“Misinformation in Mass Media as a Dilemma for Democracies”

State Fair Community College’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter will host a presentation by Dr. Brian Southwell titled “Misinformation in Mass Media as a Dilemma for Democracies” at noon Feb. 8 in the Thompson Conference Center located in the Heckart Science and Allied Health Center on the Sedalia campus. The event is free and open to the public.

SFCC’s Phi Theta Kappa members identified misinformation as a problem while participating in an Honors in Action Project during the fall. Members studied various issues from digitalization of newspapers to psychological studies and decided that misinformation in media is a pertinent problem in today’s society.

“The World Economic Forum listed misinformation as the number 10 global risk in 2013,” said Noel Jerrell, SFCC’s Phi Theta Kappa president. “We want to make the community aware of this problem and, hopefully, more engaged and less divided.”

Southwell directs the Science in the Public Sphere Program at RTI International, an independent, nonprofit research institute. He also is on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. He has published numerous books and journal articles, including a 2015 special issue of the Journal of Communication on misinformation, plus a forthcoming book on misinformation for the University of Texas Press.

Phi Theta Kappa is an international honors organization for community college students. For more information, contact Sarah Nail, instructor and PTK co-advisor, at (660) 596-7336 or snail1@sfccmo.edu.