Post-truth and Fake news: What, why, and how do we respond?

Description

Imagine a world that considers knowledge to be ``elitist''. Imagine a world in which it is not medical knowledge but a free-for-all opinion market on Twitter that determines whether a newly emergent strain of avian flu is really contagious to humans. This dystopian future is still just that...a possible future.
However, there are signs that public discourse is evolving in this direction: Terms such as "post-truth'" and "fake news'', largely unknown until 2016, have exploded into media and public discourse.

I explore the implications of the growing abundance of misinformation in the public sphere, how it influences people and how to counter it. I argue that for counter-measures to be effective, they must be informed by the larger political, technological, and societal context.

Period	10 Jul 2019
Event title	Skeptics in the Pub
Event type	Seminar
Location	Birmingham, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Regional