Dictionary.com pulled no punches with its “2018 Word of the Year.”
The site chose the word “misinformation” — which it defined as “false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead” — and directly mentioned President Trump, social media sites and conspiracy theories in the announcement.
Jane Solomon, linguist-in-residence at Dictionary.com, told the Associated Press that misinformation “frames what we’ve all been through in the last 12 months,” adding that “the rampant spread of misinformation is really providing new challenges for navigating life in 2018.”
Dictionary.com referred to misinformation as “particularly rife” when it comes to US politicians, specifically Trump and the increasing number of false claims made to the American people. An analysis by the Washington Post referenced in Dictionary.com’s announcement claims Trump has made 6,420 false or misleading statements from his first day in office through Oct. 30 of this year.
The word-of-the-year decision comes as social media companies, and the American people, grapple with the now-global struggle surrounding “fake news.”
While Trump regularly uses the term to attack negative media coverage, “fake news” has become a major source of misinformation across the country.
Social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter have faced an uphill battle combating the newfound epidemic. Both sites set up “war rooms” in the month before the November midterm elections to directly combat the spreading of false information.
Twitter has also banned millions of accounts belonging to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorists — including InfoWars founder Alex Jones — as well as bots encouraging people not to vote.
Dictionary.com said public health crises were also impacted by misinformation on social media. It mentions how bots on Twitter have successfully pushed conspiracy theories about vaccinations, eroding public trust in vaccines and leading to a growing number of unvaccinated children across the country.
“For most individuals on social media, fact-checking is an afterthought, if it is a thought at all, and misinformation thrives,” the site said.
Dictionary.com also highlighted the difference between “misinformation” and “disinformation,” noting that the two are not interchangeable. “Disinformation” refers to “deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda,” according to the site, while “misinformation” does not require intent.
The site says an example that highlights the difference between both terms would be “if a politician strategically spreads information that they know to be false in the form of articles, photos, memes, etc., that’s disinformation. When an individual sees this disinformation, believes it, and then shares it, that’s misinformation.”
The site’s runner-ups for Word of the Year included “representation” as a result of hit films “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians” and “backlash” due to national stories including Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation process and the #MeToo movement.
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