FORUM: Truth, trust, and democracy in the age of selfies, trolls, and bots

Rappler.com

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FORUM: Truth, trust, and democracy in the age of selfies, trolls, and bots
The public forum on 'Truth, Trust, and Democracy in the Age of Selfies, Trolls and Bots' aims to help promote a better understanding of how social media and other digital platforms work

MANILA, Philippines – Digital technologies have allowed everyone who has access the ability to publish their own content and choose what matters to them.

In so doing, they gave the ordinary citizen a voice in the global conversation, obliterated the gatekeeping powers of traditional media, and in the process, significantly changed journalism and the public space where democracy operates.

But as algorithms that can’t tell fact from fiction took over the critical editorial role of deciding what people see in the new public conversation spaces, they fostered the rise of a disinformation ecosystem that distributed falsehood: from the simply misleading to the outright fabrication. (READ: ‘Fake news’ is not journalism

In many democracies, systematic online campaigns aided by bots and trolls have triggered hate mobs to discredit critics and silence legitimate dissent.

What can be done to prevent the use of these digital platforms to undermine and weaken democracies? How can ordinary citizens take part in this effort? 

These are some of the questions that the public forum called, “Truth, Trust, and Democracy in the Age of Selfies, Trolls and Bots” intends to answer.

Organized by the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation (JNBF), Rappler, and other stakeholder groups, the forum aims to promote a better understanding of how social media and other digital platforms work. (READ: Agenda: Truth, trust, and democracy in the age of selfies, trolls, and bots)

It aims to shed light on the nature of disinformation and misinformation online and to highlight the role of a free and independent press in preserving a healthy democracy. It also aims to stimulate a conversation around opportunities and threats to democracy in the age of selfies, bots, fake accounts, and trolls.

The forum will be held on Tuesday, November 28, at the Green Sun Hotel in Makati City. Program starts at 9:30 am. Registration opens at 8:30 am. 

Tickets to the public forum are free, but seats are limited. Register below to secure your tickets now. 

Below are some of the topics to be tackled at the public forum:  

  • Teaching as truth-telling
  • Are you living in a filter bubble?
  • Bots and trolls and their influence on contemporary society and politics
  • Are machines editing and shaping our perceptions of reality? What can be done?
  • Making facts matter 
  • A world without gatekeepers: what are the limits of free speech?
  • Gender and cyberbullying: what can be done? 
  • Journalism in the age of information plenty: Championing the people’s right to know
  • Restoring trust in the age of filter bubbles: Challenges for newsrooms today
  • Hate speech and democracies: where do you draw the line on free expression?
  • Fake news and democracy: The role of the academe

This whole-day event will gather up to 500 campus journalists, student leaders, educators, bloggers, and other stakeholders in journalism to help them understand the nature of digital platforms and how they affect public opinion. – Rappler.com 

 

PART 1

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