NPR’s Sam Gringlas, February 26, 2020: “With An Election On The Horizon, Older Adults Get Help Spotting Fake News.”
Special thanks to WCMU’s Amy Robinson for alerting us to this story.
Fresh Air’s Geoff Nunberg:
My choice of “disinformation” needs some explaining. It isn't a new word — just one of the family of names we give to the malignancies that contaminate the public discourse, along with “propaganda,” and in particular “misinformation” and “fake news.” Each of those last two was chosen as word of the year by some dictionary or organization in 2017.
But over the past couple of years “disinformation” has been on a tear — it's 10 times as common in media headlines as it was five years ago, to the point where it's nudged its siblings aside. That rise suggests a basic shift in focus: What most troubles us now isn't just the plague of deceptive information on the Internet, but the organized campaigns that are spreading the infection.
News About Truth
In the West African nation of Gambia, people are tuning in — on TV, radios and cellphones — to testimony about alleged abuses by former president Yahya Jammeh. NPR’s Jason Beubien on the hearings of the Gambian Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission.
Is the future urban? Is geography fate? Why and where are we polarized? The CE theme for 2022–2023 is “Cities, Coasts, and Everywhere Else.”
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Critical Engagements is a collaborative project housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences that makes the academic mission of Central Michigan University concrete by highlighting how our students, faculty, and community are tackling the world’s most pressing and difficult questions. → More details
