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Calling BS: Navigating the New Norms of Media and Democracy

In partnership with:
Ford Hall Forum
With support from: Lowell Institute
Date and time
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

According to philosopher Harry Frankfurt, to bullshit is to speak with indifference to the truth. Bullshitters speak carelessly: they ignore the demand that typical speech be both accurate and sincere. Bullshit is produced without concern for the truth at all, and is thus perhaps a “greater enemy of the truth than lies.” Finding a media ecosystem saturated with bullshit, many people seem to respond with a confusing mix of distrust and skepticism on the one hand, and gullibility and credulity on the other. Caught in the middle of this predicament are journalists, researchers, communication specialists, social media platform workers, and other practitioners whose daily activity involves the careful work of investigating, judging, communicating, and synthesizing information with the public in mind. What sorts of dilemmas does this work involve? What sorts of trade offs might there be? How does one speak the truth to a suspicious public? What impact does this have on the health of our democracy? Join us as our expert panel will help us understand more about the choices made in a media environment where trust and attention are both in short supply. This talk is presented in partnership with Ford Hall Forum, The Washington Center, and Suffolk Political Science and Legal Studies Department and Suffolk University Department of Philosophy and the Program in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. ### Resources [nfo about the book “ Calling Bullshit”](https://www.callingbullshit.org/) [The story Phillip is referring to ](https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/02/02/neo-nazis-target-anti-racist-doctors-at-brigham-and-womens-hospital-calling-them-anti-white) [About the Strategic communication unit at the European Commission](https://www.eeas.europa.eu/taxonomy/term/400164_en) [About online disinformation](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/online-disinformation) [Fighting Disinformation online](https://www.rand.org/research/projects/truth-decay/fighting-disinformation.html) [Climate Misinformation on Social Media Is Undermining Climate Action](https://www.nrdc.org/stories/climate-misinformation-social-media-undermining-climate-action) [Pew Research on misinformation](https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/news-habits-media/media-society/misinformation/) [Cognitive Biaises](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biases-make-people-vulnerable-to-misinformation-spread-by-social-media/)

Jonas Kaiser
**Dr. Jonas Kaiser** is an Assistant Professor for Communication, Journalism, and Media at Suffolk University, Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and inaugural member of the Spotify Safety Advisory Council. At BKC, Jonas heads the Misinformation Working Group. His research is located at the intersection of political communication, digital journalism, and computational methods. Jonas has published on far-right extremism, content moderation, science misinformation, algorithmic recommendation systems, and bot detection. His work has been published in journals like Digital Journalism, PLOS ONE or International Journal of Communication and has been featured in German as well as U.S. news media like Süddeutsche Zeitung or The New York Times.
Tina-Zournatzi.jpg
Tina Zournatzi
Tina Zournatzi is currently Head of Unit for Communication at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs where she leads the press and communication work in the areas of migration, security and borders. Before that, she headed the Strategic Communication unit in the European Commission overseeing corporate communication campaigns at pan-European level, while also spearheading the Commission’s strategic communications response to disinformation. In the past, she has worked in different policy areas of the European Commission: sustainable fisheries and maritime affairs, small business policy and entrepreneurship, employment and social affairs. Before joining the European institutions, she was a consultant in corporate social responsibility in Brussels. She started her career in the United Nations working in development in central Africa.
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Rachel McKinney
Dr. Rachel McKinney is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Acting Director of the Program in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Suffolk University.
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