Addressing Emotion and Culture in the Fight Against Fake News

Misinformation—or fake news—has exploded across the world over the past few years, with serious social and political implications. It undermines our trust in public information by exploiting our personal beliefs, emotions, and identities, thereby triggering responses that expand social divides and encourage us to resist competing claims. Solutions require more than just providing the public with the skills and tools for determining the truthfulness of claims; they also require resources for addressing the social and emotional impacts of misinformation.

In this on-demand webinar, you learn about a library-led research project that is designing new digital literacy approaches for combating misinformation. This project, funded by the US National Science Foundation, is creating tools and resources that librarians can use to address misinformation more holistically as the informational, emotional, and social problem that it is. Members of the project team share resources and findings from the first year of the project, and describe ways that your library can get involved in future work.

Originally presented August 9, 2023.