The Trusted Web Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sebastiaan van der Lans
What if you could simply trust all information on the internet? I’m on the mission to build a Trusted Web for all of us on planet earth. Because to save the world, we need to fix the internet. With this special thing called blockchain timestamps; all content you consume will be transparent and accountable. Welcome to the new default on the internet. Thank you for being part of this journey and let’s build the Trusted Web together.
Karen Mahabir is the AP’s Fact Check and Misinformation Editor, based in New York City. She has worked as a reporter, editor and producer for the AP in its Mexico City, Washington and New York offices. Mahabir also served as Managing Editor of News for The Huffington Post for two years and has spent many years working as a reporter and columnist at several newspapers in New York City and New Jersey.
In this episode, we discuss what a Misinformation Editor does, live fact-checking, viral questions, ‘explainer’ pieces, and the rise of citizen journalism.
For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
Amy Mitchell is director of journalism research at Pew Research Center. She is responsible for the Center’s research related to news and information, including how the public accesses, engages with and creates news, what news organizations are providing and how technology is changing all of these elements. Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
In this conversation we explore the impact of people relying on social media as their primary news source. Tune in as we discuss private social media spaces, the rejection of major media outlets, and some key insights from the Pew Research Center’s latest research.
For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
Matt Carmichael is the vice president of editorial and content strategy for Ipsos in North America where he edits the award-winning magazine, What the Future. In addition, he is an author and keynote speaker who reports on trends, futurism, demographics and their impacts on everything from marketing, to product development to urban planning and transit.
Matt shares on the show some powerful insights from his latest market research. We also talk about confirmation bias, synthetic media, the resources the media industry needs, why transparency isn’t the answer for everything – and what makes him cautiously optimistic.
For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
Helen Havlak, Vice President of The Verge, shares how the organization has built trust through different forms of content over the years. The Verge is an ambitious multimedia effort founded in 2011 to examine how technology will change life in the future for a massive mainstream audience. The Verge reaches 55MM+ US readers and millions of subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and email. Helen oversees strategy, operations, growth, product, editorial planning, analytics, and audience development.
In this conversation, we discuss public ethics policies, the power of podcasting and audio, The Verge’s ‘jobs to be done’ framework, and how “it’s never a dull moment to be a digital media company”.
For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
Henry Pickavet is the editorial director of TechCrunch, which he joined nine years ago as a copy editor. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Henry had a hand in a number of online and print publications, including InternetNews.com as chief copy editor and Government Technology Magazine as managing editor. Henry joins the show to explore what makes a trusted online brand.
Tune in to hear what’s changed across the media landscape over the past decade. We also discuss the future of content discovery, virtual events, the relationship between diversity and trust – and being an avid podcast fan.
For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
Tonia Ries has more than 30 years of experience in marketing, research, strategy and media. She is Executive Director of Intellectual Property for the Edelman Trust Institute, Edelman’s center for the study of trust and a learning laboratory for trust building between companies, institutions, brands and people. Her role includes stewardship of the Edelman Trust Barometer, the largest global survey and foremost authority on trust in institutions and brands.
It was great having Tonia join me today to discuss the findings from their Trust Barometer research, and learning that the most trusted source for people is their employer. Tune in to this conversation as we discuss the impact of information distribution, dealing with the ‘infodemic’, how we can all build good information hygiene, and what leaders can do with their organisations to reconnect with their communities.
For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
As managing editor, Scott Kraft oversees the Los Angeles Times newsroom, including Column One, enterprise, investigations and Sports. During more than three decades at The Times, Kraft has been a national and foreign correspondent as well as national editor and Deputy Managing Editor/News. He has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing, and wrote for the Associated Press before joining the Times.
I really enjoyed learning more about how the LA Times have been handling accountability. Listen to find out more about the future of small newspapers, reporting on useful information, how the Times are personalising their journalists, and the mission to reflect the diversity of their community that speaks to them.
