Summer Workshop on Combating Misinformation

Summer Workshop on Combating Misinformation: Theoretical and Design Challenges to Support a Healthy Information Ecosystem

Although misinformation has been used as a tool for propaganda throughout history, it has recently garnered immense public attention following the Brexit referendum and the US elections in 2016. Online social media outlets lack regular news media’s editorial standards and procedures for ensuring the veracity of information, and as a result, social media platforms have become arteries for the dissemination of misinformation. We define misinformation as false or misleading information presented as fact regardless of intent. While only a tiny percentage of people share false or misleading information, the proliferation of false and misleading information on social media has eroded trust in our democracies and given rise to more advanced forms of social deception.

In recent years, information systems (IS) researchers have investigated this phenomenon and suggested ways of mitigating its spread. Some proposed solutions by scholars and industry professionals include, news presentation and their formats, source ratings and credibility, and correcting and debunking the misinformation.

This inaugural two-day online workshop hosted by the Center for Computational and Data Sciences (CCDS), seeks to bring together scholars to rethink contemporary paradigms and mobilize discussion on pioneering technological solutions to combat misinformation. We hope that this discussion will provide opportunities for collaboration, help develop a research agenda that illuminates areas for future research that eventually leads to solutions.

At the end of this workshop, we will synthesize and present the ideas in a white paper which would be available on the CCDS website.

Submission Guidelines

To participate please submit your abstracts by July 31, 2022, addressing interesting questions around this phenomenon. Abstracts should not exceed 1 page,  five hundred (500) words, double-spaced, 12-font.

We seek a wide range of research in content, theory, perspectives, and methods as they relate to combating misinformation.

We encourage inter-disciplinary research with partners from information systems, journalism, communication, library and information science, psychology, sociology, political science, computer science and other disciplines.

Topics include the effectiveness of user interventions like education, crowdsourcing, nudges, platform governance, regulatory/policy solutions, design of algorithms, social bots, curation systems, recommendation systems to counter misinformation.

We welcome research at any level of analysis and using a variety of methods such as, qualitative, quantitative, archival, observational, mixed methods research, design science and comprehensive theory development research.

Authors are welcome to email questions to kkking@syr.edu prior to submission if they have questions about their paper’s fit with the workshop.

Eight papers will be selected for presentation, and all will be invited to participate in the workshop.

Committee:

Kelvin King, Assistant Professor, The School of Information Studies at Syracuse University
Mark R. Jacobson, Professor, Maxwell School for Public Citizenship at Syracuse University
Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Professor, The School of Information Studies at Syracuse University

Affiliations:
Center for Computational and Data Sciences (CCDS)
Citizenship and Democratic Institutions (CDI)

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