Who Can You Trust with Information During a Pandemic?

As the Wall Street Journal** noted, who would ever expect a frozen food brand to be the voice of rational, level-headed information about a pandemic? Last week, frozen food brand Steak-Umm, which makes thinly sliced frozen beef for cheese-steak sandwiches, received quite a bit of praise for a Twitter thread putting out some incredibly useful advice for consuming information during the current public health emergency. The tips, which sound like something that one of the Critical Engagements guests could have said, were posted on April 6. Here are some of the highlights from the Twitter thread.

“[Tweet #1]friendly reminder in times of uncertainty and misinformation: anecdotes are not data. (good) data is carefully measured and collected information based on a range of subject-dependent factors, including, but not limited to, controlled variables, meta-analysis, and randomization […Tweet #2] outliers attempting to counter global consensus around this pandemic with amateur reporting or unverified sourcing are not collecting data. breaking news stories that only relay initial findings of an event are not collecting data. we have to be careful in our media consumption.”

“[Tweet #5] breaking news and storytelling will always be spun with interpretive bias from different media perspectives, but data is a science that can't be replaced by one-off anecdotes. try to remember this to avoid fear-based sensationalism or conspiracy theories taking over your mind.”

And the piéce de résistance:

“[Tweet 7"]we're a frozen meat brand posting ads inevitably made to misdirect people and generate sales, so this is peak irony, but hey we live in a society so please make informed decisions to the best of your ability and don't let anecdotes dictate your worldview ok.”

Fake news is not only about the source of the information -- experts can spout untruths and frozen food brands can offer sound advice. Fake news is about you, the consumer. So, at the risk of playing up an obvious pun, think carefully about the nutritional value of the information you are ingesting.

**Did you know, the CMU Libraries provides all CMU faculty, students, and staff with on-line access to the Wall Street Journal? Click here for more information.