Disinformation
Journalism and climate change: the urgent need to make complex topics accessible
The European Science-Media Hub (ESMH) hosted the second edition of its annual summer school (report of the event) in Brussels to offer journalists the opportunity to reflect on how to cover climate change. How to make this essential news accessible to the public? What are the specific challenges faced by journalists while covering climate change? ...
Trust in science: a weapon to combat misinformation
During the Covid-19 pandemic misinformation has spread like wildfire. How to counter this phenomenon is precisely the topic of the debate held by the ESMH on Friday 20 May 2022, in the European Parliament Liaison Office of Madrid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQbzRvPFqc An infodemic within a pandemic. One of the most harmful consequences of misinformation is its impact ...
Promoting trust in science and countering misinformation: a task for all
Misinformation is a new pandemic, one for which the only cure is knowledge. Informed audiences, media-savvy scientists, and high-quality journalism are key to counter misinformation. These are the main takeaways from the debate on 'Promoting trust in science to counter misinformation', the third event of a series called Science-Media Days, which took place on 20 ...
ESMH participates in the conference on the future of science communication in Europe
How to communicate scientific evidence in the digital era? How to maintain an open dialogue with citizens and address disinformation and misinformation? Could science communication be more structured and institutionalised at European level? These were the main issues discussed at the second Future of Science Communication Conference (FSCC 2.0) on 26 April in Brussels. Academics, ...
Interview with Frank Kelly: How to effectively communicate uncertainty?
We spoke with chair of the report Frank Kelly, Emeritus Professor of the Mathematics of Systems at the University of Cambridge. The world's oldest independent scientific academy, the Royal Society, dedicated to promoting excellence in science, has published a new report on the challenge of scientific misinformation: how can we foster a healthier online information ...
Ciara Greene: “How false news and memories change readers’ behaviour”
Cognitive psychologist Ciara Greene studies attention and memory at University College Dublin. Greene recently published a study on how pandemic-related false news changes people’s behaviour. In this interview, she talks about their psychological experiments to demonstrate our susceptibility to false news and how misinformation creates false memories. What prompted you to conduct a study on ...
Interview with Dan Larhammar: “Disinformation can have severe consequences for human health and our economies”
A group of European scientists (including Dan Larhammar) has made it their mission to raise awareness about disinformation, its mechanisms and its dangers. They belong to ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities. This organisation brings researchers from all over Europe together; in various working groups and projects they explore topics of ...
Provenance: ‘Stop and think’ before sharing online content
Challenging dis- information in the news requires a multi faceted, multi disciplinary and multi media approach. The EU funded project ‘Provenance’ focuses on helping people evaluate online content, equipping them with media literacy skills and discouraging the sharing of unreliable information. Could interventions like this change the dynamics of social sharing by encouraging engagement with high-quality content?
