disinformation Reference library
Garner's Modern English Usage (5 ed.)
... ; misinformation . These words are not synonyms. Disinformation = deliberately false information <disinformation campaign> . Misinformation = incorrect information, whether or not deliberately false <widespread misinformation about HIV and how it is transmitted> . The distinction is clear in this passage: “Innocent misinformation may influence elections, but intentionally spread false information is the much greater danger. This disinformation violates democratic norms that people should not be lied to about politically relevant...
disinformation Reference library
The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military
... n. false information that is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power or the media. 1950s: formed on the pattern of Russian dezinformatsiya...
disinformation Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
... ( black propaganda ) A form of propaganda involving the dissemination of false information with the deliberate intent to deceive or mislead. It is misinformation that the term has Russian roots: dezinformatsia (misinformation) is derived from French ( dés + information ). See also fake news . ...
disinformation Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style
... ; misinformation . These words are not synonyms. Disinformation = deliberately false information <Soviet disinformation>. Misinformation = incorrect information <widespread misinformation about HIV and how it is transmitted>. Sometimes the more pejorative word ( disinformation ) is misused for the less pejorative—e.g.: “Not surprisingly, the low level of scrutiny she was thought to deserve accounts for a significant amount of disinformation [read misinformation ] in reference works” ( Profession ). That sentence appears in an article...
disinformation Reference library
Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (4 ed.)
...disinformation , first recorded in 1939 (applied to a German ‘Disinformation Service’), is a keyword in modern political vocabulary. At the height of the Cold War ( 1945–89 ) the dissemination of concocted false information was one of the most potent and dangerous weapons of governments, and especially of the various intelligence groups, the CIA, the KGB, MI6,...
disinformation Quick reference
Fowler’s Concise Dictionary of Modern English Usage (3 ed.)
... , a more sinister equivalent of propaganda , is first attested in 1939 in relation to a German ‘Disinformation Service’. Since then it has usually been applied to the activities of various intelligence and political groups during the Cold War and after: One technique of the Central Intelligence Agency…is dis-information…The Agency has expensive facilities for producing fake documents and other means for misleading foreigners — New Republic , 1975 When Saddam was captured in the ‘spider hole’ outside his hometown of Tikrit, his briefcase yielded...
disinformation
misinformation
propaganda
misinformation Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
...The dissemination of false information , either knowing it to be false ( see disinformation ), or unknowingly. ...
