Telling fact from fiction in the information age
Maybe the fictional Col. Nathan R. Jessep (a.k.a. Jack Nicholson) was right when he said “You can’t handle the truth!” Or maybe it’s just hard to know truth from falsehood these days.
More than ever, a wealth of information is at our fingertips. But can we trust it? That question affects our shared sense of fact vs. fiction, and the basis of our democracy.
A panel organized by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public and the UW Communication Leadership Program addressed this issue at Town Hall Seattle on January 23. KUOW’s Jennie Cecil Moore recorded the event.
Participants included moderator Hanson Hosein, co-director, UW Communication Leadership program; Ryan Calo, UW School of Law associate professor; Chris Coward, UW Information School senior principal research scientist and director; Emma Spiro, UW Information School assistant professor; Kate Starbird, UW Human Centered Design & Engineering associate professor; and Jevin West, UW Information School associate professor. KUOW’s general manager Caryn Mathes gave introductory remarks.
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John O'Brien
Senior Producer, All Things Considered
John O’Brien is KUOW's All Things Considered Senior Producer. He spends his days setting up interviews with newsmakers on subjects from politics and public health to arts and culture. John learned to make radio starting in 2006 as an intern on KUOW’s The Conversation with Ross Reynolds.
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