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  • Palo Alto Talk: Truth and Trust in Times of Junk News

    7 January 2018

    Books, digitalised

    The past year has been dominated by stories of how junk news has influenced major political decisions on both sides of the Atlantic. Algorithms, automation and social media have become powerful tools for social movements, but also effective tools for social control.

    This short talk will introduce the latest research from the Oxford University team that has pioneered the social science of fake news, expose the democratic challenges we must face next, and offer some ideas for how to restore truth and trust in public life. Can artificial intelligence help us identify the truth or will it divide us further? What role should we play as active digital citizens and what responsibility do technology and news organizations have for keeping democracy healthy? And what impact will all this have on our society, our institutions and our future?

    Thursday, January 18, 2018 6:00pm – 8:00pm

    Sheraton Palo Alto Hotel
    625 El Camino Real
    Palo Alto, CA 94301

    Reserve seats on Eventbrite.

    Phil Howard is a professor and writer. He teaches at Oxford University and is a Professorial Fellow at Balliol College. He writes about information politics and international affairs, and he is the author of eight books, including The Managed Citizen,The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, and now Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set Us Free or Lock Us Up. He has won multiple “best book” awards, and his research and commentary writing has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and many international media outlets. In 2017 Foreign Policy magazine named him a “Global Thinker” and the National Democratic Institute awarded him their “Democracy Prize” for pioneering the social science of fake news.

    Please email events@oxfordna.org with any questions. Alumni Event in Palo Alto with Phil Howard, Oxford Internet Institute.

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