Credibility and Trust
Policymakers, scientists, and journalists have worried for years about declining public trust in their institutions. Are new technologies like social media contributing to this decline, or are they convenient scapegoats for broader forces in society? We discuss research on how populist politics and other anti-elite, anti-institutional movements are intersecting with declining public trust and the rise of alternative epistemologies.
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Explore course modules, handouts, teaching tools and syllabi about dis- and misinformation.
Latest News on Credibility and Trust
Google Fonts Earlier this month, Dr. Rashid Buttar posted on Twitter that COVID-19 “was a planned operation” and shared an article alleging that most people who got vaccinated against the coronavirus would be dead by 2025. His tweets are a recent addition to a steady stream of spurious claims about the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Another example is […]
By Victoria Knight
President Joe Biden’s failure to nominate a fifth Federal Communications Commission member has forced Democrats to work with a 2-2 deadlock instead of the 3-2 majority the president’s party typically enjoys at the FCC. But things could get worse for Democrats starting in January. If Biden doesn’t make his choice quickly enough to get Senate […]
By Jon Brodkin
Exposure notification apps were developed at the start of the pandemic, as technologists raced to help slow the spread of covid. The most common system was developed jointly by Google and Apple, and dozens of apps around the world were built using it—MIT Technology Review spent much of 2020 tracking them. The apps, which run on ordinary […]
By Lindsay Muscato
The number of COVID-19 cases in the county was rising sharply, Scott Levy, chief medical officer at one of Bucks County’s hospitals, tried to tell the crowd at the Aug. 31 meeting of the Central Bucks School Board amid a debate over school mask mandates. “We’ve gone from 10 cases a week diagnosed at Doylestown […]
By Jason Laughlin and Maddie Hanna
The issue of research access is becoming ever more urgent in platform governance. Over the past year, dominant platforms such as Facebook have repeatedly interfered with independent research projects, prompting calls for reform. The matter went mainstream in October 2020, when, only weeks before the US elections, Facebook tried to shut down an independent audit […]
By Paddy Leerssen
Google Fonts Earlier this month, Dr. Rashid Buttar posted on Twitter that COVID-19 “was a planned operation” and shared an article alleging that most people who got vaccinated against the coronavirus would be dead by 2025. His tweets are a recent addition to a steady stream of spurious claims about the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Another example is […]
By Victoria KnightPresident Joe Biden’s failure to nominate a fifth Federal Communications Commission member has forced Democrats to work with a 2-2 deadlock instead of the 3-2 majority the president’s party typically enjoys at the FCC. But things could get worse for Democrats starting in January. If Biden doesn’t make his choice quickly enough to get Senate […]
By Jon BrodkinExposure notification apps were developed at the start of the pandemic, as technologists raced to help slow the spread of covid. The most common system was developed jointly by Google and Apple, and dozens of apps around the world were built using it—MIT Technology Review spent much of 2020 tracking them. The apps, which run on ordinary […]
By Lindsay MuscatoThe number of COVID-19 cases in the county was rising sharply, Scott Levy, chief medical officer at one of Bucks County’s hospitals, tried to tell the crowd at the Aug. 31 meeting of the Central Bucks School Board amid a debate over school mask mandates. “We’ve gone from 10 cases a week diagnosed at Doylestown […]
By Jason Laughlin and Maddie HannaThe issue of research access is becoming ever more urgent in platform governance. Over the past year, dominant platforms such as Facebook have repeatedly interfered with independent research projects, prompting calls for reform. The matter went mainstream in October 2020, when, only weeks before the US elections, Facebook tried to shut down an independent audit […]
By Paddy Leerssen
October 7, 2021 - October 8, 2021