The case for correction: The importance of public correction to combat online misinformation
Misinformation Speaker Series
Emily Vraga
Associate professor, University of Minnesota
Past Talk
Hybrid talk
Thursday
Mar 30, 2023
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11:00 am
Virtual
177 Huntington Ave.
11th floor
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Many solutions have been proposed to reduce the impact of misinformation on social media. Among these solutions, direct public correction of misinformation offers a flexible, scalable, and immediate response to misinformation that celebrates user autonomy. Public correction is especially important because it enables observed correction, reaching many more people than the person being corrected. Despite the effectiveness of such corrections, social media users, fact checkers, and public health officials express real concerns about the risks of such public corrections. Considering ways to support these corrections remains an important challenge as part of a multi-layered, Swiss-cheese approach to mitigating misinformation.

About the speaker
About the speaker
I am an associate professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, where I hold the Don and Carole Larson Professorship in Health Communication. My research focuses on how individuals respond to news and information about contentious health, scientific, and political issues in digital environments. I study how to (1) detect and correct misinformation via social media, especially on health topics, (2) use news media literacy messages to limit biased processing and improve news consumption habits, (3) encourage attention to higher quality and more diverse online content. I prioritize using diverse and novel methodologies to better match an evolving hybrid media environment.
I am an associate professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, where I hold the Don and Carole Larson Professorship in Health Communication. My research focuses on how individuals respond to news and information about contentious health, scientific, and political issues in digital environments. I study how to (1) detect and correct misinformation via social media, especially on health topics, (2) use news media literacy messages to limit biased processing and improve news consumption habits, (3) encourage attention to higher quality and more diverse online content. I prioritize using diverse and novel methodologies to better match an evolving hybrid media environment.