Juremir Machado and Eduardo Pellanda were invited to join the International Panel on the Information Environment, hosted in Switzerland
Photo: Matheus Gomes
The theme of this year’s Nobel Prize Summit, held at the end of May, in Washington D.C., in the United States, discussed the fight against misinformation and the crisis of confidence in democratic societies. During the event, the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) was introduced, an independent and global organization of scientists that aims to provide information on threats to the international information environment. The teachers and professors Eduardo Pellanda and Juremir Machado, from the School of Communications, Arts and Design (Famecos), were invited to join the initiative.
According to the IPIE director and professor of Oxford University, Phil Howard, the initiative is the greatest global research network committed to creating a healthier information environment. Algorithmic manipulation, bias, hate speech and deep fakes are some of the themes discussed by the organization. The project relies on over 200 researchers from 55 countries who will contribute with research and outputs in different areas of expertise.
For Juremir, the panel is a highly relevant international initiative, gathering institutions and researchers from various partes of the world.
“The idea is to reflect on the universe of information and especially of misinformation in times of technological acceleration. The misinformation issue is one of the most concerning in present times due to its potential of threatening democracies and strengthening perspectives of denial, including of science,” he comments.
For Pellanda, this is an opportunity to understand misinformation as a multidisciplinary and multicultural issue.
“Discussing the theme with researchers from 55 other countries is highly valuable, and it is an honor to be able to collaborate somehow for this important theme. Each discussion that led to the panel showed the number of harmful consequences misinformation can cause in society. Being able to research with a direct impact on society is motivating,” he adds.
