[VIRTUAL] Setting the Table: Tough Holiday Talks on Politics & Misinfo

Join us for a virtual discussion exploring how to talk to friends and family about politics, misinformation, and what can be those “tough conversations” around differences of opinion that emerge during elections. The discussion will bring together experts in human psychology, technology, and media to consider how media coverage framed issues for voters this election season, how to be mindful of our own confirmation bias about what we see online, and how to talk with others who might be sharing misleading information on their social media feeds. If you plan to tweet about the event, follow us on Twitter at @penamerica.

We’ll also explore how we can expect disinformation threats to continue to loom in the months to come and how we can use media literacy skills to defend against its spread. These are polarizing times, but employing empathy and disinformation defense skills can help along the way.

Please confirm your registration at the Zoom link below. For more information, contact Hannah Waltz at [email protected].

REGISTER HERE

panelists

Lisa Fazio, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on how people learn true and false information from the world around them and how to correct errors in people’s knowledge. Her research informs basic theories about learning and memory, while also having clear applications for practitioners, such as journalists and teachers. She’s written on how to recognize misleading COVID-19 information on social media as well as how to avoid knowledge neglect and spreading misinformation.

Arjun Moorthy, is cofounder and CEO of The Factual, a technology startup that helps people get unbiased news on trending topics via a daily newsletter. He has been passionate about news from when he was a paperboy in middle school through becoming editor-in-chief of The Stanford Reporter. Prior to The Factual, Arjun was vice president of business development at HubSpot. Moorthy holds a BASc in computer engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Stanford University.

Bridget Todd is the communications director of UltraViolet and host of iHeartRadio’s “There Are No Girls on the Internet” podcast. She’s trained human rights activists in Australia, coordinated digital strategy for organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Women’s March, and MSNBC, and ran a training program for political operatives that The Washington Post called the Democratic Party’s “Hogwarts for digital wizardry.” Formerly, she cohosted iHeartMedia’s “Stuff Mom Never Told You” podcast and hosted a global salon with AFROPUNK, where she talked to high-profile women like Ava Duvernay and #MeToo creator Tarana Burke.

Moderator

Emma Margolin is the senior research analyst at the Data & Society Research Institute’s Disinformation Action Lab. Previously, she worked as a journalist at NBC News and MSNBC, where she reported on LGBTQ rights, elections, the courts, the far right, and numerous other topics for both on-air and digital platforms. Her work has also appeared in ThinkProgress, Glamour, and POLITICO Magazine, among other publications. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Kennedy School.