In their @uwcip rapid research report, Caulfield and Starbird also examined Twitter/X discourse around the Lahaina fires on Maui. They write: "Both during the fires themselves and in the aftermath, X discourse has leaned into conspiracism, with much of the discourse centering around theories the fires may have been deliberate." [3/3]

Read their report: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/08/31/youtube-lahaina-wildfires-causes/

#UWCIP #Wildifires #Misinformation #MisinformationResearch #SocialMedia #Maui #Lahaina

Caulfield and Starbird write: “Given past research about some of the failings of YouTube search and recommendations, the strong performance of the search engine during an unfolding event was a welcome surprise, and adds to recent research showing that YouTube’s algorithms do not currently seem to be a driver of new viewers to extremist or alternative media content.” [2/3]

#UWCIP #YouTube #MisinformationResearch

"As researchers and journalists and people that care about transparency and understanding what's going on, it's much harder today to understand what's going on on social media than it was three years ago," @uwcip director @katestarbird said in a recent Public Health Connects conversation with WA Secretary of Health Umair Shah about Starbird's research into how rumors, mis- and disinformation spread online.

Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2t5S1Ziv0Y

#UWCIP #WA #SocialMedia #MisinformationResearch

In a new article in The Atlantic, "Nextdoor Has an Election Misinformation Problem," @uwcip legal fellow Eli Sanders examines a situation from Mercer Island, WA where some community moderators say that the social network is being exploited for political gain.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/nextdoor-local-election-misinformation-volunteer-moderation/674152/

#UWCIP #Nextdoor #WA #Seattle #PNW #MisinformationResearch

In a recently published Issues in Science and Technology article, @uwcip co-founders Emma Spiro and @katestarbird explore how decades-old research about how and why people share rumors is even more relevant today in a world with social media.

Spiro and Starbird write: "The study of rumors, which surged around World War II, is still very relevant."

➡️ Read more: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/05/19/spiro-starbird-rumors/

#UWCIP #Misinformation #Rumors #MisinformationResearch

In a recently published paper in the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW), a group of @uwcip affiliated researchers, led by UW Information School PhD student Stephen Prochaska, present a framework for understanding the interaction between participatory disinformation and informal and tactical mobilization based on three case studies from the 2020 U.S. elections. [1/2]

Learn more about this work: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/04/26/participatory-disinformation-deep-stories-2020-us-elections/

#UWCIP #MisinformationResearch #Disinformation

In a virtual presentation hosted by the Network of the National Library of Medicine from earlier this month, @uwcip co-founder Jevin West, a UW Information School associate professor, discussed the "etiology of medical misinformation."

Watch and learn: https://youtu.be/VRAY0522BM8

#Misinformation #MisinformationResearch #MedicalMisinformation #HealthLiteracy #UWCIP

In "Race and ethnicity as foundational forces structuring information disorder within the Vietnamese Diaspora," a new article in the journal Political Communication, Sarah Nguyễn and Rachel Moran-Prestridge from the @uwcip, with Trung-Anh Nguyen (Duke) and Linh Bui (UW HCDE) share key findings from their work exploring the consequences of misinformation at a familial and community level.

Read the article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10584609.2023.2201940 [2/2]

#UWCIP #Misinformation #MisinformationResearch

Through focus groups with Vietnamese Americans across two generations and several geographic locations, @uwcip researchers have been exploring the complexities of misinformation, including how intergenerational divides in political information seeking, lasting historical and political traumas of immigration, and language barriers underpin the saliency and impact of misinformation for Vietnamese Americans. https://www.cip.uw.edu/2021/06/28/early-findings-vietnamese-misinformation-crisis/ [1/2]

#UWCIP #MisinformationResearch #Misinformation

This year's annual MisinfoDay educational program for WA high school students, teachers and librarians, co-presented through a UW-WSU statewide partnership, was last month and featured three in-person events at UW Seattle, WSU Pullman and WSU Vancouver. About 700 students participated in person in March!

