|            BY THOMSON FOUNDATION

Rethinking disinformation: psychology, prebunking and other tactics to halt the spread

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Is it time to rethink how we tackle disinformation? It's a huge problem for society and journalists who are trying to make the facts heard above the noise from the avalanche of online information which includes conspiracy theories and convincing manipulated content.

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"This fantastic course will help you understand and fight disinformation, an absolutely essential skill to acquire during this global election season. Sign up and help safeguard the future of democracy." (Professor Sander van der Linden, author of ‘Foolproof: Why we fall for misinformation and how to build immunity’)

This course, Rethinking disinformation: psychology, prebunking and other tactics to halt the spread, explores why people believe lies above the truth and how journalists can use that knowledge to stop false claims from spreading. One of the world’s leading experts in social psychology in society exposes the tactics used by disinformers and explains how prebunking can be used to warn audiences in advance. The course also arms journalists with practical ways to recognise and expose false information with training videos from Bellingcat’s social media editor.
By the end of this course, you will:

  • Appreciate the scale, workings and nuances of the disinformation landscape be better able to recognise potentially false information online and the key narratives being targeted
  • Recognise the tactics used by disinformers
  • Recognise more about the psychology behind why audiences believe in conspiracy theories and falsehoods and how you might use that to your advantage
  • Appreciate what is meant by prebunking and how you might use it to expose and prevent the spread of disinformation
  • Know how technology can help you safeguard your content from future manipulation

Catherine Mackie –
Thomson Foundation

Catherine Mackie is the training and communications editor for Thomson Foundation and the course instructor. She’s a former BBC senior journalist with almost 30 years' experience in front of and behind the camera. She’s a recipient of a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Professor Sander van der Linden – University of Cambridge 

Professor Sander van der Linden is professor of social psychology in society at the University of Cambridge. He co-developed the award-winning fake news game, Bad News, aimed at building psychological resistance against misinformation. and regularly advises governments and social media companies on the issue.

Charlotte Maher -
Bellingcat 

Charlotte Maher is the social media editor for Bellingcat, an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists who are experts in open-source investigations (OSINT). She has written a guide for the public on how to be savvier online during misinformation surges.

Odanga Madung –
Data journalist 

Odanga Madung is the co-founder of Odipo Dev, a research, impact and media advisory firm in Kenya. He is a former senior researcher for global elections at Mozilla where his work has exposed disinformation-for-hire in Kenya. He has written for the Nation, CNN and The Guardian.

Dr Tim Squirrell –
Senior strategist 

Dr Tim Squirrell is the former director of communications and editorial at the Institute for Dialogue, a global non-profit which is dedicated to reversing the rising tide of polarisation, extremism and disinformation worldwide. Tim previously advised the British government on counterterrorism and is currently head of strategy at Foxglove a non-profit that fights to make tech fair for all.

Tijana Cvjetićanin -
Raskrinkavanja 

Tijana Cvjetićanin is the editor-in-chief of the fact checking platform Raskrinkavanje in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the creators of Istinomjer which fact-checks statements of public officials and tracks election promises of political parties. She sits on the advisory board of the International Fact-Checking Network.

Adam Rose –
Freedom of the Press Foundation 

Adam Rose is the deputy director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He’s the former chief operating officer at Starling Lab for Data Integrity, an academic research centre co-founded by Stanford University and the University of Southern California which works with newsrooms around the world to build trust in digital records.