Information Integrity Institute Gives Public Presentation and Radio Interview on Disinformation, Information Operations, and Today’s Media Ecosystem
As disinformation continues to be at the forefront of many conversations globally, two academics in the Information Integrity Institute at the College of Communication and Information are working to increase the public’s awareness about the latest research on today’s media ecosystem. On the heels of their white paper about public support for fact-checking on social media, one of the institute’s faculty fellows, Assistant Professor Ben Horne, and the institute’s Postdoctoral Research Assistant Matthew Craig recently gave a public presentation about disinformation in today’s media ecosystem for The Rotary Club of McMinnville.
Such work with the public aligns with both the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s land-grant mission as well as the institute’s goal to contribute to public education. More specifically, the institute’s mission is to build an understanding of and create insights about information integrity and how it interacts with people across all information sources. “Part of this mission includes both heightening public awareness of the findings from supported research studies and their implications and engaging with external stakeholders such as members of the public on matters involving information integrity,” said Craig.
Horne and Craig, in their presentation, shared key insights from the latest research on disinformation to raise awareness about how foreign adversaries to the United States have sought to invoke stereotypical thinking on both sides of a polarized online discourse. One example referenced in their presentation concerns Russia’s Internet Research Agency (RU-IRA) and its hiring of full-time employees to use social media accounts while pretending to be US citizens. “Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit came forward to acknowledge that their platforms had been used in information operations by the Internet Research Agency. For example, Twitter released a list of 2,752 RU-IRA affiliated troll accounts in November 2017,” said Horne.
Following their presentation, Horne and Craig met with radio host Bill Zechman on the weekly FOCUS interview program on McMinnville Public Radio WCPI 91.3 FM to further discuss the importance of the institute’s work and the impact of disinformation campaigns.
Photo Credit: Bill Zechman, Main Street Journal Contributor