The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, in partnership with Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, will present MisinfoDay 2021 on Thursday, March 18 and invites middle and high school teachers and librarians to register their classes by March 11.
During this free, virtual event, students will learn to identify and combat mis- and disinformation through speaker presentations and interactive activities in morning and afternoon sessions.
Sessions will focus on spotting misinformation; fact-checking claims and sources; understanding the landscape of information disorder; and disinformation goals and tactics. Most sessions will be open to both middle and high school students. For more details on sessions and facilitators, scroll down or see the registration page.
Event sessions will be livestreamed on YouTube and recordings will be made available following the event for those who cannot watch live.
Planned sessions for MisinfoDay 2021:
- Spotting Misinformation
Students will learn tips for identifying misinformation and discover why it can be tricky to recognize. - Fact-Checking Claims and Sources
Students will practice investigating the reputation of claims and sources so they can make informed decisions about what to believe online. - Understanding the Landscape of Information Disorder
This session, designed for high school classes, empowers students with a knowledge, an understanding and the tools to build resilience against harmful, false and misleading information. - Disinformation Goals & Tactics
Students will learn about how disinformation campaigns work and the motivations behind them.
Sessions will be facilitated by:
- Jevin West, CIP director and UW Information School associate professor, who is the co-creator of the UW course Calling Bull: Data Reasoning in a Digital World.
- Mike Caulfield, director of blended and networked learning at WSU Vancouver, who is the author of the Check, Please! fact-checking course and creator of the SIFT fact-checking method.
- Jacquelyn Mason, a senior investigative researcher at First Draft News, who focuses on mis- and disinformation in Black and Latinx communities.
- Jordan Foley, a WSU Murrow College of Communication assistant professor, who studies how political (mis)information flows across digital platforms over time and how journalists report on political conflict and controversy.
- Kate Starbird, CIP cofounder and UW Human Centered Design & Engineering associate professor, who studies the spread of rumors, misinformation and disinformation during crisis events.
- Kolina Koltai, a CIP postdoctoral fellow who studies trust assessment of information (and misinformation) with a focus on how social networking sites and digital communities interact with information behavior practices around health and science.
- Scott Leadingham, news manager for Northwest Public Broadcasting’s platforms across radio, TV and digital.
The first MisinfoDay was hosted by the UW Information School in March 2019, and drew hundreds of high school students, teachers and librarians from across Washington state to UW’s Seattle campus.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans for an in-person MisinfoDay 2020 were canceled, but the CIP and WSU Murrow College hosted a misinformation awareness webinar for teachers and librarians, who represented 15 middle and high schools from across Washington state.
