U of U Awareness Campaign
Daily Utah Chronicle: Special "Misinformation" Edition
In our everyday lives, the issues of misinformation and disinformation are incredibly prevalent over social media, and they are only exacerbated by our 24-hour news cycle. Given that 2020 is an election year, we were concerned with the fact that many students may be voting for their first time, and they may be unaware of the current misinformation epidemic and its role in modern politics. With our project, we aim to educate students and increase general media literacy surrounding misinformation in order to create a political atmosphere that is characterized by an informed citizenry and responsible political leaders.
In order to educate college students and potential first-time voters, we partnered with the Daily Utah Chronicle to develop a misinformation themed issue of the weekly printed edition. We aimed to capitalize upon the Chronicle’s existing readership, but with advertisements placed on a-frames, lawn signs, flyers, and screens within several campus buildings, we hope to further drive awareness and excitement for the special themed issue.
The primary audience for the Chronicle’s readership base is University of Utah college students, but anyone on campus can pick up copies of the printed edition, and there is an online site with several more articles that anyone can access. As 2020 is an election year, the topic of misinformation and fake news has already resurfaced in several publications as a similar threat as it was during the 2016 election. Because college students are entering the beginning of their lives as voting citizens, it is important that they know how to parse out the true from the fake news. So, a partnership with the Chronicle felt like the right choice in order to inform students about the issue and prevalence of misinformation along with advice on how they can spot and avoid falling for misinformation campaigns.
This themed issue will feature content that has been co-created by Chronicle contributors and members of the Praxis Lab, and it will be printed and distributed on March 30th. In the weeks prior to this themed issue, our advertising materials will be distributed throughout the University of Utah campus, and in the March 2nd, 16th, and 23rd issues, we will place advertisements directing to this website and the challenges in which students can participate. These challenges will further test students’ abilities to discern misinformation and will test their preexisting knowledge of misinformation. Because there will be a prize drawing for those who complete these challenges, we hope to continue to spread the message that students need to be aware of misinformation, and we will utilize this platform to continue to promote the March 30th issue where students can become further informed on this modern problem.
Read our entire Misinformation Issue at the bottom of this page!