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Fact vs. Fake

Fighting back against fake news
September 13, 2017, 6:30 PM, Kane Hall

The success of The Seattle Times LiveWire event series continued with “Fact vs. Fake: Fighting back against fake news,” an engaging forum about how to combat misinformation and preserve the integrity of a free, independent and legitimate press.

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Event Video
Media Coverage

UW panel on battling fake news: ‘Think more, share less’

On the Scene: LiveWire event panel fights back against fake news

Event Speakers
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Michele Matassa Flores
As The Seattle Times’ Managing Editor, Matassa Flores oversees about 150 journalists and directs all newsroom operations. She has worked in nearly every news department during her 24 years at The Times and has held leadership roles at Crosscut and the Puget Sound Business Journal.
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Jevin West
Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, West co-directs the DataLab and co-teaches the “Calling BS in the Age of Big Data” class, which went viral within hours. He develops knowledge discovery tools to both study and facilitate science.
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Delip Rao
Rao is the founder of Joostware, an AI research consulting firm. He created the Fake News Challenge, which brings AI researchers and technologists together to assist the journalism community by identifying and streamlining fact-checking workflows. Rao recently won a grant from the Knight Foundation.
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Sharon Pian Chan
As The Seattle Times’ Vice President of Innovation, Product and Development, Chan leads content funding and development, and manages the product and business intelligence teams. Previously, she was Associate Opinion Editor and a reporter covering Microsoft and T-Mobile.
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Jeanne Bourgault
Bourgault is President and CEO of Internews, an international nonprofit that works to empower local media and ensure access to trusted, quality information around the world. Internews develops approaches and journalistic principles to create positive change for underserved communities around the world.
What people are saying

There’s no silver bullet for solving this challenge … The most important, long-term solution is building locally relevant, trusted information.

Jeanne Bourgault, President & CEO of Internews

We need humans in the loop. Expert judgment is indispensable.

Delip Rao, Organizer, Fake News Challenge

Misinformation, many times, is dressed in the authority of data and statistics. We want to help the public identify and refute this kind of false information.

Jevin West, Assistant Professor, UW Information School

People are … more reliant on Facebook, where speech can get very ugly, very quickly, and it’s very hard to control.

Jeanne Bourgault, President & CEO of Internews

Fake news and misinformation are one of society's most dire problems; democracy and world preservation are at stake.

Jevin West, Assistant Professor, UW Information School

A lot of the work of fact-checkers and journalists tracking fake news is manual, and I hope we can change that.

Delip Rao, Organizer, Fake News Challenge

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