Digital Disinformation and Democracy
Wednesday, June 8th from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
YouTube Link to this video here.
Speakers: Bessma Momani and Shelly Ghai Bajaj
Digital disinformation is undermining our democracy. Disinformation is inherently transnational and disrupts our conventional understandings of borders and citizenship. Social media platforms are also challenging to monitor and regulate without infringing upon civil liberties. Research to date overwhelmingly focuses on larger public platforms like Facebook and Twitter with other digital spaces being overlooked as sites for the spread of disinformation.
In our next CPI Talk, our hosts Bessma Momani and Shelly Ghai Bajaj discuss:
- how disinformation flows and spreads on direct messaging and private chat applications.
- why they are important digital spaces to study.
- the broader political and social implications of disinformation.
CPI Talks are free and open to everyone regardless of affiliation! High school students and even non-Waterloo students/staff are welcome to join.
No prior knowledge will be expected from the audience
University of Waterloo
Dr. Bessma Momani is Full Professor in the Department of Political Science, Interim Associate Vice-President of Interdisciplinary and Sponsored Research, and senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. She was a 2015 fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, and was a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Mortara Center. Bessma is a Fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and sits on the Advisory Council to the Middle East Institute’s program on Economics and Energy. She has worked as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, both in the communications office and the Independent Evaluation Office, and for Global Affairs Canada as a Visiting Scholar in its International Assistance Research and Knowledge Division. Bessma currently sits on the board of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and serves as an adviser to the National Security Transparency Advisory Group at Public Safety Canada.
University of Waterloo
Shelly Ghai Bajaj is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Bessma Momani on projects relating to democracy, disinformation, and identity politics and the digital sphere. She completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto where her dissertation examined Hindu nationalism, party strategy, and electoral politics in India.
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