In the fourth and final episode, we take a step back and look at the solution space more broadly. We hear about the efforts to regulate the problem. We hear about efforts at reducing polarisation between people. We hear more about what the big social platforms are doing. We hear about the role of technology and the impact that local civic groups can make.
We begin with Olaf Steenfadt, who heads up the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI). He points out that disinformation is a problem at the bedrock of other big problems. If we can't agree on basic facts, how can we tackle climate change, for example? He explains how the JTI is trying to apply standards within the media industry, so that audiences can have the information they need to make good decisions about who they should trust.
Next we go to America to talk to Eve Pearlman, who heads up Spaceship Media. This is an effort to reduce polarisation by encouraging people of different beliefs to come together and talk in healthy, mutually beneficial ways.
Regulation is often called out as a solution to the challenge of disinformation. After all, democratic governments are representative of the people. But we also know that governments have a terrible history of stifling freedom of expression. So we go to the Netherlands to talk to Paddy Leerssen about the role of governments. He walks us through the various challenges facing truly impactful and helpful governmental solutions.
Of course, the platforms have a major role to play. We relate some feedback we got from Facebook, however a representative was unable to join us for interview. We did get to sit down with Ronan Costello, who is a Senior Public Policy Manager in Twitter here in Dublin. He explains how some of the technology is evolving within Twitter, and some new experiments they are running to get ahead of the disinformation challenge. If you're critical of the role of platforms, it's worth listening to Ronan's perspective.
That leads me to briefly note the role that Kinzen is playing in building technological and research-driven solutions. And that leads Della and I to ask about the role of civic society more generally.
For that we turn to Holly Kilroy - yes, Della's sister. She's Executive Director at The Center for Digital Resilience, where she is focused on building resilient systems to keep civil society safe from harmful threats.
Finally, we turn to Liz Carolin who heads up Digital Action. Liz has been focusing for years on issues involving transparency around digital advertising and other digital threats. She explains how Digital Action is working to strengthen democratic rights, and how this ties into the worrisome growth in disinformation.
We hope this final episode provides insights on the various options we need to utilise if we can "flatten the curve" of disinformation. Aligned with our previous episodes on media literacy, empathy, and content moderation, we hope the listener has a broad view of key options. No one solution will work on its own. Policymakers, individuals, platforms, educators: we all need to carefully consider the role of such options, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they can mutually reinforce each other.
We simply have to ensure that disinformation doesn't become more harmful over the next decade. There's a lot at stake. As we close out the four-part series, we hope listeners see the importance of the challenge ahead. Too often it can feel overwhelming. We also hope listeners feel positive that we do have various routes forward. The question is how we implement them.
You can listen to and follow the Truth Matters podcast here.
