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In the early 1980s when the AIDS virus suddenly appeared there were allegations in the Soviet media that the virus had been created in a U.S. military laboratory as a biological weapon.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was no obvious explanation for the source of the virus, all central Soviet newspapers published a series of articles suggesting that it came from secret Pentagon laboratories. Moscow abandoned the disinformation campaign five years later, under pressure from the U.S. government.

Only in 1992 did the then Russian intelligence chief and later Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov admit that the disinformation service of the Soviet KGB had made up the conspiracy story.

“Conspiracy theories offer a simple explanation for things that otherwise are difficult to grasp. They have a special attraction to the public, this is how the human mind works,” Todd Leventhal, from the Office of Strategic Communication at the U.S. State Department, said in an interview.

Leventhal added that nowadays it is more difficult to predict whether a false story will have any consequences. Many conspiracy theories are posted on the Internet, he explained, and it is impossible to guess how many users will actually read them and what their reactions will be.

Super sleuth Todd Leventhal (right) has plenty of tales to tell after more than a dozen years at the U.S. State Department spent tracking misinformation about the United States reported in the news media. — Photo by Matthias Bernold, WPI '05

The Internet has “tons of misinformation” Leventhal said, particularly on “deceptive Web sites” such as Aljazeera.com as opposed to the real Web site, Aljazeera.net. And a lot of misinformation is related to the United States. “America today has such a strong presence around the world it is like a magnet for manipulators,” he explained.

“We worry when a publication that has strong credibility or a respectable Web site spreads false allegations, no matter if it’s done intentionally or not,” he added. Whenever there is a serious attempt at misleading public opinion abroad about important American political, economic or military issues, the State Department sends a denial or a correction to the U.S. embassies in those countries for dissemination to the local media.

A Culture of Instant Gratification

Misinformation about events happening in the United States is published not only by foreign media but also by American newspapers. One recent example was the coverage of the disaster after Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans in August 2005.

Overstated accounts from local officials of widespread looting and unspeakable violence, quoted without confirmation by many journalists, slowed federal response to Katrina, according to articles published later by reputable newspapers including The Wall Street Journal.

A month after the tragedy, the Journal quoted senior government officials saying that one major reason for the delay was that they believed they had to plan for a far more complicated military operation, rather than for a straight-ahead relief effort, mostly because of false media stories.

There were other myths and inaccurate stories made public by the media during the chaotic first weeks after Katrina hit, from how many people died to what conditions were really like inside the Louisiana Superdome where thousands of people had taken shelter. All the initial reports about babies being raped and armed gangs being on a murderous rampage proved to be fiction.

But this was not unprecedented in the American media. The shock and fear following the 9/11 attacks, for instance, led to exaggerated reactions by some U.S. journalists.

Mick Shultz, media officer at the Port of Seattle in Seattle, Wash., said that since 2001 local newspapers there have shown a much bigger interest in security issues in the area.

“They have published a lot of inaccurate reports about the lack of security measures in the port of Seattle, thus alarming the population for no good reason,” Shultz complained.

Images are even more efficient means of manipulating public opinion than text. Consequently, most American photojournalists have to follow certain strict rules when doing their job.

“You can certainly influence the public opinion by the power of a photograph,” Jose Luis Rios, director of photography at The Miami Herald in Miami, Fla., said. “I always tell the photographers that they have to be able to defend their photography as truthful and fair.”

Robert Gauthier, a photographer with the Los Angeles Times in Los Angeles, Calif., and part of a team of journalists at the paper who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism, agreed.

“Photojournalists do have a guideline to follow but I believe that we are dealing with a culture of instant gratification nowadays,” he said. “Pictures come on the wires very quickly and editors judge them if they tell a story or not, that is the only criteria they use when they make the selection.”

Gauthier and four other journalists at the Times were awarded the Pulitzer for a five-part series on government neglect at King/Drew Medical Center, a hospital in South Los Angeles.

“I had to be very careful when choosing which photos taken outside the hospital were going to be published in the newspaper,” Gauthier said. “The U.S. media have been accused many times of showing only African Americans screaming and being angry at rallies, thus promoting a stereotype that is unhealthy.”

What does the future hold?

The advancement of technology, along with an increasingly competitive market, has led to important changes in the marketing strategies of the news media. Digital storytelling, already used as a learning resource in schools, has recently been adopted by the biggest newspapers’ Web sites in the United States and Europe as a tool to enlarge audiences.

“Simulation environments weave together traditional elements, such as images, audio, text with flash animation and user-controlled slide shows to form a unique format. Elements can be selected, based on the story being told, to add depth to an article or appeal to a specific audience,” explained Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

“Digital storytelling allows users to experience the news rather than just read or hear it, thus enhancing the user’s enjoyment, understanding, engagement, and retention of information,” she added.

In the near future however, attempts at misinformation might affect the new digital media trend as well.

Users have the wrong impression that they evolve into active participants, not only in the comprehension of information, but also the creation of content. In reality, however, the architect of the simulation software is the one who establishes the several versions of the content.

“Studies are being done now to see how much digital storytelling influences public opinion,” Paul said. “We still don’t know how dangerous that might be but, of course, the software can be used by someone with a specific agenda.”