ÀÖÓãºǫ́

This launch workshop of the newly established Special Interest Group (SIG) on Misinformation and Disinformation, embedded in the focus area Governing the Digital Society (GDS), aims to bring together the widest possible range of researchers working on the misinformation and disinformation, and related themes such as fake news, fact-checking, media literacy and resilience, post-truth politics, and related governance processes of government, social media platform, media, education, and civil society.

Introduction

Over the past decade, misinformation and disinformation have become subject of extensive public controversy and increasing academic attention. Expert respondents to the most recent World Economic Forum recently even placed mis- and disinformation at the top in a ranking of most severe immediate challenges.

Utrecht University researchers of various disciplinary backgrounds have for some time already devoted considerable efforts to the mapping, understanding, and tackling of this phenomenon in its various manifestation, leading to the accumulation of sizeable body of knowledge and expertise. This workshop seeks to better consolidate this corpus, by bringing together researchers working on the topic and jointly exploring the field of related research themes and possible synergies between them. It is expressly intended to form the starting point of a long-term research dialogue, institutionally embedded in the SIG on Misinformation and Disinformation

Workshop Goals

his goals of this launch workshop are threefold. First, it offers an opportunity for ÀÖÓãºǫ́ mis-and disinformation researchers to hear about each other’s research agendas and identify and discuss potential synergies and avenues of collaboration. Second, and related, the SIG’s chairs, Robert Weijers and Maarten Hillebrandt, will present a tentative research programme for the coming time and open it to discussion and critical reflection. Third, in a keynote lecture, Federica Russo, professor of philosophy and ethics of techno-science, will present one of the most pressing dimensions of the current disinformation problematique.

Keynote Lecture

Disinformation: old wine and new bottles
Prof. Federica Russo, Freudenthal Institute, Department of Mathematics

Disinformation is not a new phenomenon. And yet, the advent of digital technologies, and now the possibility of dissminating AI-generated contents so easily, poses new challenges to safe and fair information. In this talk, Federica Russo will present some results of the EU-funded project SOLARIS, which examines the impact of deepfakes on democratic processes. Federica will also present some work in progress on scientific disinformation and the need of re-examining trust in science. Finally, she will point to the underexplored potential of argumentation skills to counteract infodemics.

Programme

About the Organisers

Dr. Robert Weijers and Dr. Maarten Hillebrandt are both assistant professor at respectively the department of psychology and the department of governance. They have found a shared research interest in the societal responses that are being developed to face the challenges of disinformation. 

Robert and Maarten are currently engaged in the research project ‘Societally supported behavioural policy for dealing with disinformation’. In this project, which is funded by the and carried out in the context of the Sector Plan Welfare, Participation and Citizenship in a Digital World, they explore counter-disinformation initiatives at the local level in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, and gauge the effectiveness and legitimacy of these initiatives. 

Robert and Maarten are also advancing their research agenda through an Institutions for Open Societies seed money grant, which is embedded in the Platform on Behaviour and Institutions.