Anyone with an internet connection can be a publisher, so what does it take for business journalism to build trust with their readers? I’m excited to speak with Eric Schurenberg, CEO at Mansueto Ventures, to learn what they are doing.
Founded in 2005, the publishing company is dedicated to serving business leaders. They publish the influential publications Inc. and Fast Company. Eric Schurenberg has been the CEO of Mansueto Ventures since 2018. Prior to that, Eric was the founding editor of CBS MoneyWatch.com and the editor in chief of BNET.com.
Tune in as we discuss advocating your readers, having a symbiotic relationship with big tech platforms, and what we can all learn from business journalism.
Links Mentioned
- Your Undivided Attention Podcast
- FastCompany.com
- Inc.com
The consumption and distribution of media has changed drastically over the past decade. Calling in from Bangalore, The Next Web’s Managing Editor Abhimanyu Ghoshal joins the show to reflect on what the major shifts have been. TNW is a global digital brand that manages several initiatives focused on international technology news, business, and culture to inform, inspire and connect people who love tech.
We explore niche-based content, empowering readers to debunk misinformation, what makes a reliable review, how TNW measures readership loyalty, and new ways of telling stories.
Links Mentioned
Abhimanyu’s interview on the BBC World Service
TNW article on India’s handling of the pandemic
Episode 10: Blockchain in the Newsroom with Dwayne Desaulniers
BuzzFeed is the leading independent digital media and tech company delivering news and entertainment content to a global audience. Mark Schoofs joins the show to share about his role as Editor in Chief at BuzzFeed News, and what the state of media and journalism looks like today.
Over the course of his 30 year career, Mark has earned a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on AIDS in Africa at The Village Voice, shared in another Pulitzer Prize at The Wall Street Journal for reporting on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and created BuzzFeed News’s investigations team, which is now a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and winner of the Polk and National Magazine Awards.
Join us as we discuss innovative ways of reporting, the democratic impact of the printing press, the profitability of breaking news and what the future of local journalism looks like.
Links Mentioned
- Power of Narrative 2015: Mark Schoofs
- Danielle Belton’s Twitter
- Mark’s Twitter
- Mark at USC Annenberg
As POLITICO’s Editor-in-Chief, Matt Kaminski oversees all editorial operations of the publication. Starting as a freelancer from Eastern Europe before his senior year in college, Matt has reported on international affairs, politics and business on and off for the past quarter century.
He joined POLITICO in late 2014 to become the founding editor of the European edition, which launched in April 2015. He moved to Washington in the fall of 2018 to help lead the publication’s global expansion efforts, and took on his current role in April 2019.
Join us as we explore why he’s optimistic about the current media space, some “Trump withdrawal symptoms”, the power of sharing journalists’ notes and experimenting with different mediums to tell stories.
Links Mentioned
- POLITICO
Katherine Bell is Editor-In-Chief at Quartz. She previously served as editor-in-chief of Barron’s magazine, from 2017 until earlier in 2019. Before that, she worked at Harvard Business Review for a decade and was the editor of HBR.org. In both roles, she led the digital transformation of iconic print publications.
Tune into this episode as we discuss how journalism has changed over the last year – and why more newsrooms need to be more progressive with their business models. We discuss service and investigative journalism, how the Quartz newsroom has become more inclusive in light of George Floyd’s death, not writing in euphemisms – and how journalists are becoming more data-savvy.
Links Mentioned
- Substack
- Quartz
Christophe Deloire’s career trajectory is impressive. He ran one of the leading French journalism schools, the CFJ, from 2008 to 2012, and was an investigative reporter for the politics and society sections of the French news magazine Le Point from 1998 to 2007. He has also worked for the TV channels ARTE and TF1, made documentary films, edited several authors and written several bestsellers. Christophe is currently the General Secretary and Executive Director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Calling in from France, Christophe shares how we can all support great journalism.
I’m excited to speak with Christophe to learn more about his work. We also discuss developing a standard for journalism, focusing on market regulation not content regulation, the role of blockchain technology, and having a good process in place to combat the spread of fake news.
