Paul Pascual

Author: Paul Pascual

  • 24-Hour Media Diet: Spotting Misinformation

    On Saturday, August 29, 2026, I documented all of my media I consumed during the day.

    10:09 a.m. – I sleep in and wake up late Saturday morning. I open my phone and read Slack messages from my coworkers. One of these messages is a X/Twitter post from Pete Thamel of ESPN. The post said Cutter Boley will be the starting quarterback for Arizona State University football. Neat.

    12:00 p.m. – I go on X/Twitter, and see a variety of posts. I binged watched the second season of ‘Adults’ the prior Thursday, so I am seeing a lot of posts about it.

    The Daisy Chain Fields music festival, founded and headlined by Olivia Rodrigo, was also going on that day, so I saw a variety of posts about the performances, the merchandise and the $10 million charitable donation across ten partnered non-profit organizations.

    Beyond the ripped TikTok videos from engagement accounts, which is pretty standard for the platform, perhaps the more alarming posts I have seen were about the video game Grand Theft Auto VI. This game is long-awaited and features the franchise’s first female protagonist; however, the posts claim the game is woke and created to further an unrealistic female ideology by a staff of women.

    💡 Context Needed: The original author of the post above cites the “female-coded language” to a vastly female staff; however, the image was taken out of context and exaggerates how vast women are within Rockstar North. The image was originally posted by Rockstar to celebrate International Women’s Day.

    ACTION TAKEN: Disregard.

    💡 Context Needed: Many of the posts about Grand Theft Auto VI are attributing their dissatisfaction with the game with the female staff.

    However, according to a story with Dazed, the lead writers are notably both men: Rupert Humphries and Michael Wiafe. The head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar North, the same studio pictured in the tweet, is Rob Nelson, a man. The senior art director for characters is Jamie-Lee Lloyd, a man.

    ACTION TAKEN: Disregard

    1:12 p.m. – I get into my car to drive back to my parents’ house in west Phoenix to prepare for a dinner with the extended family. The radio is always on 91.5 FM KJZZ while I commute. On the radio is the show “Unexpected Elements” from the BBC. In this episode, the host Marnie Chesterton spoke about water droughts.

    1:49 p.m. – I arrived at my parents’ house. I spoke to my parents about my work in digital media. I open X/Twitter briefly and saw more tweets about Daisy Chain, particularly the performer Eli. I have a late lunch with my parents while the show Three’s Company plays on the TV in the living room.

    2:32 p.m. – I finish lunch and go on X/Twitter briefly. There is a trend of optical games on my timeline. I, unfortunately, spend a measurable amount of time looking at them. I also see tweets about President Trump’s Truth Social posts about Lake Ontario, currently recognized as Lake America by executive order.

    5:45 p.m. – I am at dinner at my aunt’s house. The Bee Movie is playing on the TV.

    7:15 p.m. – Dinner is slowing down, and I open X/Twitter briefly. I see more videos about Daisy Chain and Chapell Roan’s set. I also see some posts about Katseye’s Lara not being at Daisy Chain, speculating she has been put on hiatus similar to the previous members.

    💡 Context Needed: Katseye’s Lara was present in the video and appears in the latter half.

    7:57 p.m. – I am in my parents’ car driving back to their house. I open Instagram. I see a post from the Atlantic about how the power is back on for the most part in Gary, Illinois. I see a post from the New York Times about Dolly Parton’s cancer. Then, I see a post from The Copper Courier of the Will Cain Show on FOX News. In the show, Cain is interviewing former Arizona senator Krysten Sinema claiming Chinese misinformation is causing national pushback against data centers.

    💡 Context Needed: X/Twitter uncovered “Chinese inauthentic accounts,” reinforcing Sinema’s point of China driving backlash against AI data centers; however, it is disingenuous to make China a significant contributor toward low approval ratings of AI. Sinema does not account AI-generated media or AI toxicity.

    Sources aggregated by Axios.

    11:22 – I am preparing for bed while I read some post on X/Twitter. There is a post about Democratic House nominee Abdul El-Sayed in AI-generated video saying vodka should be banned for Islam.

    11:48 p.m. – I delete the X/Twitter app off my phone.

    Reflection

    Surprisingly, I saw a lot less questionable content than I expected, or at least than I am used to. This may be because my algorithm served me more content about the show I was watching and about Daisy Chain which may have lowered the appearance of bolder, more questionable claims. Nevertheless, I realized just how much time I spent on my phone consuming media that doesn’t provide meaningful value to my life. So I deleted X/Twitter off my phone at the end of the day.

    From the few questionable posts, they all come from different people and may have a strong political or ideological inclination.

    I do have a blinder trust toward local news and media outlets, especially since I know some of the people who run them, which is not entirely media healthy but it works for me. For social media, I am much more skeptical about X/Twitter posts compared to other social media platforms because of its intensely apparent bot and engagement problem.

  • Hello MCO 427!

    Hello MCO 427!

    My name is Paul Pascual. I am a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communcation. I am a Phoenix local, growing up here my entire life.

    I am excited to learn more about misinformation, including its history, implications and how to combat it effectively.