Fake News: Truth, Trust, Disinformation and Misinformation in Journalism

Thursday, October 10, 2019 from 7pm to 9pm. 

This event will be in English and in French, we will have live interpretation for both languages.

Fake news has become an ever-increasing detriment to civil political discourse globally and particularly in North American society. Citizens are saturated with misinformation, fringe groups are empowered to disseminate fallacious messages with a power disproportionate to their size, and trust in traditional journalistic institutions has been eroded. Further, positive feedback loops have developed that reinforce all of these issues, creating a spiral of deterioration of the informed citizenry. “Alternative facts” are now disseminated from the highest political offices in the free world with little to no consequences.

Commonly, people are told to research before they post a story, to fact check before they click “share,” and to generally become savvier as to the nature of fake news. These are unrealistic expectations. Many lack the skills, resources, time, or even motivation to perform this newly developing requirement. A clear need has manifested for a solution that allows the general public to have some means by which they can evaluate the validity of what they read as the news and information of the day. Academic papers are peer reviewed, and businesses are graded; a way to judge news fact from news fiction is needed at least as much as these other similar solutions.

At the Glendon Global Debate, we have asked a panel of experts to reflect on the challenges facing the Canadian scene and propose some solutions on how Canadians can be equipped to better evaluate the validity of what they read as the news and information of the day.

Our Panel Members will be:

Heather Scoffield

Adrian Lee

Jane Lytvenko

Our Moderator will be:

Diana Swain