How to effectively fight disinformation in science in the post-truth era where mistrust in the media, the scientific community and politicians is growing? Scientists and journalists teamed up to discuss about the need to ensure better circulation of sound scientific information at the workshop organised by the European Science-Media Hub (ESMH) on Wednesday, 6 February 2019.
“We need to stop misinformation and offer citizens options in transparency. This is why the European Science Media-Hub today brings together journalists & scientists, to discuss how to communicate science for an evidence-based decision making” – Eva Kaili opened and welcomed the audience, composed of journalists, science communicators, scientists and policy makers.
Scott Brennen, keynote speaker of the workshop, presented the Oxford Martin Programme on Misinformation, Science and Media and talked about the social life of misinformation, the social and economic context of its production, circulation and impact. He stressed out that “Mainstream media still play a significant role in the initial scientific information” and “There is not one single case of misinformation. Every misinformation case is different. We need to expand what we think as misinformation and the process of how it is produced and it circulates.”
Consult our exclusive interview of Scott Brennen on disinformation in science.
“Factful builds media and digital literacy, helps in depth journalism and contributes to community engagement” said the data journalist Guido Romeo. He stressed out that “media industry is downsizing newsrooms to cut costs without a clear strategy to improve reporting quality and trust in the brand.”
Emmanuel Vincent explained that “most of the scientific content shared on the web has a low credibility level” and summarised the Science Feedback methodology for fact checking.
– Monitoring trending news
– Analyzing trending news collaboratively by scientists
– Credibility rating
– Providing feedback.
Adeline Brion from Lie detectors presented the project, which promotes media literacy and focuses on schoolchildren empowering them to understand news media and make informed choices.
Mike Hamilton presented Factmata approach to fact-checking news via the use of AI.
The discussion was moderated by Tania Rabesandratana, a freelance journalist and contributing correspondent for Science magazine.
Paul Rübig, STOA First Vice Chair: “Should we have the right to know which algorithms are used on our personal information? European Science-Media Hub promotes the use of monitoring tools.”
In the picture: Johanna Rácz, freelance hungarian journalist writing for Qubit, Yves Sciama, President of the Association des Journalistes Scientifiques de la Presse d’Information (ASJPI) and Olivier Dessibourg, President of the Association Suisse du Journalism Scientifique (ASJS).
