Combating the Infodemic
Combating the Infodemic
Pop-up screens suggesting a Syracuse University student’s compromised account can only be fixed if they click the link. Anti-abortion activists telling women – falsely – that abortion is more dangerous than giving birth. A bogus kidnapping threat to a mother whose son was stationed overseas.
Fake news. Scams. Propaganda. The information age has quickly devolved into the disinformation age. The effects aren’t pretty, altering our sense of whom to trust and pushing our faith in each other, and the government, to new lows.
The Infodemic project takes stock of how these attacks on the truth have changed our lives, examining the history and sources of disinformation and scams, the people most affected by them, and most importantly, what we can do to fight back. Explore Infodemic‘s four primary areas of focus below:
Since September 2022, dozens of student reporters at the Newhouse School of Syracuse University investigated the topic from as many angles as possible in conjunction with The NewsHouse, WAER and The Stand South Side Newspaper.
This project is made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation’s Combating Disinformation in Communities of Color grant program and from the generous support of alumnus David Flaum and his wife, Jackie.
