The 91探花 today announced a $5 million investment from t to create the 91探花, led by an interdisciplinary group whose mission is to resist strategic misinformation, promote an informed society, and strengthen democratic discourse. The Center is also funded by a $600,000 award from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The Center brings together existing areas of excellence at the 91探花and builds upon the university鈥檚 ability to better understand how and why fake news, misinformation and disinformation are created. The Center will combat what researchers call the 鈥渕isinformation epidemic.鈥�

鈥淲e really see the Center as a university-wide effort,鈥� said, principal investigator and inaugural director for the Center. 鈥淢isinformation touches everything.鈥�

The 91探花Center is one of five institutions receiving major investments from the Knight Foundation nationally and is the only recipient in the Western United States.聽

鈥淎 functioning democracy is an informed democracy,鈥� said Sam Gill, Knight Foundation vice president for communities and impact. 鈥� 91探花is bringing together leading scholars in computer science, sociology and law to equip our democracy with the right tools to navigate the digital age.鈥�

鈥檚 support to the 91探花is part of a $10 million effort announced in 2018 to examine and combat digital disinformation鈥檚 impact on U.S. democracy and elections.

Recent decades have seen a profound shift in the ways people, groups, and organizations produce and consume information and participate in public discourse. While many positive advancements have emerged from new technologies and platforms, the new information environments also have opened the door to misinformation, disinformation and fake news.

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most important problems of our time that we as a society need to solve,鈥� West said. 鈥淭his is not a left or right issue. This is an issue that transcends political boundaries. Everyone wants to get this right.鈥�

The principal investigators at the Center are a who鈥檚 who in this field of research, widely recognized for their respective expertise. In addition to West, co-director of DataLab, who is known for his Information School class 鈥淐alling B.S.: Data Reasoning in a Digital World,鈥� there are four researchers who will lead various initiatives for the Center:

• 聽 聽 , co-director the Social Media Lab, Information School;
• 聽 聽 , director of the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA), Information School;
• 聽 聽 , co-director of the Tech Policy Lab, School of Law; and,
• 聽 聽 , director of the Emerging Capacities of Mass Participation Lab (emCOMP), Human Centered Design & Engineering.

The Center will be devoted to educational efforts, research, policy and community outreach around misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Additionally, researchers will establish a network of Community Labs in public libraries and other institutions to co-create and assess research-based interventions.聽聽

Housed within the Information School, the Center for an Informed Public is scheduled to officially open in fall 2019.

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About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit.

About the UW

The 91探花 was founded in 1861 and is one of the pre-eminent public higher education and research institutions in the world. The 91探花has more than 100 members of the National Academies, elite programs in many fields, and annual standing since 1974 among the top five universities in receipt of federal research funding. Learn more at uw.edu.

Millions of people in low-income countries still depend on public computer and Internet access venues despite the global proliferation of mobile phones and home computers. However, interest in providing such public access has waned in recent years, especially among development agencies, as new technologies become available.

But a five-year, eight-country study recently concluded by the at the has found that community access to computer and Internet technology remains a crucial resource for connecting people to the information and skills they need in an increasingly digital world.

“Our study finds that many people in low- and middle-income countries, including the underemployed, women, rural residents and other who are often marginalized, derive great benefits in such areas as education, employment and health when they use computers and the Internet at public access venues,” said , Information School research assistant professor and lead investigator of the study.

The surveyed 5,000 computer users at libraries, telecenters and cybercaf茅s and 2,000 nonusers at home to learn about patterns of public access use.

The researchers also surveyed 1,250 operators of public access venues and conducted seven in-depth case studies to examine issues that have generated controversy. The study was conducted in eight low- and middle-income countries on three continents: Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Lithuania, Philippines and South Africa.

The researchers’ findings include:

• Public access venues were the only source of the Internet for one-third of users surveyed, and provided the first-ever computer contact for more than half of those users 鈥� a number that rose among lower socioeconomic groups and female populations.
• More than half said their use of computers would decrease if public access venues were no longer available, and about half cited a lack of computer access as their main reason for using public venues.
• Forty percent of users surveyed said public access venues had been crucial to their development of computer skills, and half said the same of learning Internet skills.

The study’s also makes recommendations for government and donor organizations as well as libraries and telecenter practitioners. Their suggestions include:

• Support the wide availability of public Internet access venues and incorporate them into national initiatives involving digital resources聽 and services for health, education, governance and other areas.
• Use existing infrastructure such as libraries when considering investments in public Internet access.
• Embrace games, as they help build technology skills.
• Value the role of social networking and communications, which have become critical venues for accessing important resources.
• Embrace the use of mobile phones, which the study found do not pose a threat to the relevance of public access.

, director of the Technology & Social Change Group, said the motivation of the study was “to provide governments and the international development community, which have expended tremendous amounts to support the availability of computers and Internet, with empirical evidence about what types of impacts have resulted from these investments.鈥�

The researchers have made all the data from this study publicly available for others to use on the project website, .

The Global Impact Study of Public Access to Information & Communication Technologies was funded by Canada’ s International Development Research Centre and a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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For more information or interviews, contact Coward at聽206-437-4592 or ccoward@uw.edu; or Sey at 206-685-3724 or arabasey@uw.edu.