Audience Analysis

Monica B., Michael R. Amr A., Hunter C.

Dr. Ethan Whittet
August, 2017

The digitization of society has produced an unprecedented ease of communication and ability to

share content. The ability to instantaneously share information has allowed widespread access

to the enormous scope of humanitys knowledge has its price. An abundance of false

information has become difficult to identify among the overwhelming presence of whats known

as fake news. The increased polarization of modern politics along with the popularity of social

media as a platform to spread political messages has popularized the term fake news as well

as the frequency of false content being spread online. The way we have come to understand

misinformation is mostly based on how we differ the truth from falsehood. The way information

is presented can influence its interpretation and have damaging effects on what people perceive

as truth. This is exacerbated by social media norms in which information is often presented in

abbreviated and often misleading ways. This is significant because studies show that over 61%

of millennials use Facebook as their primary source of news and information. However, social

media platforms are just one example of the shortcuts in journalism that have become popular

as people compete to draw viewership to their content among massive numbers of resources.

A specific circumstance of the misrepresentation of factual information can be seen in the field

of psychology. Quite often, the most popularized information of the psychological sciences is at

odds with the consensus of professional scholars and researchers. Articles that imply a

scientific backing are very often not grounded in scientific evidence but anecdotal experiences

and author interpretations. Therefore, misrepresentation of science is effectively fake news. Due

to the abundance of unreliable information, popular understandings of psychology are often

oversimplified or not evidence-based. Our campaign aims to combat the spread of

misinformation and address the need for a more critical analysis of facts that are presented as

psychological research. We plan to utilize the same mechanisms used to spread disinformation

(or pop psychology), with the difference being that our information is supported by

psychological research (psychology). We will utilize an infographic to draw realistic comparisons

between pop psychology and psychology. We intend to spread information of psychology in a

manner that is consistent with current research by debunking the myth of psychology. In

addition, we care to inform people of the critical thinking skills needed to identify misinformation.

To develop awareness, we would suggest presenting this data with established organizations

such as Active Minds, an on-campus mental health club at Northeastern. Their existing

advocacy for the psychological sciences would be useful since their foremost goal is to spread

awareness about mental health. We would then of course adopt their demographic: college age

students across over 400 different nation-wide campuses. As a result, this demographic could

be more aware of how to address misinformation.