Reading Response #1

This article is mainly about different types of misinformation on the web. The article begins by showing an example of a Lip balm addiction web site and whether or not the information can be taken seriously or not. Sites such as this one fall into several different categories such as hacks, malicious, counterfeit, spoofs/parodies/entertainment, disinformation and fictitious. Granted not all things on the web that are wrong fall under these categories some are just simple mistakes that people have made unknowingly. The first category the author hits on is Parody/spoofing sites. These sites are used to show humor toward the original organization, site, or product. These sites are generally not malicious. Counterfeit sites are the most irritating type of hoax sites. These sites try and pass themselves off as a real legitimate websites in order to disseminate misinformation. The example they use is that of a Martin Luther King website that on the surface looked legit but in truth if you looked closer was for white power. Hate sites are often considered suspicious due to there content and some often try to argue that a certain historical events such as the Holocaust did not exist. The government has had a lot of difficulty with disinformation, which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the dissemination of deliberately false information, especially when supplied by a government or its agent to a foreign power or the media, with the intention of influencing the policies or opinions of those who receive it. Examples of the government issues include that of the different wars taking place around the world. Misinformation is often subject specific meaning it is focused on a particular subject such as an event like September 11th or even science and health information. Many businesses are affected by misinformation that is the result of upset customers and disgruntled employees. Fictitious website are exactly as they sound completely fake. The example the article use is that of a fictions countries website. Hacks are when someone alters something that already exists this is another type of misinformation.
I found this article very interesting because I did not know what all of these types of misinformation where. I liked that it provided a lot of examples to better explain the different types of misinformation. I now know to better evaluate a website before I use it in a paper or as a reference.