Online/Virtual Event
Thursday, June 2nd from 4:00pm to 5:00pm
With the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, facilitated by Iman Powe-Maynard
The COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the 2020 U.S. presidential election have highlighted the acute impact of misinformation on democracy and public health. In addition, current global political crises have illuminated a new era of information warfare, with political groups and governments weaponizing disinformation to undermine trust and democratic conversation globally. The spread of misleading information online has thus become a core societal concern.
This webinar will explore why misinformation and disinformation spread online. Drawing from academic research across a wide variety of disciplines—from social psychology to journalism to information science—we will explore what makes misinformation so compelling, how social media platforms undermine our ability to spot falsehoods, and why we are all vulnerable to believing and sharing misinformation. We will end with a discussion of what we can do to improve the quality of information sharing and help restore trust in authoritative information sources.
Rachel E. Moran, Ph.D. researches the role of trust in digital information environments and is particularly concerned with how trust is implicated in the spread of mis- and dis-information. Moran’s work has been published in Information, Communication & Society, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Media, Culture & Society, and Telecommunications Policy.
Dr. Madeline Jalbert, Ph.D. researches how context and subjective experiences impact memory and judgments of truth and risk. Jalbert's work has been published in Cognition, the Journal of Applied Research in Cognition & Memory, Consciousness & Cognition, and Consumer Psychology Review.
Dr. Rachel E. Moran and Dr. Madeline Jalbert are both Postdoctoral Scholars at the Center for an Informed Public based within the Information School at the University of Washington.
Iman Powe-Maynard is a librarian at Poly Prep Country Day School, where she teaches middle schoolers the fundamentals of library skills and research. She also recently led a series of activities and discussions for the school's first HBCU (historically Black Colleges and Universities) Week. Prior to joining Poly, Iman served as a children's librarian and as civic engagement manager at Brooklyn Public Library, where she also facilitated workshops and lectured on information literacy and trauma-informed librarianship. She received her MLIS from St. John's University in 2011.
This event is presented in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library.
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