Going Offline to Combat Online Disinformation | The Urban Activist

Written by Laura Scherling, a director and lecturer at Columbia University and the co-editor of Ethics in Design and Communication, and Susana Molina, Founder and Editor of The Urban Activist, this article on disinformation is so important as it helps us to understand why and how we can all help to combat disinformation in our society. The authors write:

In the traveling exhibition Fake for Real – A History of Forgery and Falsification by the House of European History, participants were invited to take on the role of a fact checker to decide what gets published or censored. And last September, Ars Electronica in Linz, Europe’s largest festival for art, technology and society, aimed directly at the topic with its festival theme: Who Owns the truth? Exhibitors like theater group De Toneelmakerij, based in the Netherlands, invited visitors to put their own words into the video images of politicians and continuously played them during the event, so that “a lie told often enough, becomes the truth.”

In the fight against fake news, there is a growing interest in games and fact checkers. The educational news games Bad News and Fake It To Make It are designed from the point-of-view of fake news creators and help people refine their media literacy skills. Also, fact checkers like FactCheck.org and Politifact are dedicated to reviewing political news and social media for “factual accuracy.” FactCheck.org can be directly contacted if a person sees a bogus social media post or story circulating.

Going offline to combat online disinformation | The Urban Activist