Photo courtesy of Erin Nelson Sweeney
People walk in and out of the Jefferson County Courthouse, one of the city’s polling locations, as votes are cast across the city of Birmingham in the 2021 City Election on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. Photo by Erin Nelson.
The Alabama Media Professionals group hosted around 100 members of the community to learn about the media’s evolving role in political campaigns and elections in advance of the 2024 elections at the Hoover Public Library on May 30.
A panel discussion entitled “Distinguishing news from misinformation” was held in the library’s Fitzgerald and Shakespeare rooms.
Media scholars are expected to provide an in-depth look at how current technology is expected to affect the information landscape this year, and local reporters and editors will explain their processes, provide insight into ethical-journalism practices and answer audience questions.
Speakers and panelists included: Bill Singleton, assistant professor of communication and media at Samford University; Matt Barnidge, associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama; Alander Rocha, government policy and health care reporter for the Alabama Reflector; Barnett Wright, executive editor for The Birmingham Times; Jon Anderson, editor for the Hoover Sun; and Virginia Martin, news editor for the BirminghamWatch nonprofit news organization.
While misinformation has always existed, experts in multiple fields are warning it poses an unprecedented threat to elections taking place in 2024. Artificial intelligence (including video, photo and audio generators) now allows those who want to deceive to do that with false content that is high-quality as well as quick and easy to produce by anyone, not just those with technical skills. Through social media, misinformation spreads rapidly – faster and reaching more people than factual news, according to research published in the journal Science. The top global risk over the next two years is misinformation from artificial intelligence, per a World Economic Forum survey.
This presentation was supported by the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Alabama Media Professionals is a volunteer-run nonprofit that provides professional development and networking opportunities for communicators in various fields, from news media, marketing and advertising to education and book writing.
For more information, visit almediaprofessionals.org.