Links Mentioned
- Christophe’s LinkedIn
- RSF index 2021
- Reporters Without Borders
- The Forum on Information and Democracy
- The Journalism Trust Initiative
Fil is a Professor of Informatics and Computer Science, and the former director at the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research – a research unit of the Indiana University School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering. He joins the show to explore what he has learnt from accessing platform data, from his current role as Director of The Observatory on Social Media.
Things are changing fast so in this interview I take stock with Fil to review the impact of regulation. Through community reviews, accessing platform data and social bots – we explore what all stakeholders need to be doing.
Links Mentioned
- Twitter @bluesky
- The Observatory on Social Media
‘Fake news’ has multiple definitions, which can be a problem. Ferdi Özsoy helps to highlight the main types of misinformation, and how individuals can be best equipped with consuming online content. As the Program Manager at the Poynter Institute, Ferdi joins the show today to distill the core principles that drive the success of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) – a unit of the Poynter Institute dedicated to bringing together fact-checkers worldwide.
The Poynter Institute is a non-profit journalism school and research organization located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Join our conversation as we explore the work they’re doing at the institute, the impact of globalised misinformation, the IFCN’s toolbox for fact-checkers – and garlic and vinegar.
Links Mentioned
- ‘Fake news. It's complicated.’ by Claire Wardle
- Global Fact Conference
- International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’ code of principles
- Coronavirus Fact-Check Alliance
- Solving Misinformation through Journalism with Steven Brill, Co-founder and Co-CEO, NewsGuard
- Misinformation Cycles with Alan Duke, Co-founder, Lead Stories
- Birdwatch
- Poynter.org
- International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN)
Today’s guest extensively researches about the focus on exposure to and correction of misinformation on social media. Dr. Leticia Bode is an Associate Professor in the Communication, Culture, and Technology master’s program at Georgetown University. She joins me on the show to explore the problems with measuring fake news, and the current state of misinformation on social media and how we can correct it.
Leticia’s work lies at the intersection of communication, technology, and political behavior, emphasizing the role communication and information technologies may play in the acquisition and use of political information.
In this episode we talk about platform collaborations, observational correction, the thermostatic model – and the benefits of platforms fixing the problems themselves.
Links Mentioned
- Leticia’s website
- Leticia’s Google Scholar profile
- Leticia’s Twitter
As a Philosopher by trade, Justin McBrayer is not afraid to ask the big questions. I bring Justin on the show to learn more about his research and his latest book ‘Beyond Fake News: Finding the TRUTH in a world of misinformation’. Justin is also a teacher, speaker and writer. Much of his work focuses on helping ordinary individuals and political bodies to think consistently and carefully about the problems they encounter, the values they embrace, and the evidence they've gathered.
In this episode we discuss fake stories we’ve been duped by, the role of fact-checking, mental shortcuts and blind spots, and epistemic injustice. There is a lot to unpack in this conversation so enjoy!
Links Mentioned
- ‘Beyond Fake News’ by Justin McBrayer
- 2019 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust
- Pew Research Center
- Article: Why Fact-Checking Fails
- JustinMcBrayer.com
A lot has happened since 1994, when David Mikkelson founded the fact-checking website Snopes, formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages. It was great speaking with David to learn more about how the sharing of questionable content has evolved into something very sophisticated today.
Snopes started with investigating urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore. Founder David Mikkelson, later joined by his wife, was publishing online before most people were connected to the internet. As demand for reliable fact checks grew, so did Snopes. Now it’s the oldest and largest fact-checking site online, widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and readers as an invaluable research companion.
Tune in as we discuss this evolution of misinformation, and what needs to be done to stop its repercussions. I enjoy hearing David’s optimistic outlook for the future, the role of middle men, and the future of fact-checking.
Links Mentioned
- Snopes.com
Today’s guest comes with a really broad perspective. Costanza Sciubba Caniglia is currently a subject-matter expert at Wikimedia, and is a journalist and researcher in political analysis and communications for government and international organizations. I bring Constanza on the show to learn more about the cultural differences with disinformation.
