The Role of Self-Deception and Pseudo-Cognitive Authorities in the Dissemination and Embrace of Fake News

This webinar has the following objectives:

(1) to develop and understand a taxonomy of false information in the disinformation marketplace;

(2) to understand the role of deception and self-deception in the success of fake news;

(3) to understand the role of pseudo-cognitive authorities (e.g., Fox News) in the dissemination and success of fake news;

(4) to delineate and understand the accelerators or enhancers in the success of fake news (e.g., repetition of the same content from different sources and authorities);

(5) to understand the strategies that information professionals can use and the limits they face in dealing with adherents of fake news.

Presenters

Thomas J. Froehlich, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, School of Information, Kent State University (27 years). The majority of his published work is concerned with ethical considerations in the information professions, evolving in part from his philosophy background (Ph.D., Duquesne University, 1975). He has a M.S. in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh (1982). His teaching areas included: information science, information ethics, information architecture, knowledge management, network and software resources, online searching, computer programming and user interface design. He was the chief architect and former Director of the Master of Science Program in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management at Kent State University (2001-2011), recently transformed into Master’s degrees in Knowledge Management, User Experience Design and Health Informatics. He has provided workshops, training’s, seminars or presentations in 26 countries, primarily in the areas of information ethics and online searching of commercial, government and academic databases. He has recently created and teaches a course on the Age of Disinformation, and is continuing work on a taxonomy of false information and on pseudo-cognitive authorities, from which this webinar is derived. Further information can be found at: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~tfroehli/