Fake News comes in many guises. Propaganda, mistakes, overly broad generalizations, conspiracy theories, counter-intelligence, politically motivated reasoning, outright lies and more... Like you, Mr. Press has recognized the existence of "Fake News" for a long time but his comprehension of the serious impact it has on society began to crystallize while researching conspiracy theories a few years ago.
"Fake News" has, seemingly, become a fundamental part of the U.S. media landscape in just the last couple of years. However, as many of you know, it has been there with less fanfare for a very long time. Examples come from both obvious and surprising sources with new ones every day. This talk will attempt to go beyond the recognition of specific instances to the science of how they impact individuals and society.
Lightly touching on a broad range of subjects from memory and cognition to biases and social media will set up a discussion on how we can better interact with the modern media landscape.
While currently in a second career as a photographer, Bruce Press spent almost thirty years as an engineer and software developer. His involvement with the skeptical community began more than a decade ago. Since then he has helped to organize investigative groups, skeptical conferences and co-created a skeptical monthly meetup in Baltimore for years. He has researched and spoken on various topics of interest to skeptics in a number of public venues.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
1:30 pm
B-CC Regional Services Center
4805 Edgemoor Lane
2nd Floor (West Room)
Bethesda, MD
Directions: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/bcc/directions.html
(Note that this is a return to a Bethesda location for our fall talks that we used over 10 years ago.)