Here are highlights from a blog post I wrote: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/03/28/misinfoday-2023-washington-program-lessons/ [2/3]

#MisinformationResearch #MisinfoDay #MediaLiteracy #InformationLiteracy #WA #Education #MisinfoDay

On Tuesday, April 25, 4-6 p.m. (Pacific), join our team at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public and Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication for a special virtual "Mini" MisinfoDay educational program with short talks, factchecking and source-vetting exercises and other activities. Register to attend: https://www.washington.edu/alumni/events/think-more-share-less-mini-misinfoday/ [1/3] #UWCIP #MediaLiteracy #InformationLiteracy #Education #Seattle #MisinfoDay #MisinformationResearch

“The Boston Marathon bombing just really drives home where that very natural human process of trying to figure things out can go awry,” my University of Washington Center for an Informed Public colleague @katestarbird, a UW associate professor whose research on misinformation grew in part from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, told The Boston Globe. [2/2]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/12/metro/marathon-bombings-12-hour-suspect/

#MisinformationResearch #UWCIP #BostonMarathonBombing #BostonGlobe

The Boston Globe has a good article looking back at the 12-hour saga 10 years ago when "amateur sleuths, social media users, and some in the media wrongly proclaimed Sunil [Tripathi] was a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing." [1/2]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/12/metro/marathon-bombings-12-hour-suspect/

#MisinformationResearch #Crowdsourcing #BostonMarathonBombing #Boston

"No one has figured out the perfect way to respond to this phenomenon or how to react to a pile-on from conspiracy theorists," @zadrozny reports for NBC News. "But Tiffany Dover’s example might provide a road map — for what not to do." [1/2] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/tiffany-dover-conspiracy-theorists-silence-rcna69401

#CrisisCommunications #MisinformationResearch

My colleague Madeline Jalbert, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public, has a great op/ed in The Seattle Times about long debunked MSG myths and the "continued influence effect," where "outdated or incorrect information can continue to influence our beliefs even after it’s been corrected."

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/why-bad-information-can-linger-in-your-brain/

#ContinuedInfluenceEffect #Psychology #MSG #MisinformationResearch #Seattle #SeattleTimes #UniversityOfWashington #UWCIP

As NPR reports, Kate Starbird's team at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public (where I work) "is throwing ideas around what they can do with Twitter if their current level of access ceases. They intend to focus on Telegram, TikTok and Reddit along with Twitter for the 2024 presidential election while collaborating with teams that monitor other platforms."

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/1155543369/twitters-new-data-access-rules-will-make-social-media-research-harder

#MisinformationResearch #UWCIP #TwitterAPI @katestarbird

“Researchers have to proceed under the assumption that our access will be cut off on Thursday, and we’re scrambling to salvage what we can in that short timeframe," says @rebekahtromble of George Washington University's Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics and member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research executive committee. (Via @justinhendrix in Tech Policy Press) https://techpolicy.press/twitter-api-changes-set-to-disrupt-public-interest-research/ #MisinformationResearch #SocialMedia #TwitterAPI

In a @Poynter interview, my colleague @mikecaulfield of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public discusses the risks of ChatGPT spinning up fake news sites. "Previously a well written, well laid out publication with headshots and bylines, etc., meant something ... Signals of authority were expensive, and that formed a barrier to entry."

Now the techological barriers to entry are much lower.

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2023/chatgpt-build-fake-news-organization-website/

#MisinformationResearch #MediaLiteracy #AI #UWCIP

In the wake of news from the bird site that Twitter will end free access to its API, I pulled together a blog post about what that may mean for academic researchers, including those I work with at the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public.

As CIP director @katestarbird observed, this action “will profoundly change how researchers (and society) can study and understand online behavior.”

https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/02/02/twitters-api-access-changes-academic-research/

#MisinformationResearch #UniversityOfWashington #UWCIP

The University of Washington Center for an Informed Public's most recent newsletter edition (which I build and produce) covers a lot of ground, including our team's work cited in the U.S. House J6 Select Committee's final report, a boatload of peer-reviewed research from our team, and a Q&A video interview series with visiting legal scholars that I helped produce.

Here's a web version of the newsletter: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/01/25/cip-news-insights-newsletter-january-2023/ #MisinformationResearch #UWCIP #UniversityOfWashington