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(TNSres) -- The National Association of Science Writers issued the following news:
By Andrew Meissen
The key to correcting misinformation is to debunk it quickly, and ideally prebunk it before it even sprouts. At the ScienceWriters2022 national meeting in Memphis, journalist Kat Eschner taught attendees multiple tools for writing different types of stories to combat misinformation, in a session titled "Beyond Fake News: Reporting on Misinformation" (#ReportingFakeSci).
An affordability reporter at AVO based in Toronto, Eschner educated the crowd about three types of misinformation stories they can report: "The Debunk, the Prebunk, and the Follow the Money."
* Highlights from Escher's #ReportingFakeSci workshop (Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EWeVRCGwAi78f7mNsguOIdqu1cKHjcG7mdS-eUBYd_8/edit#slide=id.g168ef435b7f_0_35)
In the debunk, a reporter acknowledges false information that is spreading and instead provides the truth. It is reactive to existing misinformation, often pegged to the news. When acknowledging misinformation, it is extremely important for a reporter to provide the truth as quickly as possible, such as in the same sentence they introduced the misinformation, so as to prevent that misinformation from accidentally seeding in the reader. In all cases of the debunk, the reporter must also move quickly to produce the story, Eschner said, as misinformation spreads quickly.
Eschner elaborated that misinformation spreads easily for reasons that a newsroom can relate...