Understanding fake news and learning to recognize misinformation yourself.
The rise of fake news, the spread of misinformation and lack of proper fact-checking in social media are some of the greatest challenges that the internet has brought in our world today. The scale of this problem is increasing very fast. It’s not something small and unimportant anymore, when even big corporations, leading politicians and certain ex-presidents are starting to engage in misinforming the public on a daily basis! Nowadays, fake news spreads much faster than real news: more than half of the online readers say they regularly see fake news stories in their timeline. As checking the credibility of news we see everyday is a serious challenge, some of you may worry if you have the tools and knowledge to do this properly. Don’t worry anymore - we’ve got you covered!
For the upcoming April event, the CIA will organise a lecture discovering fake news in all its aspects: What role does fake news play in society? How does it influence politics? Is media bias a problem? Besides exploring the ins and outs of fake news, you will learn how to fact-check yourself so you can finally recognize fake news for what it is!
Our speaker for this event is fake-news-expert Dr. Peter Burger! Dr. Burger currently works as associate professor at the University in Leiden, specialized in journalism and new media. Furthermore, he is one of the founders and coordinators of the ‘Nieuws Checkers’, an initiative that actively fights against misinformation by fact-checking the Dutch news and statements made by Dutch politicians. In 2019, this initiative briefly worked together with Facebook to counter the spread of misinformation online. Dr. Burger wrote several articles on the role of fake news in the Netherlands, the danger of conspiracy theories, the language of journalism, and the importance of education on the topic of fake news. Since he can be seen in Dutch talk shows, we are honored to have Peter Burger as our guest speaker for this lecture!
The event will take place on the 12th of April from 20:00 until 22:00. Don’t forget to sign up!
We are looking forward to seeing you there on the 12th of April!