Pizzagate was a QAnon conspiracy theory that rose in online popularity during the 2016 election. The theory led to threats to harm and kill those viewed as enemies and prompted a gunman to storm into a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Cook, an instructional design librarian at Citrus College’s Hayden Memorial Library, recalls this as one of her pivotal moments in observing the rampant spread of misinformation and disinformation in America.
Cook taught fake news seminars at the library prior to the pandemic, and continued them online less frequently thereafter, but she’s happy to have the opportunity to teach them in person again and continue to make it an interactive learning experience.
The goal is to teach students and staff about the harms of misinformation and disinformation and provide tips and tools on how to identify them.
She defined misinformation as false information spread by someone who doesn’t know the information is false, while disinformation is an intentional and conscious spread.
In the eye of flagrant misinformation are people wanting to be the first to spread the word. But when it’s posted, “you can’t unring that bell,” she said.
“I think we’ve forgotten that there’s people at the other end of this,” she said, picking up her phone and waving it slightly. “There’s actual people at the other end of this that are being impacted by stuff like that.”
Cook has worked at Citrus College full-time for the past six years; the college has three full-time librarians in total, another being Sarah Bosler, a public service librarian.
Bosler has known Cook since she was hired at Citrus; she remembers conversations about misinformation and disinformation in regard to “fake news” taking shape in general conversation during the period of the 2016 election.
When Cook brought up the idea of a seminar tackling these topics, Bosler said it was a no-brainer.
“(The library is) supposed to be a place where you’re promoting critical thinking,” Bosler said, “and you want people to question things, question authority, question what they’ve always known. Think about things and figure out what makes the most sense to them.”
Part of a library job is to foster critical thinking, something Bosler says Cook is passionate about.
Sandra Krause, one of Citrus’ adjunct librarians who has been working at the school for the past 10 years, speaks fondly of Cook.
Though they aren’t on campus at the same time often, she said, “Elizabeth is very colorful. She’s outspoken and she’s really funny. She cracks me up. … I follow her on Instagram, so I get to see her personality there too and lots of pictures of her dogs.”
When combating misinformation, Krause said “getting people to pause” is important. She wants people to think about the motives of those writing the articles or creating the media.
Cook explained her belief that libraries are supposed to be unbiased. She said libraries are inherently political due to them providing free information and allowing people to base their opinions off of it.
“Critical thinking skills are one of the most valuable things you can have,” Cook said, “please engage them.”
