FORGE is delighted to announce a talk by our upcoming internal speaker: Ed Dearden (Computing & Communications). Details of his talk are below:

TITLE
Alternative fakes

ABSTRACT
Lies have always been told to try and influence the opinions of others. But the ease of information-propagation allowed by the web and social media has made it an increasing problem. False information, both intentional (“disinformation”) and unintentional (“misinformation”), propagates like wild fire in this environment. Much research is (rightly!) concerned with characterising disinformation in this social media and online news landscape. Though this focus is understandable, there is much to learn by looking at other forms of false information, as the concept of people spreading lies is, sadly, not a new phenomenon. This talk will discuss some of the challenges of looking at different forms of false information and how the concepts of belief and deceptive intent affect the language of false information. The talk will then discuss a couple of case studies of false information: April Fools hoaxes and the Flat Earth Society forum.

TIME & PLACE
1100-1200, Wed 13^th Mar, County South B89

All are welcome to attend.