Misinformation about Elections: Resources
Purpose: This section is produced by the Task Force in the Voter Ready team on Misinformation about Elections. The task force has the goal of bolstering confidence in the democratic process by getting the facts out and educating the community about voting and elections. The purpose is to share accurate information widely, ideally before misinformation can take hold. Below see the resources and presentations produced by the task force. These are available for downloading and sharing.
On October 19, 2022, a Voter Literacy Series session from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign covered the topic of Addressing Misinformation. The presenter was Karen Fresco, Voter Ready team of the League of Women Voters of Champaign County. From the Voter Literacy Series page: "The extensive circulation of misinformation especially on social media is of great concern. What sorts of misinformation are we seeing? How can we detect misinformation? And what can we do about it? We will take a look at examples of misinformation and at resources and strategies that we can use to address it." Use the link below to view the slides from this presentation.
Resources
Elections, Speech and Disinformation: Webinar
Go to the video and podcast for this presentation.
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What are the leading proposals to combat election disinformation and are they consistent with the First Amendment? on March 10, 6:00 pm Central Time the National Constitution Center offered a free Webinar on this topic.
Speakers were Richard L. Hasen, leading election law expert and author of "Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics—and How to Cure It;" Sarah Isgur, staff writer at "The Dispatch" and co-host of the legal podcast "Advisory Opinions;" and Catherine Ross, free speech expert and author of "A Right to Lie? Presidents, Other Liars, and the First Amendment." Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. About the National Constitution Center: President Ronald Reagan signed the Constitution Heritage Act of 1988 on September 16, 1988. The act directed the establishment of the National Constitution Center, an institution “within or in close proximity to the Independence National Historical Park” that “shall disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis in order to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.” |
Watch the Video: Facts vs Misinformation Presentation
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On November 10, 2021 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm, LWVCC presented a Timely Topics program titled: Facts vs Misinformation - Some Practical Strategies. The discussion was led by members of the LWVCC Task Force on Countering Misinformation about Elections: Karen Fresco, Sara Kelley, Ann Prisland, Mary Ellen Wuellner.
The video of this presentation (1 hour, 7 minutes) is available on the LWVCC YouTube site. Use either of the links below to see the presentation.
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Learn about Making a "Truth Sandwich"
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In a recent session on practical strategies for determining facts vs misinformation, participants learned how to construct a "truth sandwich."
Constructing a "truth sandwich" is a clever technique when you are responding to misinformation. The presentation slides used for this part of the program are shared below, available to view/download.
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Local Misinformation, Small Town Populists, and Platform Politics
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This topic was presented by Nikki Usher, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign on October 25, 2021 as part of a series on Conspiracy, Misinformation, and the Infodemic, offered by the Center for Advanced Study (CAS).
Event Description: As the full impact of diminished legacy news becomes increasingly clear, platforms like Facebook have become the home page, front page, and bulletin board for civic life in communities—essential communication infrastructure. However, big tech platforms aren’t concerned with democracy, just profit. While much is known about how platforms enable misinformation spreading and hyper-partisanship at a national and international scale, far less is known about what happens at the local level. Using research from the PPLN-IL project [Platforms, Politics, and Local News in Illinois], this talk explores the challenges to combatting misinformation about COVID-19 on a local level. Of particular concern is a growing phenomenon: opportunistic local politicians using social media to weaponize national political issues into career-boosting opportunities. |
How Can You Tell If the News You Read Is Real? |
As part of their October coverage of "who's in the charge of the news" local NPR station WILL presented a program on ways to distinguish credible journalism from social media posts that may be shared by friends and family that are not based on fact. Guests were Stephanie Craft, Professor and Head of UIUC's journalism department and Michael Spikes, a Ph.D. student in Learning Sciences at Northwestern. head of UIUC's journalism department and a Ph.D. student in Learning Sciences at Northwestern.
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The Big Lie and Big Tech |
On October 6, the Carter Center published “The Big Lie and Big Tech,” a new report that details the role played by “repeat offenders”—media known to repeatedly publish false and misleading information—in spreading election fraud narratives in online echo chambers during the 2020 election. A desciption of the report is available on the Carter Center's news release site. Or you can view or download the full report from the Carter Center using the link below.
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This topic was presented by Professor Mira Sotirovic, Karin and Folke Dovring Scholar in Propaganda in the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois, on October 6, 2021 as part of a series on Conspiracy, Misinformation, and the Infodemic, offered by the Center for Advanced Study (CAS).
Event Description: The torrent of false information and efforts to undermine the credibility of journalism and the news media as democratic institutions make journalistic commitments to accurate reporting more crucial and more challenging than ever before. The standard practice of debunking of misinformation might be more effective if accompanied with forging new relationships with audiences based on shared values, transparency and consistency. All news is biased to some extent, and journalism would serve the public better by openly examining those biases rather than denying them. |
Graphics From LWV: Download and Use! |
These graphics from the national League of Women Voters can be downloaded and used widely to spread the word about countering disinformation.
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Countering Misinformation in the Local Media about Voting by Mail
Fact Checking Sources
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How The Task Force Started
The task force started at a March 2021 LWVCC meeting, when Karen Fresco and Ann Prisland described the campaign being organized by our sister league in Metro Phoenix to counter the Big Lie about the 2020 election (see the article in the April 2021 issue of The Voter), several attendees and others decided to meet again. The Voter Registration team already had a group of “misinformation detectives” monitoring the media, but the chapter wanted to consider additional initiatives. On April 8 and 23, 2021, the task force met to discuss how the League’s reputation as a source of trustworthy, non-partisan information could be leveraged to combat misinformation. Some ideas under consideration:
- ask people who have served at the polls recently to post a positive comment about their experience on Facebook;
- ask community leaders to record short videos saying why voting is important to them,
- post these videos on Facebook and group them on the League’s website;
- provide information and share ways to take action on Illinois election law changes.
Task Force Members: Pat Babich, Karen Fresco, Cindy Ingold, Paula Kaufman, Sara Kelley, Beth Martin, Ruth Mitchell, Jean Paley, Ann Panthen, Ann Prisland, Jenny Putman, Cecile Steinberg, Karl Weingartner, Mary Ellen Wuellner, Joan Zernich
Join the Task Force!
If you are interested in participating in these efforts, contact Karen karenfresco1@gmail.com or Ann prisland.ann@gmail.com
A world without facts is a world without truth and trust.
Journalist Maria Ressa, Recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize
