Looking Beyond Misinformation to Healthier Information Ecosystems

The Syracuse School of Information Studies (iSchool) is hosting a one-day, face-to-face meeting for the Syracuse University community to discuss research on building a healthier information ecosystem for the future. The event has three goals:

1. To build connections and help foster collaboration among members of the Syracuse University community interested in research supporting the design of healthier information ecosystems.
2. To illuminate existing research at Syracuse University and identify promising future directions for the study and design of healthier information ecosystems.   
3. To strategize about how to help Syracuse University become a recognized leader in the study of healthy information ecosystems, and in particular, to gauge interest for establishing a cross-disciplinary research center focused on the topic.

The event will include brief presentations from faculty and other community members, breakout discussions around existing and emerging topic areas, and joint sense-making activities to reify collective understanding. Discussion topics will emerge during the meeting, but might include:

• Media fragmentation and trust
• Social media, partisanship and ideology in political behavior
• The modern information consumer, affective polarization and psychological bias
• Media literacy and civic engagement in the internet age
• Regulation, big business, and the attention economy
• Emergent and threatened epistemologies
• Online toxicity and harassment
• Diversity, power structures and marginalization
• Inequalities and accessibility in digital media
• Extremism and radicalization online
• Cybersecurity, privacy, self-determination and individual freedom
• Network dynamics, algorithmic filtering and fairness
• Collective intelligence and collective stupidity

Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided, and a limited number of parking passes will be made available to those traveling from off campus. Space is limited, so please register in advance!

Please email any questions to jeintron@syr.edu.

Organizers
Joshua Introne, iSchool
Brian McKernan, iSchool
Whitney Phillips, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Emily Thorson, Maxwell School
Charisse L’Pree, Newhouse School