- What is DIMIS?
DIMIS is a new online community curating both:
Public and open talks by experts on digital misinformation in the Global South (for now, twice a semester).
AND
- Biannual research feedback sessions aimed at the community of social science researchers actively producing research on digital misinformation in the Global South.
All our events/activities will for now take place on ZOOM (or its equivalent).
Stay tuned for further details subscribe to @DiMiSworkshop for updates.
Who are we?
We (Natália Bueno, Simon Chauchard and Leah Rosenzweig) are a group of researchers respectively based at Emory, IC3JM (Madrid), and the University of Chicago. Each of us is currently running social-scientific projects on digital misinformation in India, Brazil, and Nigeria. We would love to create a forum to exchange with people working on similar questions, in similar contexts!
Why a new workshop?
Misinformation is now a major concern around the world. Yet the modes of dissemination of misinformation, its effects, the interventions needed to defeat it and the actors in charge of deploying them likely differ in the global South. Various characteristics of populations may aggravate the dangers of misinformation, or make its effects stickier.
While a wealth of research now studies misinformation in rich countries (especially so in the US), the community of researchers exploring this question in the global South remains, as of November 2021, relatively unstructured. This initiative can hopefully start remedying this.
When are our first events?
- We plan to organize a first open public talk on Thursday, February 17th (NOON EST).
- Dr. Shelby Grossman (Stanford Internet Observatory) will present on “Belief in COVID-19 Misinformation in Nigeria“.
- Anyone (registered) can attend.
- Registration link:
- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IOkNQdWCe4qVa6qdugvrMCNIkQU3nFLq0v4l00rzYt8/edit
- Our second open, public talk will take place on Thursday, April 14th (NOON EST).
- Speaker TBA!
- Our research feedback session will take place on Friday, March 18th (10AM EST – 2PM EST).
Save the dates!
Who can participate in research feedback sessions and what do these look like?
Given our respective backgrounds and common interests, the focus of these sessions is broadly on social science research about misinformation.
To ensure the quality of feedback and provide an avenue for researchers to present research at an early stage (for instance, PaPs and drafts), we will screen and select for participation in “research feedback sessions.”
Participants with an academic affiliation anywhere in the world that wish to present and/or participate should let themselves be known here – https://docs.google.com/form/d/e/1FAIpQLSf1yjtuSRYr8yIjlTHu5Uq0uksAESCi9gfjEJwRELygW8XpiA/viewform?usp=sf_link by January 20th, 2022.
While we will try to accommodate everyone that expressed interest, note that we reserve the right to cap the number of participants to ensure that we generate the most constructive environment for feedback.
Colleagues invited to participate in the March session will be provided with drafts/PaP/papers of the three projects to be discussed a few weeks ahead of time.
This is a NO-presentation seminar. Participants are asked to read the documents ahead of the session so that most of the session’s time is then devoted to feedback.
We will also budget ample time for participants to introduce themselves and network about their research.
Contact
Questions? Shoot us an email to dimis.workshop@gmail.com
We will do our best to respond within a week. Thanks for your patience.