Introduction

Respect is considered an important value, which acts as a foundation when establishing relationships and setting up social dynamics whereas disrespect can have wrecking impacts on social dynamics by targeting certain individuals or group of people. These situations can be worsened when we already have prejudices against certain individuals or groups of people, where disrespect or mislead forms of respect towards others can be easily triggered without much effort.

The objective of this activity is to understand how an added lens of prejudice can easily contribute to the spread of misinformation/ disinformation, which in turn will partially or entirely change our perception.


Instructions
  • Display the Facebook post that has triggered public reaction.
  • Invite participants to carefully observe and analyze the content of the post and the public reactions to the news revealed.
  • Divide participants into 4 groups to discuss, their thoughts and opinions about the given situation.
Reflections
  • What were your initial reactions when you saw the post?
  • Do you think that this post contains accurate information? If so why do you assume so? If not, please explain why.

Reveal that this post contains misinformation/ disinformation (fake post with fake reactions):

  • How do you feel now that you are aware that this post contains misinformation/ disinformation?
  • What real life situations can you think about that might have triggered similar reactions?
  • What misinformation/ disinformation did that situation contain?
  • What were the public/ community reactions to it?
  • What impact(s) did it cause on the particular individual/ group of people involved or targeted in the situation?

    • Were certain reactions triggered from existing prejudices against certain individuals/ group of people? (E.g. prejudice against religion, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social class, among others.)
    • Can adding the prejudice lens change how we respect or disrespect others?
    • Optional: Do certain parties use these existing prejudices to create more misinformation/ disinformation against targeted individuals/ group of people?
    • Optional: Do you have any similar personal experience where misinformation or disinformation, has altered your level of respect towards another person or a community?