Constanza is Director of Communications for data.org, a platform for partnerships to build the field of data science for social impact. Costanza is also affiliated with the Shorenstein Center for Media Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she co-founded the HKS Misinformation Review. Her research focuses on state-sponsored coordinated information operations and propaganda.
Listen to the conversation as we uncover the changes we expect to see this year from the EU’s new disinformation legislation, as well as tracking networks of information, studying misinformation (or ‘manipulation’) cycles, the role of anonymity – and some surprising lessons learned from her research so far.
Links Mentioned
- The EU on disinformation
- Wikimedia
- Constanza’s Twitter
- CostanzaSciubba.com
Ever find you can’t keep up with the news? In today’s world of 24/7 information – and misinformation – Arjun Moorthy, co-founder of The Factual, came up with a solution to deliver unbiased news and trending topics right to your inbox. I catch up with Arjun to find out how they are solving the problem of misinformation through this format.
Arjun has always been passionate about news from when he was a paperboy in middle school through becoming editor in chief of The Stanford Reporter. Prior to The Factual, Arjun was VP of Business Development at HubSpot. Arjun holds a BASc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Stanford University.
Found in 2016, The Factual is an algorithm that rates the credibility of 10,000+ news articles daily. They deliver this through a newsletter, a browser plugin, a website and an app. Join our discussion as we explore how their algorithm works, the computer-human partnership, the role of penalties – and why some people will always gravitate towards fake news and conspiracy theories.
Links Mentioned
- The Factual Chrome Extension
- Episode 7: Misinformation Cycles with Alan Duke, Co-founder, Lead Stories
- TheFactual.com
Today’s guest is a real expert when it comes to communications. Tim Ward advises, trains and coaches environmental and development organisations to use effective communications to achieve their goals. In this interview we explore what we can learn from the Pro-Truth Pledge – an initiative that promotes truth seeking and rational thinking, particularly in politics.
Tim has teamed up with neuroscientist Dr. Gleb Tsipursky to help citizens learn to protect themselves from lies, and empower them to put truth back into politics. They co-authored the book ‘Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back Into Politics’, which we also unpack in this interview. Join us as we explore verification models, social media addiction and cognitive biases.
Links Mentioned
- ‘Pro Truth’ by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and Tim Ward
- Dr. Gleb Tsipursky’s Twitter
- https://www.protruthpledge.org/
- Tim Ward’s blog
- Misinformation vs Disinformation with Pamposh Raina, Independent Journalist
- Changemakers Books
Dan Gillmor is an internationally recognized leader in new media and digital media literacy. He's the author of Mediactive, which explores media literacy in the digital age from a journalist’s perspective. He launched The News Co/Lab in 2017, where their mission is to help ensure an informed citizenry – a fundamental building block of democracy.
I really enjoyed this thoughtful conversation as we explored the role of journalists within communities, the key challenges with moderation and why media literacy shouldn’t stop after we finish school.
Links Mentioned
- ‘We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People’ by Dan Gillmor
- NewsCoLab.org
- Dan’s talk ‘Journalism in an Age of Misinformation and Centralization’
- DanGillmor.com
There’s no doubt that the state of fake news today is strong, and today’s guest Richard Zack, CEO & CTO of Our.News, shares how “the Internet is a super spreader event for fake news”. I found today’s conversation empowering as we discussed how the solution to this issue will come from working together.
Our.News is on a mission to fight misinformation with interactive Nutrition Labels for news content. Attached to all news and content online, the labels make it easier for anyone to make a quick determination between real and junk news and content.
Tune in as we discuss the challenges of freedom of speech vs freedom of reach, the role of open source, the Our.News publisher verification process, and why Richard believes we’re only at the beginning of the fake news problem.
Let’s build the trusted web together!
