Partners

As part of our research, we are working with three organisations to engage with different audiences.

Demos

The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos is one of the leading UK think tank units dedicated to research and analysis of the digital world. CASM has pioneered the use of machine learning to interpret ‘natural language’ big data, understanding people and conducting social research at an unparalleled scale.

CASM is supporting the project by hosting a workshop towards the end of the project with stakeholders with an interest in online communication and the issues of conspiracy theories, fake news and disinformation. CASM and our research team will collaborate on a report at the end of the project, outlining the main findings.

Institute of Education

With Jeremy Hayward of the Institute of Education we are working on guidance on how schools might approach disinformation and conspiracy theories amongst pupils. It is not uncommon for pupils to raise conspiracy theories in lessons at school, and it can be challenging for teachers to respond to these moments in an appropriate way.

We are therefore developing a toolkit and training workshops to equip teachers with the skills to deal with the problem of conspiracy theories in the classroom. This project will build on the guidance on dealing with Covid-19 conspiracy theories in the classroom, developed as part of the Infodemic project.

Sense about Science

Founded in 2002, Sense about Science is an independent charity that works to ensure the public interest in sound science and evidence is recognised in public life and policy making. Their ethos is public led, expert fed – which means engaging early and directly addressing people’s questions and concerns.

With Sense about Science, we will produce a series of resources for science communicators and the general public on how to engage with conspiracy theorists. This will build on the work we did on our previous Infodemic project, with a resource on ‘Talking about Covid Conspiracies’.