James Engel is WPSU’s election misinformation reporter. He’s been scanning the news and social media over the past several months seeking out misconceptions and misinformation about the election and voting process in Pennsylvania. WPSU’s Anne Danahy spoke with him about what he’s encountered and what it means for the contentious Fall 2024 elections.
Here's their conversation:
Anne Danahy
James, since September, you've been serving as WPSU election misinformation reporter. What's the idea behind that position?
James Engel
So WPSU got a grant from the University of Texas' Center for Media Engagement. It's in their college of communications, and so I rejoined the team here. And I'm not the only reporter in this position. There's a couple other people in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, North Carolina, mostly swing states, that are working to sort of counter disinformation in real time and also just clear up sort of basic misconceptions people might have about voting in this year's election.
Anne Danahy
And when you say rejoined, you had worked with us as an intern before.
James Engel
Yeah, about a year, my entire senior year of college.
Anne Danahy
So what types of misinformation are we talking about? How do you do your job?
James Engel
I spend a lot of time on social media, so looking at Facebook community groups, looking at X and Instagram, and trying to spot trends really. So see if people are talking about one specific thing, oh, there's an issue with this polling place. Or, you know, I keep getting these mailers that are claiming this and trying to spot a specific thing that you can either clarify or, you know, completely throw out the window and say that's false. I'm really trying to look at the community and see where people are confused or what people are talking about.
Anne Danahy
So are there specific examples of something that would raise a red flag for you and say, Hey, is this information correct?
James Engel
Yeah, for sure. I mean certain groups, certainly on Facebook, you can see, oh, this, this community group is known for spreading misinformation or something like that. But if you are looking at say, like one I did recently, for example, was the people kept saying that students were potential double voters, and that was part of rhetoric in Centre County, especially because of Penn State. But also people were amplifying that on social media in comments about certain stories or in independent posts and things like that. So you're looking for specific items and trying to verify well, is that a problem? And if it's not, or if it is, then trying to get to the heart of it.
Anne Danahy
It sounds like there might be some differences too; either something that is actual lies, factually inaccurate, versus something that somebody might have wrong, but there's no malice intended. Are you seeing kind of a spectrum of misinformation?
James Engel
Definitely, yeah. That's like the big difference between misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is it could just be a misconception. Somebody's confused, and they make a post, and other people read it and become equally confused, even though it's something that you know the person who posted that wasn't necessarily malign in their intentions, but you know that suddenly there's a there's a lie that is accepted. Disinformation is a little bit different in that that is actively seeking to mislead people and make people confused or angry or some other emotion that that is a much larger issue, I think.
Anne Danahy
Do you think that the misinformation you've encountered has the potential to affect people's perception of the election, trust in the election?
James Engel
I do certainly. I mean, I'm not the only one who thinks that. I think that a lot of priming is happening right now. There's a lot of already baseless claims about election issues in Pennsylvania, and what we need to be doing is sort of anti-priming. In fact checker circles, that's called pre-bunking, where you debunk something preemptively in the anticipation that it will become a larger issue.
Anne Danahy
So James, what can people do to guard themselves from misinformation that might be floating around in the upcoming weeks?
James Engel
Yeah, I mean, it's been said a million times, but go to trusted sources, go to news outlets and official sources that that you know you can rely on. That can be WPSU, that could be another place, but you're not going to learn that much on social media. In the coming days, there's going to be a lot said, and there's going to be a lot of things that are lies, that are said. And it's honestly just best to avoid them. This was on another NPR interview recently, but there is going to be a sort of fire hose of misinformation that occurs there. It's occurring now, and it will occur after the election, and it's not worth trying to debunk and analyze every drop of that fire hose, but if you put on a raincoat, then you're going to be better suited, so sort of ground yourself in the truth now and have a solid understanding of the way that things might go, and you'll be better served that way. If I could, I'd stay off social media a couple days.
Anne Danahy
James, thanks so much for talking with us.
James Engel
Thank you.
If you encounter misconceptions or misinformation about voting or the election, please email James Engel at radionews@psu.edu.
