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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 4 december 2018

Dictionary.com chooses 'misinformation' as word of the year

By LEANNE ITALIE mar, riots started in Sri Lan-
Associated Press ka after false news set the
NEW YORK (AP) — Misin- country's Buddhist majority
formation, as opposed to against Muslims, and false
disinformation, was cho- rumors about child kidnap-
sen Monday as Dictionary. pers on WhatsApp led to
com's word of the year on mob violence in India," Sol-
the tattered coattails of omon said.
"toxic," picked earlier this Is disinformation or misin-
month for the same honor formation at play in terms
by Oxford Dictionaries in of the year's most promi-
these tumultuous times. nent conspiracy theories?
Jane Solomon, a linguist- Solomon noted prolifera-
in-residence at Dictionary, tion on social media over
said in a recent interview students in the Parkland
that her site's choice of school shooting being crisis
"mis" over "dis" was delib- actors instead of victims of
erate, intended to serve violence, and over a group
as a "call to action" to be of migrants from Honduras
vigilant in the battle against who are making their way
fake news, flat earthers and north being funded by "rich
anti-vaxxers, among other This screen image released by Dictionary.com shows an entry for the word misinformation, liberals."
conduits. which Dictionary.com announced as its 2018 Word of the Year. Elsewhere in the culture,
It's the idea of intent, Associated Press countless podcasts and
whether to inadvertently videos have spread the
mislead or to do it on pur- In studying lookups on the abee Sanders accused chamber." absurd notion of a global
pose, that the Oakland, site that trended this year, the Chinese government The company's runners-up cover-up that the Earth is
California-based company Dictionary noticed "our re- of "Orwellian nonsense" in for the top honor include flat rather than round. The
wanted to highlight. The lationship with truth is some- trying to impose its views "representation," driven by idea of "misinfodemics" has
company decided it would thing that came up again on American citizens and the popularity of the movies surfaced in the last several
go high when others have and again," she said. private companies when "Black Panther" and "Crazy years to identify the anti-
spent much of 2018 going For example, the word it declared that United Air- Rich Asians," along with vaccination movement
low. "mainstream" popped up a lines, American Airlines and wins during the U.S. mid- and other beliefs that lead
"The rampant spread of lot, spiking in January as the other foreign carriers should term elections for Muslim to real-world health crises,
misinformation is really pro- term "mainstream media," refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong women, Native Americans Solomon said.
viding new challenges for or MSM, grew to gargan- and Macau as part of Chi- and LGBTQ candidates. There are distinctions be-
navigating life in 2018," Sol- tuan proportions, wielded na in public-facing materi- But the rise of misinforma- tween misinformation and
omon told The Associated as an insult by some on the als, such as their websites. tion, Solomon said, stretch- disinformation to be em-
Press ahead of the word of political right. Other words Misinformation, Solomon es well beyond U.S. borders phasized.
the year announcement. swirling around the same said, "frames what we've and Facebook's role in dis- "Disinformation would have
"Misinformation has been problem included a lookup all been through in the last seminating fake news and also been a really, really in-
around for a long time, but surge in February for "white 12 months." In that vein, the propaganda in the Cam- teresting word of the year
over the last decade or so lie" after Hope Hicks, then site with 90 million monthly bridge Analytica scandal. this year, but our choice
the rise of social media has White House communica- users has busied itself add- The use of Facebook and of misinformation was very
really, really changed how tions director, admitted to ing new word entries for other social media to incite intentional," she said. "Dis-
information is shared. We telling a few for President "filter bubble," ''fake news," violence and conflict was information is a word that
believe that understanding Donald Trump. ''post-fact," ''post-truth" and documented around the kind of looks externally to
the concept of misinforma- The word "Orwellian" sur- "homophily," among oth- globe in 2018, she said. examine the behavior of
tion is vital to identifying faced in heavy lookups ers. Other word entries on "Hate speech and rumors others. It's sort of like point-
misinformation as we en- in May, after a statement the site have been fresh- posted to Facebook fa- ing at behavior and saying,
counter it in the wild, and attributed to White House ened to reflect timely new cilitated violence against 'THIS is disinformation.'q
that could ultimately help press secretary Sarah Huck- meanings, including "echo Rohingya Muslims in Myan-
curb its impact."

Photo thought to be of Vincent

van Gogh is his brother

Associated Press the Amsterdam museum said. prompting further research.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) The museum says there is now "This discovery means that we
— One of only two known only one known photographic have rid ourselves of an illu-
photos of painter Vincent van portrait of the camera-shy sion while gaining a portrait
Gogh turns out to most likely Dutch artist, taken when he of Theo," said Van Gogh Mu- This handout made available
be an image of his brother, was 19. Both photos are in the seum Director Axel Rueger. by the Van Gogh Museum,
Theo, the Van Gogh Museum museum's collection. "We have essentially returned Amsterdam, on Thursday
announced Thursday. The photo now thought to be to the situation as it always Nov. 29, 2018, shows an
Forensic testing by experts at of Theo was first publicly pre- was up to the mistaken iden- image of 15 year old Theo
Amsterdam University "con- sented in 1957 by researcher tification in 1957, with a single van Gogh, originally thought
firmed the high likelihood of Mark Edo Tralbaut. A Dutch photographic portrait of the to be of his brother Vincent
the boy in the photograph television program called young, 19-year-old Vincent van Gogh.
being the 15-year-old Theo into question whether it was van Gogh."q Associated Press
van Gogh, and not Vincent," indeed of Vincent in 2014,