COVIDCalls 5.8.2020 Joan Donovan & Jeannette Sutton-communication+misinformation by COVIDCalls

My guests today are experts in the ways that risk communication works--in the ways that public officials push important information out to the public, but also in how information is manipulated.

Dr. Joan Donovan is the Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Dr. Donovan leads The Technology and Social Change Project (TaSC). TaSC explores how media manipulation is a means to control public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society. TaSC conducts research, develops methods, and facilitates workshops for journalists, policy makers, technologists, and civil society organizations on how to detect, document, and debunk media manipulation campaigns.

Her contributions can also be found in many journals and the books, Data Science Landscape: Towards Research Standards and Protocols and Unlike Us Reader: Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives. Dr. Donovan's research and expertise has been showcased in a wide array of media outlets including NPR, Washington Post, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and more.

Jeannette Sutton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and the Director of the Risk and Disaster Communication Center at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Sutton specializes in disaster and risk, with a primary focus on online informal communications, and public alerts and warnings disseminated via terse messaging channels. Much of her research investigates the evolving role of information and communication technology, including social media and mobile devices, for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

Dr. Sutton has held numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Naval Research. Her research has been published in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.