The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread
Cailin O’Connor (left) and James Owen Weatherall of the University of California Irvine discuss misinformation with The Integrity Project Oct. 5 at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University’s Downtown Campus. The presentation also will be available online.
Cailin O’Connor is a Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science at the University of California Irvine.
James Owen Weatherall is Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California Irvine, where he also is a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science, the Center for Cosmology, and the Jack W. Peltason Center for the Study of Democracy.
The researchers and co-authors of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread expect to discuss potential remedies for addressing misinformation, of which they have suggested that there may not be a single “silver bullet.” They also say that the interventions most likely to succeed involve “radical and unlikely” change, which may include regulatory frameworks to penalize intentional bad actors and distributors of fake news. Basic democratic institutions may need “reengineering.”
But O’Connor and Weatherall admit that “we get a firmer grasp” of the issue as “(policy) decisions are being made on the basis of lies and falsehoods.”
EVENT DETAILS
Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall
Thursday, Oct. 5
At the Morgan Murphy Media / Elizabeth Murphy Burns and Richard Burns Theater, room 202
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Arizona State University Downtown Campus
555 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix