On the 16th of September we had our third ToK day, on Knowledge and Language. We began the morning at 8:00 am by organising how everyone would take turns writing reports for the different ToK days, around which there had been a bit of confusion. Once that was settled, we moved on to the theme of Language and ToK.
Our discussions opened with the relevance of language to the Theory of Knowledge, focusing on its importance in gaining, processing, justifying, and sharing knowledge. We also considered the ethics of language and how it can be used unethically: while it enables us to express ideas and connect with others, it can equally be used in harmful ways, for example to manipulate or mislead people.
We then moved on to the following question: “What is Language?”. To explore this question, we delved into different topics surrounding language such as how meaning and understanding of language differ from one another, language and culture and the origins of language. We learned about different theories on language and how it interacts with culture, which led us into our final discussion on the origins of language. The class was split into two groups, to watch two different Ted Talks about language and how it originated. We ended our morning comparing the two theories and reflecting on how culture and language shape each other.
After our lunch break, we all met in front of the “Zentralbibliothek Zürich” to take part in a workshop about misinformation. In a small seminar room at the very top of the ZB we were introduced to many new aspects of how information is brought across and what language tools help catch the interest of readers. We had an intense discussion over how misinformation, disinformation and fake news differ from each other. Many people use these terms interchangeably. However, there are quite some differences! Misinformation is false information shared by accident, while disinformation is deliberately spread to deceive. And fake news consists of entirely false stories presented as real news to mislead or influence people.
A great deal of the information that we consume is not always in written form. Pictures – and how they’re used and in which context – play a significant role in misinformation. We looked at many examples – mostly tweets from the platform X – where accounts spread misinformation by using a picture to dramatise their statements. One example really stayed with me. Someone posted a photo of loads of rubbish in the streets and bashed climate demonstrators about how paradox it is, that they pollute the world like that, but speak up for more action about the climate change. Turns out: the picture was not from the climate rally, but from the Zürcher Streetparade!
Despite the workshop having been in German, it was still a fantastic opportunity to learn more about how language and spreading of information are linked. We’re often not aware of how quickly we believe fake news and how easily people can use simple language and meaningless pictures to deceive us. But luckily, this workshop helped us to gain a better understanding of how to look at information more critically and avoid being misled.
