A hopeful story of crossing party lines in Iowa We were waiting to make the drive from Des Moines to Sioux City to start RAGBRAI, the seven-day bike ride across Iowa that I completed last July, when I met Prakash Kopparapu. His 16-year-old daughter Sami was about to board a bus to do the same ride with the Des
year in review Words and stories of the year - and how the "recency effect" drove one of them Dictionary websites have released their annual Words of the Year, and the selections say a lot about today's information ecosystem. Merriam-Webster's pick is authentic. From their November 27 blog post about people searching for the term: "A high-volume lookup most years, authentic saw a substantial
civil discourse Featured Talking around the table: 2023 edition Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving celebrations are perfect opportunities to share joys and concerns with people you love. You may not want to address this particular issue; it may feel uncomfortable. I get it. And still, I think you should.
In the Hamas-Israel information war, a prime target is us You've likely seen that disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict is polluting feeds around the world. Some examples: * Images from other conflicts are being repurposed by disinformation purveyors as images from the Israel-Hamas war. The New York Times piece from November 2 quotes a photographer whose coverage of the
corruption Voters say no to corruption in Guatemala This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org. On August 20, Guatemalans voted an upset candidate into office. Bernardo
disinformation The Georgia indictment: How falsehoods can put freedom at risk This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org. A notable aspect of the Georgia indictment coverage is how many
New test finds young people susceptible to misinformation + thoughts on Meta's Threads Psychologists at the University of Cambridge developed a two-minute test to assess people's ability to identify fake news headlines. Working with data and public opinion organization YouGov, they got 8,000 participants to take it over a two-year period. Their findings refute conventional wisdom: In the 18 to
Misinformation techniques: No longer just for the fringe The other day, a friend shared this opinion piece with me. It took me about 10 seconds to realize that it included an apparent reference to a deep fake, and another 10 to find additional misleading content. And I'm not a professional fact-checker. The author was a Stanford
Misinformation at work -- and the real reason Tucker Carlson was fired Amid the almost daily upsets in cable news and politics, last Friday Truth in Common sponsored a virtual event called Misinformation & the Workplace: Mitigating the Risks. Part of National Week of Conversation, the panel, moderated by yours truly, featured some great speakers: * Dave Fleet, head of global digital
social media March roundup: Chatbots and our dystopian future Humane Tech warns of AI's risks to humanity; platforms embed fast-growing ChatGPT; TikTok struggles with data privacy concerns; upcoming Truth in Common events
Deep fake examples, targeting and the Other Twitter Files Plus some good news/bad news from the TIC Community Welcome to new followers! It was great to meet some of you at the International Association of Business Communicators DC session on Tuesday, where I shared the evidence base for adopting a more relational, social change approach for curbing mis-
critical race theory The latest critical race theory drama comes to us from Florida If you're skeptical that the furor over critical race theory has had any real impact on students, look no further than Orlando. On January 3, ProPublica brought us the story of Jonathan Cox, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida
Social media upheaval: A roundup For followers of big tech, there have been no shortage of jaw-dropping moments over the past few weeks. Twitter Whether you're on Twitter or checked today's headlines, you're likely aware that Twitter's leadership has begun suspending journalists at major outlets. How the
Talking around the table In two days, my husband's cousins, our parents, siblings and most of the kids are descending on my house. (We'll miss you, Julia, Ian and Kyle!) We'll be 22 people altogether, so we're gathering here for appetizers then walking to a nearby
disinformation Featured The propaganda trick that sparked a movement Thanks to redistricting, all 15 seats on the Texas State Board of Education are up for re-election in the upcoming midterms. Thirty-three candidates are vying for the seats, and as you'd guess, critical race theory comes up frequently in their campaigns. Critical race theory is not, and never
California A state takes the lead in protecting U.S. kids online A new California code requires social media platforms to proactively mitigate risks to young people when designing solutions, rather than leaving users to figure it out on their own.
disinformation Modern parameters for a conversation I recently began conversing with someone from my past whose politics are different from mine, via text. We'd reconnected recently and have been going back and forth on things benign, and also less so: like the insurrection and whether the election was stolen. We disagree but this person
Welcome. This newsletter is for folks who are curious at heart, tired of the drama in our spaces and maybe a little confused by our fast-changing society. Which is understandable – for one thing, it can be hard to know what's true and what's not today. To me that's a
