Podcast: Journalism / Mythinformation with Hayes Brown

Journalism / Mythinformation is a podcast that focuses on journalists of today and the challenges they face during this era of misinformation.

Episode 1: Hayes Brown / Veritas

We are “storytellers of fact,” which means we work with narrative *and* truth to create meaning. And on this podcast, we use ancient stories  — like the myth of Veritas and Doulos — and connect them to the experiences of journalists and truth-tellers working across the industry.  Our first episode features Hayes Brown, a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily.  On the podcast, Brown spent some time drawing a distinction between misinformation and disinformation, as the the terms can seem interchangeable or confusing.

“So I will say really quickly to it that there’s misinformation, [and] there’s disinformation,” he said. “A lot of what’s being pushed right now is disinformation. [Information] pushed out there by specific groups and people specifically because it’s a lie. It’s not that they’re confused, [but that] they are pushing out disinformation [to make] money or a political point.”

As a reporter formerly with Buzzfeed and now in his work with MSNBC, Brown shares his experiences over these last few years of increasing mis-  and disinformation. How one message can appear to be the truth is part of the deception of such false information, and it is the responsibility of the journalist to determine truth from its imitators and imposters.

“Misinformation can spread,” said Brown. “It’s like, ‘Oh, this is the kind of thing that can be an honest mistake. Oh, someone misheard this.’ And they’ve got it spread like wildfire now.”

Credits: Journalism  / Mythinformation was produced for Julia Furlan’s Fall 2021 NYU American Journalism Online podcasting class. Brian Bull (aka Prometheus) edited sound, wrote, and produced this episode. Bobby Brier (aka Duolous) produced and sound-designed this episode. CK Smith (aka Veritas) hosted and produced. Isabella Mata (aka Mendacium) hosted and produced this episode.

Music for this episode is provided under a creative commons license by Ketsa and Youtube. The songs were “Need Change” and “Horizons” by Dominic Giam and “Imperium” by J.R.S. Schattenberg.

Flame thrower, duck, dreamy harp, warbling tuba, and door sound effects from ZapSplat.com