MADISON, Wis., Sept. 19, 2022 (Wisconsin Watch) — Wisconsin Watch is joining a nationwide project led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers that aims to protect democracy by limiting the spread and impact of misinformation.
With a newly announced $5 million award from the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program, researchers will continue development of Course Correct, a tool designed at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication to help journalists identify and combat misinformation online.
Wisconsin Watch, the news outlet of the nonpartisan and nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and several other news organizations, are being provided funding to help researchers determine how well Course Correct works in real-world situations.
Wisconsin Watch plans to use the funding to hire a reporter in early 2023 focusing on misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is generally defined as false information that is spread without the intent of deceiving people, while disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive.
Falsehoods around COVID-19, contact tracing, the 2020 election and alleged voter fraud have led public officials and thousands of Wisconsinites to take actions that put themselves, others and democracy at risk. More than a million Americans have died of COVID-19, yet one-third of Wisconsinites have not been fully vaccinated. And democracy hangs in the balance as some candidates for office in...
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