How Journalists Can Help Asian American Communities Targeted by Disinformation
Disinformation not only pits Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders against other marginalized groups: it also creates divisions within their own communities that can diminish their collective political influence. This is why it is important for journalists to ensure these communities are being protected from it, as they are the current fastest growing group in the U.S. electorate. The app WeChat is especially vulnerable to disinformation among Asian American populations, considering it is used by roughly 60% of the Chinese American community—the app has about 1 billion daily users—and otherwise spreads across many media forms such as YouTube, radio, or other apps.
Immigrants are more vulnerable to false information given the limited number of news outlets they can access in their native language. It does not help matters if they are receiving the news online because translations are often subpar considering the limitations of automated transcription and machine-based translation.
Contextual interpretation is easily muddled up when translations are done this way and not by actual human translators who can also make captions for visual news media. Translating services such as Google Translate favor Eurocentric media; Asian media is an afterthought. Journalists must keep this in mind to understand how language barriers spread misinformation.
The numerous Asian ethnic groups and languages that exist all deserve representation and proper information. A project by the Progressive Vietnamese American Organization has taken steps to combat this with Viet Fact Check, which publishes fact-check analyses for Vietnamese Americans. DesiFacts does the same for media that is in Hindi and Bengali and PiYaoBa fact-checks information in Chinese, among other examples.
Asian American immigrants may lack knowledge of how American institutions operate or what our governance looks like and what electoral processes entail. This feeling of being in the dark may make it easier to fall prey to misinformation and disinformation. This false information is employed by bad actors to create heavy political bias.
For instance, disinformation campaigns targeting Vietnamese refugees’ collective traumas over communism in Vietnam to sway them into supporting false claims of fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. To fight misinformation and disinformation like the type described, newsrooms can clearly define the institutions and political processes of the U.S. to ensure Asian American immigrants are properly informed. APIA (Asian Pacific Islander American) Vote is an example of an organization that provides information and resources to voters before elections.
Empowering Asian American communities is vital.
One avenue known to disseminate misinformation and disinformation is YouTube videos. Research has shown that especially harmful videos promote the unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in the U.S. and capitalize on fears of crime impacting Asian American communities. These sensationalized narratives can negatively impact relations within Asian American communities and with others. Sufficient context must be provided to illustrate the harmfulness of this false information and journalists and newsrooms must advocate for centering Asian American communities in this fight for the truth.
Collaborations with organizations, such as APIA Vote offer a key strategy for this cause, since organizations like APIA Vote partner with groups nationwide to compile reports on harmful narratives. The reports are then communicated at the local level—where they have the most impact—and reach the people.
