What are “fake news”? The term has become much-used and much-hyped in our so-called “post-truth” era. More than being a catchall pejorative for information one finds unfavorable, “fake news” has been flagged for being the greatest threats to democracy and free debate, fueling propaganda and hate speech and undermining trust in public media.
German publicist Alexander Sängerlaub, Project Director of Misinformation in Digital Media at the Berlin think-tank
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (“Foundation for New Responsibility”) and a panel of invited guests will discuss ways of spotting fake news, mitigating the rapid spread of misinformation, and building a consensus on truth.
Goethe Pop Up Seattle, in partnership with the World Affairs Council – Seattle, invites you attend this free and public event. We kindly ask that you register at:
https://www.universe.com/events/fake-news-why-lies-spread-faster-than-the-truth-tickets-seattle-LP1G2Q
About the panelists
Alexander Sängerlaub
At the
Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (“Foundation for New Responsibility”), Alexander Sängerlaub leads the Measuring Fake News project, which focusses the phenomenon based on an interdisciplinary approach. One of the major aims of the project is to understand and explain scope and effects of fake news. In 2014, the publicist founded the political magazine
Kater Demos. The magazine devotes itself to pressing social questions according to „Constructive Journalism.“ He worked as a research associate at the Freie Universität Berlin, as well as at the University of Hamburg, and continues to teach in the field of political communication. Furthermore, he worked as consultant for corporate and political communication during both federal and European elections at Blumberry in Berlin. Sängerlaub studied Journalism & Communication Science and Psychology, as well as „Media and Political Communication“ at the Freie Universität Berlin. He worked as student assistant in the department of Empirical Communication Science.
Jevin West
Jevin West is an Assistant Professor in the
Information School at the University of Washington and co-founder of the
DataLab. With his colleague Carl Bergstrom he developed a new course on Calling BS, which helps students and the public combat fake news and misinformation wrapped in data, figures, visualizations and statistics.
Mellina White-Cusack
Mellina White-Cusack is a Seattle resident who writes about how politics and culture impact our society. She blogs at
The Seattle Conservative and has contributed her thoughts locally on
The Evergrey and
KUOW. She is curious about why our country has grown more and more divided in recent years, and how the lack of data-driven news and information has contributed to this national divide. In the past, Mellina has also contributed to
DapperQ, a queer fashion site, and most recently served as Campaign Director for
Christopher Rufo for City Council.
About the moderator
Jacqueline Miller is president and CEO of the
World Affairs Council of Seattle. She also serves on the Mayor’s
International Affairs Advisory Board; is a board member and chair of the
Membership Committee of Global Ties U.S.; is a member of the
Civic Council for UW’s Master of Arts in Applied International Studies (MAAIS) program; and serves on the
Washington State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. She is also a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations. She previously held senior positions in policy organizations in Washington DC, including the
Council on Foreign Relations and the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she was deputy director of the
Russia and Eurasia program. She has been a commentator for various news sources, including
The New York Times, the
BBC, CBC, and
Voice of America. Her honors include being named a
Truman Security Fellow as well as receiving a
Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) for Russia. She was also an
International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Visiting Scholar in Kyrgyzstan.
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