Informacja i dezinformacja w przestrzeni publicznej. Wprowadzenie do problematyki

Abstract

The media are considered political and, as the fourth power, they actively communicate in the public space. They create information and disinformation through persuasion. Persuasion is one management tool and is used in managing an organisation. This gives the opportunity to implement the adopted strategy and achieve the goals of the organisation. On the other hand, persuasion and other techniques of influence used by media managers are used to create information in line with the expectations of the authorities. Public and private media do it similarly, although they represent different political groups. Knowing how information and disinformation influences the recipients makes it possible to form information consistent with the intention of the sender. In the process of analysing information and disinformation in the media, one can adopt the perspective of rational choice theory and that of information selection, in line with the heuristic concept of D. Kahneman. The rational choice perspective allows to analyse intentions of the senders of information and its recipients. Profit and loss analysis of both allows to predict what information is important, what benefits may bring the senders and what the behaviour of the recipients will be. On the other hand, the perspective of D. Kahneman’s heuristic concept makes it possible to determine what the recipients' behaviour will be and how information can be prepared so that the recipients behave in the expected manner. The elaboration of information and disinformation is a process that requires knowledge of communicating and of human behaviour. Information creators and media managers create a platform of intentions, emotions and exerting influence, they can hinder the functioning of the state and its institutions and bring harm to society, they can, however, also be a support in difficult situations, e.g. a pandemic, if the message is credible. There is an open field of play between the main actors of information and disinformation, where it is possible to reconcile values important to those who create information, politicians and recipients.