DisinfoHacks

Welcome to the final episode of our podcast series, “DisinfoHacks Podcast”. In this episode, we are wrapping up the exciting journey through the world of disinformation, reflecting upon our incredible ride and discussing the lasting impact of our event “DisinfoHacks Hackathon” one year ago in Thessaloniki. In this concluding episode, we take a moment to look back at the highlights and insights gained throughout our podcast series and our fruitful discussions. We dive into the heart of “Disinformation Hackathon”, a groundbreaking project, where people from different fields worked tirelessly to develop innovative solutions to combat the spread of disinformation and misinformation. We most importantly look upon the power of bringing people together; experts, innovators, students and ethical hackers to tackle this growing challenge. A project organized by DCN Global, #ADandPRLAB, YET, funded by U.S. Department of State and U.S. Mission in Greece, supported by Found.ation and SocialInnov.

In this podcast episode we’ve journeys from the early days of the pandemic to the present shedding light on the evolving threats posed by disinformation to our security. We highlighted key insights and explored the crucial role of education in addressing disinformation’s impact. We also delve into recognizing and combating misinformation, the role of AI and predictions for the future, and when we mean future we actually mean few months ahead, of disinformation and the way we will be safeguarding our security.

In this episode of the “DisinfoHacks Podcast”, we dive into the complex relationship between religion and disinformation, exploring all the positive and negative effects that can be found in the crossroad of these two multi-facet issues. The conversation centers around subjects like the distortion of religious understanding due to the rise of fake news, the exploitation of religion by actors spreading disinformation for commercial and political gain, the spread of stereotypes, biases and religion-related hate aimed at specific religious groups and the contribution of social media platforms in fake news dissemination. In the final part of the episode, the way politics come into play is explored, looking into the influence of religion and religion-related disinformation to electoral cycles, as well as a more positive light is shed on the efforts to combat this type of disinformation spread by fact-checkers, private individuals, religious leaders and the society as a whole.

In the ninth episode of the “DisinfoHacks Podcast”, the conversation centers around the critical topic of media literacy, disinformation, and their impact on children. The participants in this enlightening discussion touch upon subjects such as media literacy for children, the role of parents and adults, the challenge of news avoidance and the lack of media literacy skills that characterize children and the importance of creating age appropriate journalism and discussions, in order to help children step by step smoothly build a trust relationship with the news. As Sherri Hope Culver perfectly summarizes, “treating children as civic-minded individuals, you are fostering an environment where they can grow into civic-minded adults who are actively engaged with the media and news.”

In this episode of “DisinfoHacks Podcast”, we have an insightful conversation with Aphrodite Salas, an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at Concordia University. Our discussion revolves around the theory of extractive journalism, with an emphasis on building trust and being a storyteller, focusing on respecting the communities and the people whose stories are being shared, as well as the impact of AI in journalism. In the discussion the importance of care and intent and the need for ethical and respectful storytelling is being stressed. In today's digital age, people often trust peer narratives over traditional media outlets. Light is being shed on the evolving landscape of journalism and the imperative to reshape the narrative towards more compassionate, ethical, and community-centered storytelling.

In this amazing episode of “DisinfoHacks Podcast”, we have an illuminating conversation on the intertwining challenges of disinformation and cybersecurity. This insightful discussion delves into disinformation and cybersecurity Alicia Fawcett underscores the inextricable connection between them, and emphasizes the fact that some disinformation originates from cybersecurity experts who possess the technical skills to create disseminate malicious content. The role of AI in dissinformation and cybersecurity is being highlighted and Alicia Fawcett helps us understand the geopolitical dynamics and the influence of major powers in the rapidly evolving technological landscape. Last but not least, we dive into the absence of global laws fighting disinformation and the great importance of collaboration and information sharing to address cybersecurity common threats and to effectively tackle these multifaceted issues.

What do gender inequality, climate change, disinformation and innovation have in common?

In this episode of “Have we got news for you!”, we are joined by Dr. Aubrey Paris, Gender, Climate and Innovation Policy Advisor in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues of the U.S. Department of State. She offers unique inside on the nexus between gender and climate and the important role of women in finding active and innovative solutions within communities around the world.

What’s more, she introduces us to the ‘Innovation Station’ initiative, an effort to identify women and girls around the world that find active solutions to different climate related challenges, including disinformation, and to help them reach new audiences and amplify their voices and ideas, so that other communities around the globe can learn from their work.

How easier is it to trust something that you show in a group chats that includes family, friends, or neighbours?

As this week’s guest, Professor Mausumi Bhattacharyya, can attest, misinformation and disinformation circulate in unprecedent speed in private groups via messaging platforms, like WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber etc. In this episode, we listen to her explaining the problem and even suggesting the steps we should follow to spot misinformation: Don’t rush! Check the context! Go to factchecking websites! Always be vigilant!

Trust in everything read online has fallen post-2016 elections, but there is still minimum progress in recognising the truth from the fallacies.

Aaron Sharockman, Executive Director at PolitiFact, presented during the episode the critical role technology has to play in fighting disinformation. Factchecking is a multi-stakeholder phenomenon that shouldn’t be framed as just the job of the journalist, but it should be addressed as an issue of the whole online community. This week, we are looking into ways trust can be rebuilt in the post-fake news world.

A youth take-over! A girl power episode! What more to ask for?

Three young communication professionals from Greece take central stage in this week’s episode, discussing anything and everything that can assist in making younger generations more aware of the disinformation traps around them. From media literacy and media education to pop culture, memes, more authentic social media content, gamification and peer-to-peer interaction, we look into ways of adding “more cheese to the broccoli” and making tackling misinformation part of the cool culture.