Links Mentioned
Newstrition App
Twitter: @ourdotnews
Twitter: @richardkzack
Our.News
www.TheTrustedWeb.org/Podcast
It’s been a remarkable 15 years for the news industry. Today’s guest, Dwayne Desaulniers from Associated Press, joins the show to run through their amazing use case with blockchain – calling the election on blockchain. The timing couldn’t be any better with the 2020 US elections.
Dwayne started his career in journalism. His fascination with the intersection of news and technology, and how they work together, has led him to his current role as Director of Corporate News, Blockchain & Data Licensing at Associated Press. As a not-for-profit, AP sits right in the middle as an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting.
In this conversation we explore the use cases for news on blockchain, the role of NFTs and making outcomes of news into collectables, AP’s use of automation and AI for research, and timestamping their news stories. I look forward to following their journey as they continue to share what they learn!
Links Mentioned
- AP Elections
- Everipedia
- Twitter: Theodor Forselius
- AP.org/Insights
- Twitter: The Associated Press
Today’s guest is an expert in identifying real vs fake content that’s circulating across Facebook and Twitter – on a daily basis. Paul is the director of the Center for Social Media Responsibility, University of Michigan, and Paul and his team have developed a way to measure the progress of media platforms at meeting their public responsibilities.
They use the term “Iffy” to describe sites that frequently publish misinformation. It is a light-hearted way to acknowledge that their categorization of the sites is based on imprecise criteria and fallible human judgments. They are publishing a web-based dashboard that charts the Iffy Quotient since early 2016. The dashboard enables comparisons over time and between platforms.
Join my conversation with Paul as we discuss his definition of “Iffy” sites, the operational problems involved with solving fake news, and his idea on verifying content before it goes live.
Links Mentioned
NewsWhip
NewsGuard
The Center for Social Media Responsibility
Iffy Quotient
Alan Duke has had a fascinating career trajectory to date. As a US army veteran, followed by 26 years with CNN, he then co-founded Lead Stories, an innovative fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015.
The mission of Lead Stories is to help journalists, marketers and others identify and understand what is happening on social platforms with shared content in real time. It’s also a 3rd-party fact-checker for Facebook, using its tools to find fake content early so that it's spread across social platforms can be thwarted.
I really enjoyed catching up with Alan to learn more about how content goes viral. Tune in as we discuss the evolution of technology in journalism, the recycling of stories and claims, and examples of his work with Facebook and TikTok – and Oculus goggles.
Links mentioned:
CrowdTangle.com
LeadStories.com
The International Fact-Checking Network
The Social Dilemma Documentary
Maarten Schenk’s Twitter
Alan Duke’s Twitter
Based in New Delhi, Pamposh Raina is an independent journalist. Her recent work has focussed on analysing misinformation and disinformation on social media and closed messaging apps in India. She led a research project commissioned by WhatsApp that analysed the misinformation trends natively on the messaging app during the 2019 Indian parliamentary election. For full show notes visit https://thetrustedweb.org/podcast/.
Pamposh has written for international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, News Deeply, and Women in the World. She has been a reporter with The New York Times and was the deputy editor for India Ink – NYT’s first-ever county-specific blog. She is also part of Google News Initiative’s network of trainers in India.
I was so excited to speak with Pamposh and learn more about the media landscape in India. In this conversation we delve into the country’s biggest challenges, which includes operating in different languages and dealing with illiteracy. Tune in to learn more about The Google News Initiative, the difference between misinformation and disinformation, and how misinformation is costing lives in India.
Links mentioned:
The Google News Initiative
Pamposh’s Twitter
Fathm.co
Online Anonymity is to be cherished according to Ed Bice, CEO of Meedan, a global technology not-for-profit that builds software and programmatic initiatives to strengthen journalism, digital literacy, and accessibility of information online and off. In the same breath, however, Ed also calls for a fresh look at how rapidly fake news and damaging disinformation can spread as a result of articles and news pieces not being fact checked and verified. How can we as online users strike that crucial balance between online freedom and making sure that we can trust the information at our fingertips?
