To learn more about this work, read “Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation,” published in June 2022 in Nature Human Behavior.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01388-6

#UWCIP #SocialMedia #Misinformation

Waldrop writes in PNAS: Jevin West and his UW colleagues “used the simulation to model the effect of potential interventions such as fact-checking, accuracy nudges, or outright suspension of the most active superspreaders — and found that, when used in combination, these interventions could reinforce one another and cut the total volume of misinformation by 50% or more.”

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2314143120

#UWCIP #Misinformation #MediaLiteracy #SocialMedia #FactChecking

“It's a very simple model,” Jevin West, a UW Information School associate professor, told PNAS. “But it does a great job of capturing the dynamics that we see in the real data,” such as surges of activity when a post goes viral.

#UWCIP #UniversityOfWashington #SocialMedia #Misinformation

In a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences news feature, "How to mitigate misinformation," M. Mitchell Waldrop interviews @uwcip co-founder Jevin West about work with University of Washington colleagues to "develop a computer simulation that treats the spread of misinformation as a kind of contagion and that’s calibrated with real-world data on 10.5 million misinformation tweets during the 2020 election." https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2314143120

#UWCIP #UniversityOfWashington #Misinformation

To learn more about "Calling BS," including class resources, syllabus, case studies, lesson videos, and the 2020 book co-authored by Bergstrom and West, check out: https://callingbullshit.org/

#UWCIP #MediaLiteracy #InformationLiteracy #Bullshit #BS

University of Montana journalism professor Lee Banfield adapted "Calling BS," a popular University of Washington class co-developed by @uwcip faculty members @ct_bergstrom and Jevin West, and it's been a hit with students in Missoula.

“I blended UW’s more science-oriented focus with a journalism-literacy focus to create a new course,” Banville said. “But I kept the name, because ... well, because.”

https://www.umt.edu/news/2023/09/090523bull.php
#HigherEd #MediaLiteracy #UniversityOfWashington #UWCIP

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

🧵 In a new @uwcip rapid research report, @mikecaulfield and @katestarbird found that YouTube’s search surfaced reliable information about the Lahaina fire’s causes, even when prompted with a search targeted at bringing up coverage of non-existent deliberate causes. However, “other factors both internal to YouTube (existing channel subscribers) and external (social sharing on other platforms) may be driving a different kind of consumption.” [1/3]

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

#UWCIP #Maui #Wildfire

“The problem is, we can’t reverse-engineer hallucinations coming from these chatbots,” @uwcip co-founder and University of Washington Information School associate professor Jevin West told CNN Business in a recent interview. “It might just an intrinsic characteristic of these things that will always be there.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/tech/ai-chatbot-hallucinations/index.html

#GenerativeAI #AI #ChatGPT #UWCIP #UniversityOfWashington

It's hard to track the impact of TikTok trends like the borax challenge, "[e]specially when the trend involves ingesting a substance that is typically thought of as toxic," @uwcip researcher Rachel Moran-Prestridge told Vox in an interview, so "it’s unclear how many people who show interest online will actually perform the behavior offline."

https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/7/29/23811639/tiktok-borax-challenge-dangerous-laundry-detergent

(And it should go without saying, but just to be clear, do not attempt the borax challenge.)

#SocialMedia #TikTok #UWCIP

“We’ve been pretty well tricked by very low-quality content. We are entering a period where we’re going to get higher-quality disinformation and propaganda,” @uwcip@mastodon director @katestarbird told Wired in a recent interview. “It’s going to be much easier to produce content that’s tailored for specific audiences than it ever was before. I think we’re just going to have to be aware that that’s here now.”

https://www.wired.com/story/generative-ai-custom-disinformation/

#UWCIP #AI #GenerativeAI #Disinformation #Propaganda

"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 an opinion piece for The Seattle Times, @uwcip research scientist Rachel Moran-Prestridge shares insights from a series of community workshops in Whatcom County WA and how local information providers can cultivate curiosity to build community trust.

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/local-information-providers-can-cultivate-curiosity-to-build-community-trust/

#UWCIP #WA #BellinghamWA #WhatcomCounty

In a paper presented at the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems conference, a group of researchers led by UW HCDE doctoral student @schaferj (with HCDE's @katestarbird and Daniela Rosner) used a process of design fiction, or creating imaginary, speculative artifacts as a tool for reflection and critique, to explore some of the opportunities and challenges with using participatory design in researching mis- and disinfo and online hate.

Learn more: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/07/17/imagining-participatory-design-approaches-to-misinformation-related-research/
#UWCIP #DIS2023

“The campaigns are starting to ramp up, the elections are coming fast and the technology is improving fast,” @uwcip co-founder Jevin West, an associate professor at the University of Washington's Information School told CNN Business in a recent interview about AI generated content used to confuse or mislead voters. “We’ve already seen evidence of the impact that AI can have.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/17/tech/ai-generated-election-misinformation-social-media/index.html

#AI #Misinformation #GenerativeAI #UWCIP

Last month, the @uwcip co-hosted approximately 35 teachers, librarians and other educators for a 2-day professional development workshop, “Teaching for Resilience: FinnishED,” at the University of Washington, an opportunity to learn about Finland’s highly regarded educational approaches to teaching fundamental skills around digital info literacy and being more resilient to mis- and disinformation.

Learn more about this work:
https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/07/07/finland-education-workshop-uw-seattle/

#MediaLiteracy #UWCIP #Education #Finland

In a recent interview with Axios about how AI will turbocharge misinformation, @uwcip director @katestarbird shared three key ideas:
1. Generative AI is great at churning out misinformation.
2. Generative AI helps those who deliberately seek to mislead.
3. Generative AI models themselves offer a new target for those who seek to shape the information debate on a topic.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2023/07/10/ai-misinformation-response-measures

#UWCIP #AI #Misinformation #GenerativeAI

@willjames of KNKX Public Radio reports: "Librarians in Whatcom County are working with UW to create a series of online quizzes designed to get participants thinking about the quality of information online and their own ability to tell true from false. One quiz, for example, involves a deal for a used truck that looks too good to be true."

https://www.knkx.org/education/2023-07-06/can-libraries-help-hold-our-information-landscape-together

#BellinghamWA #WhatcomCounty #WA #UWCIP #Libraries #MediaLiteracy #DigitalLiteracy #UniversityOfWashington

In a newly published Undark Magazine viewpoint, Ryan Calo writes: "It’s not hard to imagine how a public fixation on the risk of extinction from AI would benefit industry insiders while harming contemporary society."

https://undark.org/2023/06/22/ai-creators-want-us-to-believe-ai-is-an-existential-threat-why/

#UWCIP #AI