Election Integrity Partnership releases final report on mis- and disinformation

Thursday, March 4, 2021

The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a nonpartisan coalition of researchers that identified, tracked and responded to voting-related mis- and disinformation during the 2020 U.S. elections, released its final report, “The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election,” on March 2. The final report is the culmination of months of collaboration among approximately 120 people working across four organizations: Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), the University of Washington iSchool-based Center for an Informed Public (CIP), Graphika and the 

Student leaders give high schoolers a taste of Informatics at hackathon

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Twenty-six middle and high school students in Washington state spent four days brainstorming technology solutions in an online challenge hosted by Information School student leaders.  The event, “Fear Less, Tech More,” is part of “High School to iSchool,” a series of events designed to introduce Informatics to high school students from historically minoritized communities. “Not many people know about the Informatics program and the freshman direct admission,” said Harkiran Saluja, Director of Diversity Efforts at Women in Informatics (Winfo), an iSchool student organ

iSchool MLIS program re-accredited by ALA

Thursday, February 18, 2021

The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at the University of Washington Information School was re-accredited by the American Library Association (ALA) in early 2021. The UW’s MLIS program has been continuously accredited by the ALA since 1926 and is the oldest accredited program west of the Mississippi and the only accredited program in the Northwestern region of the U.S. (Alaska, Idaho, Mont., Ore., Wash., and Wyo.). Program accreditation reviews occur every seven years. Michelle H. Martin, MLIS program chair and Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Ser

MLIS alum is on a mission for open access

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Countless hours and billions of dollars go into academic research each year. The product of all that time and money often lands behind paywalls or in expensive journals that collect dust on library shelves. It’s a system that values prestige and exclusivity over openness and transparency. Ashley Farley’s job is all about changing that. As the program manager of knowledge and research at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Farley is part coach, part traffic cop, ensuring that all Gates-funded research is freely available to the public. She is the lead advocate for the Gates’ op

iSchool's Mitra works with U.S. military to study 'astroturfing'

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Many social media users rely on their feeds for news, but those feeds are sometimes flooded with disinformation from people and organizations with their own agenda — a phenomenon known as "astroturfing."  Tanu Mitra, an assistant professor at the Information School, has been increasingly interested in these disinformation tactics.  “Astroturfing is essentially polluting the existing information environment with deceptive messages as if they were coming from genuine ordinary citizens,” Mitra said. “Censorship, on the other hand, involves selectively removing content to s

17 iSchool students win UW Libraries scholarships

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Seventeen Information School students were among 36 recipients of UW Libraries Student Employee Scholarships, the university has announced. The winners include 15 students from the iSchool’s Master of Library and Information Science program and two from the Master of Science in Information Management program. "The UW iSchool so appreciates the strong connection we have with the UW Libraries, from which our students clearly benefit," said Michelle Martin, the iSchool's Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Services and chair of the MLIS program. "We’re so proud of the MLIS s

CIP to explore misinformation in Vietnamese-American communities

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Center for an Informed Public postdoctoral fellow Rachel Moran and University of Washington Information School PhD student Sarah Nguyễn recently received funding from the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics (IDDP) at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. for a new project, tentatively titled “Sending News Back Home: Analyzing the Spread of Misinformation between Vietnam and Diasporic Communities in the 2020 Election,” which will explore the spread of misinformation in Vietnamese-American communities. 

Technology helps teens cope with COVID, researchers find

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

The teenage years can be difficult on anyone’s mental health. With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing most teens online for school and social activities, how are they holding up?  A research team including iSchool Ph.D. candidate Caroline Pitt and Professor Katie Davis wanted to know how teens are feeling about the role of technology in their locked-down lives. They spent 10 weeks tracking their experiences and wrote a paper that was recently accepted to CHI, the leading conference on human-computer interaction.  Asking teens to reflect on their new lifestyle was a key part of

Alumni inspire us in so many ways

Friday, February 5, 2021

The call for nominations went out recently for the Information School’s annual Distinguished Alumni Award. While I always enjoy honoring a standout alum, the award is just a small snapshot of the impact of our alumni. I know they are out there distinguishing themselves in countless ways — in a moment or across a career. The iSchool’s programs all provide not just technical skills and theoretical knowledge, but a grounding in ethics and equity. Our graduates become leaders in industry, nonprofit organizations and other institutions, and when we see them making an impact, it’s extreme

Amazon spreads vaccine misinformation, iSchool researchers find

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Amazon’s search algorithm gives preferential treatment to books that promote false claims about vaccines, according to research by UW Information School Ph.D. student Prerna Juneja and Assistant Professor Tanu Mitra. Meanwhile, books that debunk health misinformation appear lower in Amazon’s search results, where they are less likely to be seen, the researchers wrote in a paper that was recently accepted to CHI, the top annual conference on human-computer interaction. In their paper, Juneja and Mitra noted that Amazon has faced criticism for not regulating health-related products

MLIS student wins ALA Spectrum Scholarship

Friday, January 29, 2021

Dillon Baker, a second-year residential student in the Information School’s Master of Library and Information Science program, was among the 20 students recently awarded Spectrum Scholarships, the American Library Association announced. Baker is a lifelong Seattle resident who said she is interested in going into public librarianship, with a focus on teen services. “I am passionate about inclusivity and racial equity in libraries, and recently have been learning more about trauma-informed librarianship,” said Baker, who works at UW Libraries as an assessment and planning student sp

Success of first online hackathon thrills Winfo

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Women in Informatics (Winfo), an Information School student organization, welcomed 190 students from across the UW for its ninth annual Hackathon. The three-day event was hosted on an online video conferencing platform, Remo, starting Jan 15.   This year’s theme, “Hacking Forward, Together,” focused on solving problems related to remote participation. Like in previous years, the hackathon emphasized designing technology for equity, accessibility and social good. “It’s been a tumultuous time in the entire world,” Locksley Kolakowski, Winfo’s hackathon director,

How do Alexa and Siri affect kids? iSchool's Hiniker investigates

Friday, January 8, 2021

Many families have unwittingly been taking part in a huge social experiment. They’ve invited conversational agents such as Siri and Alexa into their homes, but how do these new technologies affect children’s social development? The answer to that is one big “shrug” emoji. Backed by a prestigious fellowship, the UW Information School’s Alexis Hiniker will spend the next few years investigating how the voices emanating from digital assistants affect children’s speech and well-being. Her goal is to learn how those who design such technologies can help create positive communication

Researchers work to bridge digital divide in Tacoma

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic has shown how internet access has become a crucial lifeline for many. It has also highlighted a key facet of Jason Young’s research at the Information School: the gap between those who have broadband internet access and those who don’t. A UW research team that includes Young, an Information School senior research scientist, recently won a $90,000 grant from the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) to develop strategies to bridge that digital divide. The researchers will work with Tacoma Cooperative Network and Tacoma Public Libraries to pro