In today’s episode we speak with Emily Hund, author of The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media, about the evolution of social media influencers and how disparate events like rapid advances in technology and the decline of traditional news outlets have boosted their prevalence and impact since their emergence during the Great Recession. These authentic-seeming people whose lives unfold online provide advice many social media users have come to follow as closely as ...

You know the routine. You develop a physical symptom you’ve never had before and what do you do? You grab your phone and furiously Google symptoms and related medical conditions. If you land on reputable medical sources, it’s not a problem — except it might provoke some unwarranted anxiety. But when online searches and social media spout quackery, the information you consume, and maybe act on, can put your health in danger. In this episode, we discussed the hidden dangers of health and well...

Things have been heating up — literally — since Sabrina Shankman, our latest podcast guest, began covering climate change a decade ago. The scientific community has presented indisputable evidence that climate change is the result of carbon emissions from human activity. News organizations have committed more resources to covering the complex topic. And climate deniers and the misinformation they spread have evolved along with the conversation. Shankman, who covers climate change at The Bost...

Libel laws and the First Amendment in the United States are meant to hit a sweet spot — protecting reputations and facts while also affording journalists the freedom to publish unflattering information about powerful people that the public needs to know. But disinformation is increasingly threatening that balance. In this episode, law professor RonNell Andersen Jones explains what could be at risk. “If it's too easy for somebody to sue for defamation over a falsehood, then powerful people wi...

Have you ever scratched your head when reading an article or watching the news and wondered if you were getting facts or opinion? If so, you’re not alone. News organizations have not made it easy for consumers to differentiate between news and the views of an individual or media outlet. Tom Rosenstiel, professor at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and co-author of The Elements of Journalism, explained why there is confusion in today’s podcast episode. “T...

In today’s episode of our podcast Is that a fact?, guest LaSharah Bunting, CEO and executive director of the Online News Association, discusses how digital innovation has allowed newsrooms to create deeper connections with their audiences so they can better understand the needs of the communities they serve. For Bunting, there is no newsroom innovation without employing digital tools to create pathways for two-way conversations between those reporting the news and those consuming ...

In today’s episode of our podcast Is that a fact?, guest host Jake Lloyd digs into how misinformation manifests in the sports world with author and journalist Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and host of the Spotify podcast Jemele Hill is Unbothered. Hill discusses not only how sports falsehoods spread, but also how the nature of sports reporting makes it more resistant to manipulation than news coverage. Additional reading and listening: What does Kyrie Irving ...

Our guest on this episode is Madhumita Murgia, the first artificial intelligence editor at the Financial Times, based in London. We talked about how generative AI is changing journalism. Our interview was recorded in late March. Additional reading: Meet the first-ever artificial intelligence editor at the Financial TimesChatbots are supercharging search: Are we ready?Is that a fact? is a production of the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit building a national movement t...

Our guest on this episode is Will Knight, senior writer about artificial intelligence at Wired magazine. We discuss how ChatGPT is being applied to search and what some of the potential and pitfalls are of this new class of technology known as "generative AI." Additional reading: Now that ChatGPT is plugged in, things could get weirdGoogle rolls out its Bard chatbot to battle ChatGPTGPT-4 will make ChatGPT smarter but won't fix its flawsWhat chatbot bloopers reveal about the future of AIIs t...

This episode of “Is that a Fact?” is part one of a two-part episode marking the 10th anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman murdered 20 first graders and six adults. Soon after, conspiracy theories calling the massacre a hoax emerged. And they have persisted for a decade, thanks to amplification and profiteering by alt-Right media figure Alex Jones. Over the two episodes we explore the aftermath of Sandy Hook...