Misinformation is at our fingertips to spread and receive.
With a click, scroll, or post, we are constantly at war with the plague of falsehoods.
In Mount Royal University’s upcoming Spotlight Lecture, acclaimed investigative journalist Justin Lings aims to challenge our perceptions and relationships to misinformation as he addresses a “timely” question: what do you want your source of truth to be?
Ling, a staff columnist with the Toronto Star, focuses heavily on the impacts of toxic information systems, conspiracy theories and understanding how and why we engage with falsehoods.
Describing our hyperreality as a space where “our imagination comes to life,” Ling contends our active participation in online information spaces imposes a “cognitive dissonance.”
“We don’t really know who’s real, who’s fake, who’s lying and who’s not. We’re pretending as though this system is one where we can do good journalism, litigate good politics and be helpful neighbours, but in fact, [the system] is slowly making us crazy,” said Ling in an interview with the Calgary Journal.
Ling considers himself a “heretic in the misinformation space.” He says individuals have always had an inclination to believe things that aren’t true, “turning falsehoods into realities.”
The longtime journalist argues that not only do people choose to believe misinformation, but that the solution lies beyond the space itself.
“We need to unplug from the systems that are making us crazy,” he said.
Facing the truth
Event organizer, Gabriela Perdomo Paez, an assistant professor of journalism at Mount Royal University, says addressing misinformation is now an integral part of her teaching.
“We have several discussions about what it is, what it does to our information and environments and how we as journalists can prevent, debunk and help people understand [its effects],” said Perdomo Páez. Public discussion is exactly what Ling highlights as a gateway to deconstructing falsehoods online.
Ling says rebuilding trust — especially with individuals who are consumed by online spaces — requires consistent face-to-face conversations.
And town halls, debates, lectures, arguments or simply “conversations at the bar,” are exactly where he says we should start.
“We must return to third spaces,” said Ling. “Deciding to upload our third space to the internet was an enormous mistake, and it can’t be undone by trying to create better third spaces online.”
Journalism in a time of lies
In an effort to reignite public discourse in the spirit of third spaces, Ling says he hopes people walk away from his lecture with a predisposition to “throw a wrench in big tech.”
“I think we’re at a reckoning,” says Perdomo Páez. “We must not receive [information] passively… It is particularly dangerous when [we] are not critical and reflecting on how our clicks and actions model what is being presented to us.”
She says public forums are an opportunity for people of any age to listen to someone who’s invested in the issue.
“It’s very important that our generation understands that the things happening in our world are intrinsically connected to the way our information circulates and is manipulated,” said Perdomo Páez.
The public talk takes place on March 11 at Mount Royal University’s Ross Glen Hall.
Ling’s lecture is a free public event with free parking.
Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and the event runs for 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Reserve your spot here.
