Misinformation

This story originally appeared in UF News on Feb. 12, 2024. As the 2024 election season ramps up, voters are looking for reliable information about candidates to help them decide who to support on election day. Unfortunately, that reliability is threatened by a wave of disinformation that is bolstered by…

This article by Jieun Shin, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications assistant professor, originally appeared in the Dec. 7 issue of InContext, a publication by Digital Content Next. People are increasingly opting out of the news. According to the Digital News Report 2023 from Oxford University’s Reuters Institute, 36% of…

A new study has found that political fandom moderates the effects of partisanship on biased information seeking and sharing. The findings by Won-Ki Moon, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Advertising assistant professor, and Soobyn Lee from Incheon National University in Korea are featured in “Who Seeks and…

The problem of misinformation or disinformation being disseminated on social media has been well established and documented. But a new study suggests that users actually find factual posts more engaging than posts with misinformation. While there is a slight difference between misinformation and disinformation content, the authors show that factual…

A new study has found that artificial intelligence (AI) and crowdsourcing labels can minimize biased perspectives in fact-checking processes. The findings by Won-Ki Moon, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Advertising assistant professor, and Northeastern University Journalism Assistant Professor Muojong Chung were featured in “AI as an Apolitical…

Sponsor: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Funding Opportunity Title: Threats to Democracy Key words: Democracy, Misinformation, Mass media, journalism, documentary film Link to RFP:  https://pulitzercenter.org/grants-fellowships/opportunities-journalists/threats-democracy-us Deadline: Applications accepted on a rolling basis. Funding available: We do not have a budget range. We will consider projects of any scope and size, and…

Sponsor: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Funding Opportunity Title: Science Misinformation: Journalism in the Age of Truth Decay Key words: Misinformation, Mass media, journalism, documentary film Link to RFP:  https://pulitzercenter.org/grants-fellowships/opportunities-journalists/science-misinformation Deadline: Applications accepted on a rolling basis. Funding available: We do not have a budget range. We will consider projects of…

A new study has found that factual tweets, regardless of whether they were COVID-related, were more engaging than misinformation tweets. The findings by Juliana Fernandes, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Advertising assistant professor, and a team of 10 scholars were featured in “People Still Care About the…

Carma Bylund, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Public Relations professor and professor in the Division of Hematology & Oncology at the UF College of Medicine, is the co-author of “How to Talk to Patients About the COVID Vaccine” published on medpagetoday.com on July 30. Bylund, Lindsay Thompson…

One third of the most popular cancer treatment articles on social media contain misinformation. Further, the vast majority of that misinformation has the potential to harm cancer patients by supporting approaches that could negatively impact the quality of their treatment and chances for survival. Those are the findings from a…

Despite more than 450,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far in the U.S., nearly a third of Americans say they definitely or probably will not get the vaccine, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs survey. If those numbers hold, it will be well short of the number…

CJC Telecommunication Assistant Professor Jieun Shin was interviewed on Nov. 10, 2020 about her research on algorithms, AI and the spread of misinformation. Below the video is an edited transcript of that interview. Much of your recent research has focused on algorithms and the spread of misinformation. How did you…