Battling Disinformation: Exposing and Checking the Not-so-Hidden Hands that Imperil Democracy

Virtual Event

Countries across the Americas, Europe and beyond are struggling to combat the rise of anti-democratic ethnonationalist political movements.  Increasingly, state actors and agents outside democracies like Russia and China aggressively deploy false information through both traditional and social media information to sew discord and support friendly, anti-democratic leaders and movements. 

However, as dangerous as this outside authoritarian meddling is to democracy, even more disturbing is the increasing use of disinformation by actors within once-stable democracies. Media polarization and disinformation have become core issues, even for countries with strong traditions of free speech and open information flow. In America, UK and across Europe, right-wing, domestic ethnonationalists – often extreme and harboring anti-democratic goals--are purposefully fabricating and spreading lies to influence voter attitudes, spread confusion and division, and undermine trust in democracy, its institutions, and leaders.

Join leaders from across North America and Europe who are on the front lines of exposing and combatting the pernicious work of anti-democratic forces within and without of our countries.   Discussants include:

• Europe-US: Kateri Jochum, former journalist at the German "Deutsche Welle", ABC, VOX media and Wall Street Journal, leading international specialist on media and communications
• Hungary: Peter Kreko, Executive Director of Political Capital, and a Research Associate at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary; behavioral scientist and disinformation expert on the psychological drivers of belief in disinformation, its political-institutional impacts, state-sponsored disinformation, effective counterstrategies.
• US: Martina Guzman, Detroit-based journalist and media innovator. Founder of VERDAD, a tool that monitors ethnic media for disinformation created to fill a critical gap in how misinformation spreads through ethnic media—and arm researchers and journalists with the tools to track and challenge it.
• Poland: Maria Skoria, Political consultant and a Policy Fellow at Das Progressive Zentrum, a think tank based in Berlin.
• Facilitated by: Henning Wrage: Professor at Gettysburg College and Heidelberg University, and leading scholar of forces shaping post-war European politics and culture.

Zoom Webinar: Virtual Event

Date/Time: Thursday, September 4, 10AM to 11AM EST

Admission: FREE

Hosted by Heartland Transformation Network in partnership with Jefferson Educational Society