How Do We Manage in a World of Mis/Disinformation?

UBC Okanagan’s Digital Transparency Research Excellence Cluster presents a plenary discussion exploring one of today’s most pressing challenges: how societies navigate a world shaped by mis- and disinformation.

Titled “How do we manage in a world of mis/disinformation?”, the event will bring together experts who approach this question from very different perspectives: political science and policy, and computer science.

What insights might emerge from bringing these differing perspectives into dialogue? In particular, we aim to better distinguish between fact and fiction. How can public policy and professional practice help foster an open, knowledge-driven information ecosystem—one that cultivates the critical thinking essential to a healthy democracy?

Join us for an engaging and candid conversation with two experts at the forefront of the field.

Register

Featured guest speakers

TANU MITRA Associate Professor University of Washington School of Computer Science and EngineeringBiography:Tanu Mitra is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington Information School, where she leads the Social Computing and Algorithmic Experiences (SCALE) lab. She is the co-director of UW’s RAISE center – Responsibility in AI Systems Experiences center and holds an adjunct appointment in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Her current research focuses on Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Responsible AI. Her work employs a range of interdisciplinary methods from the fields of human computer interaction, data mining, AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to understand human behavior online and better support human-human and human-machine communication.

TAYLOR OWEN Associate Professor at McGill University, the Max Bell School of Public Policy BiographyTaylor Owen is the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, the founding Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, the Principal Investigator of The Media Ecosystem Observatory, and an Associate Professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. His Doctorate is from the University of Oxford and he has been a Trudeau and Banting scholar, an Action Canada Fellow and received the 2016 Public Policy Forum Emerging Leader award. He is the host of the Globe and Mail’s Machines Like Us podcast. He has also written three books, including: Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Dr. Suzie Currie, Vice-Principal and Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation at UBC Okanagan, will provide opening remarks. Political Science Professor Wendy Wong and Computer Science Professor Pourang Irani will moderate the session.

The event is organized by the Digital Transparency Research Excellence Cluster of the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research; the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science.