Josh Stearns

2 months ago | usnews.com | Amy Wong |Josh Stearns |Eric Effron |McKenzie Sadeghi

I’m 18 years old, and from the age of 6, I’ve been very online – watching Minecraft YouTube videos for hours, scouring Reddit pages and chatting about politics on social media with people across the country. You name it; I’ve done it. Despite this illustrious digital career, over the last few months, I’ve been duped by online misinformation more times than I’d like – from false claims about politics designed to outrage to fake images of Taylor Swift generated by artificial intelligence.

Oct 30, 2024 | usnews.com | Josh Stearns |Eric Effron |McKenzie Sadeghi |Judy Ho

The rise of the internet 25 years ago promised a new era in access to information. We now understand that this revolution led to both a flourishing of knowledge and an explosion in news and information from unverified sources. At the same time, the shift in advertising to the web undermined the business model for news, killing thousands of newspapers and magazines across America.

Oct 30, 2024 | democracyfund.org | Josh Stearns

We are just one week away from Election Day in the U.S., and in this week, good information matters more than ever — from coverage of candidates, to information about how and where to vote, to endorsements. This is particularly true in local communities where voters are deciding on everything from president, to school boards, to affordable housing. Yet, we live in a time when falsehoods about the election, the issues, and the candidates themselves are spreading rapidly.