ABSTRACT

This paper joins a growing effort within mis/disinformation research to better address the transnational spread of misinformation and, in particular, the impact of political mis/disinformation on historically marginalized and immigrant communities. While misinformation spreads across cultural, sociolinguistic, and geo-political contexts, it impacts communities differently according to preexisting power structures and information resources. Through focus groups with Vietnamese Americans across two generations and several geographic locations, we explore the complexities of misinformation within one such immigrant community. Findings highlight how a prevalence of intergenerational divides in political information seeking, lasting historical and political traumas of immigration, and language barriers underpin the saliency and impact of misinformation for Vietnamese Americans. Further, we explore how misinformation impacts political engagement, highlighting the consequences of misinformation at a familial and community-level. This research highlights the need for researchers of misinformation to better attend to the inequities of informational access and the vulnerabilities of already marginalized communities as targets of problematic information and information disorder.

摘要

本文加入了错误/虚假信息研究中越来越多的努力，以更好地解决错误信息的跨国传播，特别是政治错误/虚假信息对历史上被边缘化和移民社区的影响。虽然错误信息在文化、社会语言和地缘政治背景下传播，但它会根据先前存在的权力结构和信息资源对社区产生不同的影响。通过与跨越两代人和多个地理位置的越南裔美国人进行焦点小组讨论，我们探索了这样一个移民社区中错误信息的复杂性。调查结果强调了在政治信息寻求、移民的持久历史和政治创伤、语言障碍加剧了错误信息对越南裔美国人的影响。此外，我们探讨错误信息如何影响政治参与，强调错误信息在家庭和社区层面的后果。这项研究强调了错误信息研究人员需要更好地关注信息获取的不平等和已经边缘化的社区的脆弱性，这些社区是有问题的信息和信息混乱的目标。