Dr Marina Wimmer M.Wimmer@napier.ac.uk
Associate Professor
False webs: Network to address the misinformation pandemic
People Involved
Dr Md Zia Ullah M.Ullah@napier.ac.uk
Lecturer
Dr Faye Skelton F.Skelton@napier.ac.uk
Associate Professor
Ted Carlson Webster T.CarlsonWebster@napier.ac.uk
University Tutor
Project Description
Fake news (inaccurate information) peaked during the pandemic with around 46 000 daily Twitter posts containing false information (Lupi, 2020). In Europe over 70% people regularly encounter fake news (UNESCO, 2021). The Scottish government has recently published strategy papers addressing the spread of fake news (e.g., “flagging fake news, mis/disinformation” to protect online users from harm (National Digital Ethics Public Panel Insight Report, 2021); importance of media literacy initiatives to tackle mis-/disinformation (Public Interest Journalism Working Group: recommendations: Scottish Government, 2022). Scientific findings are partially at odds with these recommendations: identifying fake news is difficult for people, fake news detection algorithms are currently not fully accurate, fact checking is moderately efficient in reducing fake news, however, an effective fact check system can reduce the belief in misinformation. This network addresses spreading false information by uniting scientific findings with policy makers to implement targeted and evidence-based measures combatting the misinformation pandemic
| Project Acronym | FAKE |
|---|---|
| Status | Project Live |
| Funder(s) | Royal Society of Edinburgh |
| Value | £19,931.00 |
| Project Dates | Sep 1, 2023 - Aug 31, 2025 |
You might also like
Exploring experiences of miscarriages of justice Aug 1, 2019 - Jan 31, 2023
The proposed research will explore victims’ experiences of miscarriages of justice. It will investigate the narratives that individuals who have been wrongfully imprisoned have to share about their lives prior to incarceration, their experiences of S...
Read More about Exploring experiences of miscarriages of justice.
Super Recognisers: Is bias their Kryptonite? Aug 31, 2020 - Aug 31, 2021
Super-recognisers (SR) have superior facial recognition skills and consistently outperform non-SR in facial recognition experiments. However, as well as performance in experiments, SR in the real-world would require the ability to avoid bias, which m...
Read More about Super Recognisers: Is bias their Kryptonite?.
Investigating the Effect of Alcohol Concentration on the Perception of Flavour in Spirits and Reduced Alcohol Beverages Oct 1, 2021 - Sep 30, 2022
This project is an MRes project jointly supervised by ENU and the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI). The project will investigate how reducing alcohol concentration influences the perception of flavour elements in spirit drinks, with the eventu...
Read More about Investigating the Effect of Alcohol Concentration on the Perception of Flavour in Spirits and Reduced Alcohol Beverages.
The impact of COVID-19 on the justice voluntary sector Sep 1, 2021 - Aug 31, 2022
The aim of the project is to explore the experiences of third sector criminal justice organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to understand how organisations and the sector as a whole have been impacted, and how they have adapted in these...
Read More about The impact of COVID-19 on the justice voluntary sector.