I am working on a research project for one of my final courses for my Bachelor’s Degree.

The class was given three choices for their projects, but all of them have to do with misinformation.

This is something that people are seeing a lot nowadays with the boom of social media and such a divide in political affiliations, among other things.

Has it always been like this? Personally, I don’t know. But, as a journalist, and now a newspaper owner, I feel strongly about the media being held accountable for the spread of misinformation, intentional or not.

We recently published a story to bring up to date information in a story I wrote almost two years ago. We were contacted about updates, which came via a lawsuit, and requested documents to help apprise our readers since the first story ran.

We often get requests to tell a certain side of a story, but people often don’t want to tie their name to the story.

Our policy is to operate with the requirement of having verified, supporting documents to write a story, like probable cause reports for crime stories. When we interview the most knowledgeable person about the situation, like a city employee or a superintendent, we make it clear that the information we are gathering is from that person or that document.

For my research project, I have been looking at the spread of misinformation via a news article and correcting it with a retraction.

Some of what I have found was interesting.

Ecker et al., (2017), stated that while an explicit-reminder retraction was most effective in corrections, familiarity continues to lead to the interpretation of misinformation as fact, and therefore should be avoided.

So, how do you win against misinformation?

If I repeat incorrect information, but only for the purpose of pointing out that is wrong, and the new information is correct, I can still cause confusion.

It is a difficult road to navigate. Without repeating the original incorrect information, one might not realize they are the same story.

According to the Committee of Publication Ethics guidelines, as of 2019, the main purpose of retraction is to maintain the integrity of the publication, rather than to punish the authors.

In addition, some of the guidelines for notices of retraction include:

• Be linked to the retracted article wherever possible (ie, in all online versions)

• Clearly identify the retracted article (eg, by including the title and authors in the retraction heading or citing the retracted article)

• Be clearly identified as a retraction (ie, distinct from other types of correction or comment)

• Be published promptly to minimize harmful effects So, thanks to my wonderful classmates who will participate in my research project, I will be testing how they navigate misinformation being corrected via retraction in the story of bank robbers who wore Daffy Duck masks — not Donald Duck mask.

Misinformation can be spread by a number of different causes, including honest error, naive mistakes or research misconduct. Unfortunately, it can also be spread intentionally.

TroutMom says, be vigilant about the news you are consuming. Understand that some things do change, and that doesn’t necessarily make the source less credible. In fact, if they are correcting information rather than blowing past it, that means they truly have your best interests in mind, instead of only trying to save face.

Jordan Troutman is the General Manager of the Cassville Democrat, a wife, a mother of two daughters, and a student at Capella University majoring in Marriage and Family Therapy.