The Limits of Low and High Credibility News Dichotomy

In studies of misinformation, the distinction between high- and low-credibility publishers is fundamental. We often take the credibility dichotomy at face value and focus on the demand side of misinformation, examining its spread and developing interventions to limit its spread. But how distinct are these two groups of news producers? In this talk with Ceren Budak, Ceren addressed this question through a number of case studies, including the coverage of the last two presidential elections.

This event was part of the Speaker Series on Misinformation, co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the the Northeastern University Internet and Democracy Initiative.

Ceren Budak is an Associate Professor of Information and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests lie in the area of computational social science. She utilizes network science, machine learning, and crowdsourcing methods and draws from scientific knowledge across multiple social science communities to contribute computational methods to the field of political communication. Her recent scholarship is focused on topics related to news production and consumption, election campaigns, and online social movements.