy theorists, and roving bands of armed militias and street-fighting gangs gained members and support from a wide swath of the country.
Traditional news organizations responded to the increased demand for lies with more reporting on the misinformation work that went beyond fact-checks and tried to show the real-world harm that could come from such misinformation: people getting sick, public health officials terrorized, politicians’ lives threatened, young people of color in mostly white towns “othered” and intimidated, and worse. We also tried to hold tech companies responsible for the false claims spread on their platforms — pressure that undoubtedly played a part in the measures that Facebook, Twitter, and Google took to address misinformation, most memorably the seemingly endless information labels affixed to misleading or false claims.
But has any of it meant anything? Platforms seem very pleased with the moves they’ve made, but limited research suggests the fact-checking and the labeling and the reporting is more motion than progress — perhaps just further entrenching people into whatever camp they belong.
Misinformation isn’t going away, but it seems inevitable that people will stop caring. Much like compassion fatigue, a traumatic burnout experienced by caregivers, I expect people to be exhausted by a year of unbridled misinformation.
There’s a chance that this fatigue (aided by the ability to actually leave our homes, should these vaccines work as advertised) will lead to people giving up on the online social experiment — logging off and re-subscribing to their local newspaper (should it still exist), and finding their communities not just online, but IRL, though family, church, work, hobbies.
That’s a nice thing I sometimes think about.
But something else seems more likely. The pandemic has led more normal people to, as Facebook suggested, “find their community,” on some platform or other. They’ve found the news outlet that tells them what they want to hear, or the YouTube channel that pumps them with fantastical tales of imaginary wars between good and evil, or the Facebook group that reinforces those beliefs and links them with fellow travelers, or the Twitter follows who reliably “own” their perceived enemies.
It turns out maybe people don’t actually care about being lied to. And little is likely to change in 2021 unless and until platforms take actual responsibility for the way people gather and organize on them — admitting that their algorithms already guide what we see, who we speak to, what we buy, and what we believe, and working with outside experts to instead curate an experience that undoes a bit of the pollution that they’ve made.
I’m not holding my breath.
Brandy Zadrozny covers the internet, platforms, and politics for NBC News.
I expect 2021 will be the year misinformation fatigue sets in — a condition from which I will undeniably suffer and for which I will be partly to blame.
For the last three years, I’ve reported on “misinformation online” for NBC News. There were once slow news days on that beat. They disappeared when the pandemic struck.
Suddenly everyone was online, and the serial misinformers on my beat — folks who had spent the better part of a decade steadily pumping out lies in pursuit of political power or a few bucks — had a whole new audience of bored and confused people to whom they could sell their nonsense.
The pandemic coupled with a presidential election primed as “rigged” by the sitting president made 2020 a boom time for homegrown disinformation agents and the journalists charged with unraveling their constant lies. QAnon supporters won congressional elections, anti-vaxxers grew their movement tenfold, ratings soared for fringe and fact-free alternative news outlets helmed by conspiracy theorists, and roving bands of armed militias and street-fighting gangs gained members and support from a wide swath of the country.
Traditional news organizations responded to the increased demand for lies with more reporting on the misinformation work that went beyond fact-checks and tried to show the real-world harm that could come from such misinformation: people getting sick, public health officials terrorized, politicians’ lives threatened, young people of color in mostly white towns “othered” and intimidated, and worse. We also tried to hold tech companies responsible for the false claims spread on their platforms — pressure that undoubtedly played a part in the measures that Facebook, Twitter, and Google took to address misinformation, most memorably the seemingly endless information labels affixed to misleading or false claims.
But has any of it meant anything? Platforms seem very pleased with the moves they’ve made, but limited research suggests the fact-checking and the labeling and the reporting is more motion than progress — perhaps just further entrenching people into whatever camp they belong.
Misinformation isn’t going away, but it seems inevitable that people will stop caring. Much like compassion fatigue, a traumatic burnout experienced by caregivers, I expect people to be exhausted by a year of unbridled misinformation.
There’s a chance that this fatigue (aided by the ability to actually leave our homes, should these vaccines work as advertised) will lead to people giving up on the online social experiment — logging off and re-subscribing to their local newspaper (should it still exist), and finding their communities not just online, but IRL, though family, church, work, hobbies.
That’s a nice thing I sometimes think about.
But something else seems more likely. The pandemic has led more normal people to, as Facebook suggested, “find their community,” on some platform or other. They’ve found the news outlet that tells them what they want to hear, or the YouTube channel that pumps them with fantastical tales of imaginary wars between good and evil, or the Facebook group that reinforces those beliefs and links them with fellow travelers, or the Twitter follows who reliably “own” their perceived enemies.
It turns out maybe people don’t actually care about being lied to. And little is likely to change in 2021 unless and until platforms take actual responsibility for the way people gather and organize on them — admitting that their algorithms already guide what we see, who we speak to, what we buy, and what we believe, and working with outside experts to instead curate an experience that undoes a bit of the pollution that they’ve made.
I’m not holding my breath.
Brandy Zadrozny covers the internet, platforms, and politics for NBC News.
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities