In a March 24 article, The New York Times highlighted observations that University of Washington Center for an Informed Public co-founder Kate Starbird made during her February 24 University Faculty Lecture, “A spotlight on rumors: Illuminating how influence and improvisation shape online conversations.”
Starbird, a UW Human Centered Design & Engineering professor, presented insights from more than a decade of research on how online rumors, misinformation and disinformation take shape, are shared online and spread during times of uncertainty, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism and elections.
As The Times noted in its article, “In his second term, Trump fuels a ‘machinery’ of misinformation,” Starbird described how a “machinery of bullshit” has become “intertwined with digital media.” That machinery of bullshit, she said, “has been effectively leveraged by right-wing populist movements and is now sinking into the political infrastructure of this country and others.”
The 2025 lecture and post-talk discussion with UW Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ed Taylor followed Starbird receiving the 2024 University Faculty Lecture Award, an honor recognizing UW faculty whose achievements have had a substantial impact on their field, the work of others, and society as a whole.
- Watch Starbird’s February 24 University Faculty Lecture: “A spotlight on rumors: Illuminating how influence and improvisation shape online conversations.”
- Read an adapted version of Starbird’s lecture in a February 28 op/ed in The Seattle Times, “To understand right-wing media’s power, study improv and theater of influencers,” where Starbird wrote: “We need to fight back against the disintegration of reality.”
CIP co-founder Kate Starbird, seated on stage at right, speaks with University of Washington Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ed Taylor on February 24 in the Husky Union Building. (University of Washington Photo)
