Join the UC Systemwide Cyber Champions Team for a new webinar series on Friday, March 5th at 12 p.m. PST: Protecting Your Digital Self. Hear from Professor Miriam Metzger on her research concerning user perceptions of the credibility of misinformation, moderated by Professor Joseph B. Walther. These accomplished professors will discuss the implications of Professor Metzger's research on how individuals perceive misinformation and its sources, and what you can do to protect yourself and your communities from the damaging effects of misinformation.
About Professor Metzger: Miriam J. Metzger is professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research lies at the intersection of media, information technology, and trust, centering on how advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) alter our understandings of credibility, privacy, and the processes of media effects on both individuals and society. Her work examines questions about how ICTs challenge traditional notions of trust, with a focus on the credibility of information online and on how users of digital media negotiate privacy and disclosure decisions. Professor Metzger also serves as the Ph.D. Emphasis Director of the Center for Information, Technology and Society (CITS-UCSB), where she is a faculty affiliate. She was the Associate Director and the Director of Education at the Center for Nanotechnology and Society (CNS-UCSB), the only NSF-designated National Center to focus on social science research.
About Professor Walther: Joseph B. Walther is a Distinguished Professor in Communication, the Mark and Susan Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society, and the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His teaching and research focus on computer-mediated communication and social media in personal relationships, groups, educational settings, and inter-ethnic conflict, topics on which he has contributed several original theories and numerous experiments and surveys. He is a fellow at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He’s also a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA) and a Distinguished Scholar in the National Communication Association (NCA). He’s received the NCA’s Woolbert Award for articles that have stood the test of time and changed thinking in the communication discipline for more than ten years, and the ICA’s Chaffee Award for career productivity and influence.