How does information shape our world? And how will we create a liveable future in a world awash in disinformation and misinformation? Info20/20 is rooted in the idea that we must approach our information environment with intentional design practices. We cannot simply subtract disinformation and misinformation and expect good results. We are called to craft a new information environment that is compatible with our values and with democracy.
Join us for a comprehensive hands-on Info20/20 Workshop Experience, and for TEDxMidAtlantic Salon: Info20/20 with perspectives spanning the fields of disinformation research, computer science, psychology, journalism, political science, and more. This is your chance to see our shared information future clearly — and with fresh eyes.
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2020 Postponed due to Covid-19
Please watch for updates and read more here.
Info20/20 Workshop Experience: 10:00AM to 4:30PM
TEDxMidAtlantic Info20/20 Salon: 5:00PM to 9:30PM
Location: Edward St. John Learning Center @ UMD
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Dana Priest
Dana Priest has been a reporter for The Washington Post for 30 years and is The Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Merrill College of Journalism. She covers mostly national security issues and has been a reporter and contributor to PBS FRONTLINE, NBC and CBS news and 60 Minutes.
Her awards include the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for “The Other Walter Reed” and the 2006 Pulitzer for her work on CIA secret prisons and counterterrorism operations as well as two Polk Awards.
She is author of two best-selling books, “THE MISSION: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military” which documents the military’s expanding influence over U.S. foreign affairs (2003), and Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State (2011).
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Lilliana Mason
Lilliana Mason is associate professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity (University of Chicago Press). She received her PhD in Political Psychology from Stony Brook University and her BA in Politics from Princeton University.
Her research on partisan identity, partisan bias, social sorting, and American social polarization has been published in journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Political Behavior, and featured in media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and National Public Radio.
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Steven Hassan
Steven Hassan M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, is an expert on Undue Influence, brainwashing and unethical hypnosis and author of the best-selling books, Combating Cult Mind Control and The Cult of Trump.
For over forty years, he has helped thousands of individuals and families recover from undue influence (mind control). He is sought after as one of the foremost authorities on undue influence, brainwashing, deprogramming and controlling groups and individuals. Steve understands the subject from a unique perspective as both a former cult member and as a clinical professional.
Steven is the Founding Director of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, a coaching, consulting, and training organization dedicated to supporting individuals to have the freedom to think clearly and to freely consider how they want to live their lives.
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Sarah Oates
Sarah Oates is a scholar in the field of political communication and democratization. A major theme in her work is the way in which the traditional media and the internet can support or subvert democracy in places as diverse as Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Prof. Oates also is the Research Director for the College and an affiliate professor in the UMD Department of Communication.
Prof. Oates has published many books, articles, chapters, and papers on topics including how the internet can challenge dictatorship, how election coverage varies in different countries, and how national media systems cover terrorism in distinctive ways. One of her most recent books, Revolution Stalled: The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet Sphere (Oxford University Press) found faint hope for online mobilization in Russia.
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Emerson Brooking
Emerson T. Brooking is a Resident Fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council and coauthor of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media. Most recently, he was Research Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations—the youngest researcher in a generation to receive such an appointment. Brooking has spoken regularly on the topic of information warfare and political manipulation, advising multiple U.S. technology companies and national security entities. He has appeared widely in broadcast media, including NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and his work has been published in Foreign Affairs, WIRED, and Rolling Stone, among others. Brooking was recently named to the Forbes “30 Under 30.” He holds a BA in Political Science and Classical Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
SJ Terp
SJ Terp works on disinformation mechanisms and counters. She was CTO of the UN’s big data team, designed machine learning algorithms and unmanned vehicle systems at the UK Ministry of Defence, and taught data science at Columbia University. She holds degrees in AI and neural networks, and used them to build situational awareness for intelligence, transport, disaster and crowdsourced advocacy systems. She runs Bodacea Light Industries, is a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council, and chairs the Cognitive Security CoLab.
Laura Rosenberger
Laura Rosenberger is the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a senior fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Before she joined GMF, she was foreign policy advisor for Hillary for America, where she coordinated development of the campaign’s national security policies, messaging, and strategy. Prior to that, she served in a range of positions at the State Department and the White House’s National Security Council (NSC).
As chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and as later, then-Deputy National Security Advisor Blinken’s senior advisor, she counseled on the full range of national security policy.
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Info20/20 will include multiple curated workshop sessions that run from 10am-4:30pm on April 18, where you can spend time with experts on a wide range of topics. We’ll be announcing these tracks as they are finalized, so check back for updates regularly!