Ed and his team develop open-source tools for creating and sharing context on digital media through annotation, verification, archival, and translation. He has spent most of his professional life operationalizing idealism. He is optimistic that our digital evolution, and the changing face of journalism and publishing will trend us toward a world that is networked for understanding. Just as markets have gone global, so too, our digital social networks will go global in the coming years and decades.
Join us as we explore the various uses of social media and the changing face of digital journalism.
Links mentioned:
Meedan.com
Alan is the founder and CEO of the News Literacy Project. Established in 2008, this educational nonprofit helped launch the category of news literacy. Following his three-decade journalism career, Alan has also received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize among a dozen other national and state reporting honors.
The News Literacy Project provides educators with resources and tools to teach teenagers how to discern fact from fiction in the digital age. More than 19,000 educators in all 50 states and 108 other countries have registered to use the virtual classroom NLP provides.
Alan and I share a passion for a more truthful internet, and we both choose the route of building a whole category as an important way of achieving it, in Alan’s case: news literacy. Today we discuss what parents can do, the difference between misinformation and disinformation, and how we’re at an inflection point with the internet.
Links mentioned:
NewsLit.org
Checkology.org
Informable App
Is That a Fact? Podcast
The Sift Newsletter
For many people Fake News started to be associated with primarily right-wing, Russian issues. This is where today’s guest, Nolan Higdon, steps in. In order to better understand Fake News, we need to understand its history. Nolan’s book ‘The Anatomy of Fake News’ provides a very comprehensive understanding of this. He believes that although we can’t ever get rid of Fake News, the solution is to be better informed.
Nolan Higdon is an author and university lecturer of history and media studies. Higdon’s areas of concentration include youth culture, news media history, and critical media literacy. He sits on the boards of the Action Coalition for Media Education and Northwest Alliance For Alternative Media And Education.
Tune in to learn more about data collection, subsidising the press, what needs to be taught in the classroom, the Streisand Effect of hiding information online – and the parallels with the wrestling industry.
Links mentioned
‘The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education’ by Nolan Higdon
“The Internet can be an overwhelming place”, as today’s guest Molly McKew simply highlights. Molly has spent years working in Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and the Baltic states, including as an advisor to the Georgian President and National Security Council and the former Moldovan prime minister, and as the strategic director of a project to strengthen independent Russian language news and media in the Baltic states. With her expertise in understanding information warfare, I had to bring Molly on to the show to learn more.
Her articles have appeared in Politico, the Washington Post, Wired, Lawfare, and many more. She is also currently a senior advisor on disinformation to Stand Up Republic Foundation, where she is the lead author of the Defusing Disinfo blog.
Join us as we explore radical conspiracies, the impact of living in separate realities, the implications of freedom of reach, and why we need to keep on learning from other countries to move forward.
Links mentioned:
GreatPower.us
Twitter @MollyMcKew
Misinformation is not new, but the internet has helped scale its reach now more than ever. In today’s episode I’m joined by journalist Steven Brill, who is also the Co-founder and Co-CEO, NewsGuard, Inc, a tool that provides detailed trust ratings for 6,000+ news websites.
I’m excited to be joined by Steve as he’s a true expert when it comes to hoax sites and knowing what platforms like Facebook need to do to be held accountable. Join our discussion as we discuss transparency, the tell-tale signs of hoax sights, the spread of misinformation in US vs Europe, and what he’s learnt at NewsGuard.
Steve is also the Founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, American Lawyer Media, Brill’s Content Magazine, Journalism Online, and The Yale Journalism Initiative.
Let’s build the trusted web together!
Links Mentioned
NewsGuard Tech Plugin
NewsGuardTech.com
www.TheTrustedWeb.org/Podcast
What if you could simply trust all information on the internet? I’m on the mission to build a Trusted Web for all of us on planet earth. Because to save the world, we need to fix the internet. With this special thing called blockchain timestamps; all content you consume will be transparent and accountable. Welcome to the new default on the internet. Thank you for being part of this journey and let’s build the Trusted Web together.