A multi-disciplinary research collaboration between RMIT ABC Fact Check, based at RMIT’s School of Media and Communications, and ADM+S Associate Investigators Prof. Falk Scholer & Dr. Damiano Spina from the School of Computing Technologies, and Dr. Lauren Saling from the School of Psychology.
RESEARCHING THE DIGITAL NEWS ECOSYSTEM
The collaboration combines RMIT ABC Fact Check’s understanding of the digital news eco-system with expertise in the fields of information access & retrieval and psychology to investigate how combinations of technological and human factors contribute to the spread of mis- and dis-information, and how automated technologies can be used to tackle it.
The collective’s potential to conduct research is evidenced by fruitful collaboration in the context of the Quantifying and Measuring Bias and Engagement project, as well as co-authored research outputs and co-designed workhops:
- Watch ‘n’ Check, A paper detailing a social media monitoring tool developed as part of a Computer Science Master student’s thesis, was presented at the IEEE 7th International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics;
- ‘What do facts sound like?’, a workshop exploring the impact of voice-enabled virtual assistants driven by artificial intelligence on the discoverability of verified fact-check content, was presented by members of the group at the Seventh Global Fact-Checking Summit (GlobalFact7);
- Results of a survey of over 1500 CheckMate (previously CoronaCheck) newsletter subscribers, seeking to identify any correlations that exist between participants’ willingness to share unverified information and willingness to have the COVID-19 vaccine and their stated belief in science and susceptibility to conspiracy theories was published in a PLOS ONE article.
The group recently presented insights about how automated decision-making systems can be used to combat misinformation in the Global South at the ADM+s Automated News and Media symposium and is currently evaluating the effectiveness of a suite of automated claim detection tools deployed by RMIT ABC Fact Check during the Voice to Parliament referendum.
As a partner of ADM+S, RMIT ABC Fact Check is strategically placed to support students and researchers studying misinformation online and to explore the use of automated tools to monitor and counter its spread.
If you would like more information about our research, please contact devi.mallal@rmit.edu.au
PARTNERS
RMIT ABC Fact Check
RMIT University