UConn Community Outreach presents the two-part event, "The Power of Misinformation."
There are two infectious pandemics at work around the globe. One is a biological virus and the other is disinformation that sows fear, distrust, falsehoods, and errors. They are similar in many ways. Both are spread through human interaction and both are having a tremendous impact on health, the economy, and security. One is understood to be “viral” in the literal sense, where the other has information that can be classified as spreading disinformation, misinformation or rumors in a “viral” fashion via social media.
Over the past year, the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories have flourished throughout the United States which has had many consequences. COVID-19 misinformation has led to unwarranted deaths globally. Election misinformation led to the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
Please join us in discussing the harm of misinformation with our panel of experts on the subject. Following the panel, Common Cause CT will conduct a workshop to give us tools to use to identify and handle misinformation.
Agenda:
1pm-2 pm: Misinformation panel featuring Dr. Enders, Dr. Etudo and Dr. Pagoto.
2pm-3pm: Common Cause CT facilitated workshop.
You can RSVP here
You can also find the WebEx link here
We hope to see you virtually there!
Dr. Sherry Pagoto -
Dr. Pagoto is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor, and social media researcher. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut and Director of the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media. She is also the Past-President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the leading organization for research at the intersection of behavioral science and health. Her research focuses on leveraging technology in the development and delivery of behavioral interventions targeting diet, physical activity, and cancer prevention. She has developed two mobile apps for weight management and a comprehensive weight loss program that is deliverable via social media platforms. She has had federal funding for her program of research for 17 consecutive years and has published 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Adam Enders -
Adam Enders is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville. His research focuses on the role of suspicion and conspiratorial thinking in American mass politics, the influence of core values on political identities and attitudes, and the evolving nature of mass polarization. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Michigan State University in 2016, and a B.A. in Political Science and Public Policy from Albion College in 2011.
Dr. Ugochukwu Etudo
Dr. Etudo’s research focuses on the application of ontology and knowledge engineering towards the provision of solutions to various business and social problems. He has successfully used these techniques to provide several computational solutions to the problem of interoperability in XBRL financial statements in the United States. Dr. Etudo also studies machine learning for text analytics focusing on named entity recognition and relation extraction. An applied researcher, he studies how these techniques can be used to track the propagation of organizational messaging on the Web with a special focus on terrorist organizations.
For more information, contact: Mya Johnson at Mya.l.johnson@uconn.edu