What is MisinfoDay?
MisinfoDay is an annual media literacy educational event co-hosted by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public and Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.
It aims to teach high school students, teachers, and librarians how to identify and combat online misinformation. Participants come to campus for a day to learn from experts in the field about how to become critical consumers of information.
Background
MisinfoDay began in 2019 when it was first hosted by the University of Washington Information School. It was inspired by the UW course “Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World,” co-created by Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom. Local high school educators were excited by the course and asked for similar content at their students’ level.
MisinfoDay was created to connect these students with experts in the field of misinformation prevention and research in order to increase their understanding of how misinformation operates and empower them to make informed decisions about what to believe online.
This event has also inspired local high school educators in Washington state to host their own version of “MisinfoDay” at their schools, where high school students teach their families how to tell fact from fiction online in a “MisinfoDay Jr” event.
Why this toolkit?
UW and WSU aim to expand MisinfoDay by hosting events on their campuses throughout Washington state in March 2022.
We invite colleges and universities across the country to join us by hosting MisinfoDay on their campuses and have created this toolkit to help you plan your event. Keep reading to:
- Get inspired by examples of past MisinfoDay events.
- See sample event materials.
- Find planning templates.
Contact
If you're interested in hosting MisinfoDay on your campus or have any questions, we would love to hear from you at misinfoday@uw.edu.
Creative Commons
The MisinfoDay University Toolkit by the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
