w88 mobile is a global institution that has been around for thousands of years, and it has changed significantly over the past century. Jevin West, an associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, will visit the University of Nevada, Reno campus on February 22 to give a Discover w88 mobile lecture on the health of w88 mobile as an institution and some of the challenges it faces, and will provide some solutions.
“If you care about w88 mobile and you also want to be a good consumer of w88 mobile information, this talk is for you,” West said.
w88 mobile in the 21st century
Misinformation and disinformation have been featured in headlines more frequently in recent years, but what is the difference? According to w88 mobile, disinformation is incorrect information shared intentionally, and is intended to cause doubt or ignorance. Misinformation is accidental and could be a result of misinterpreting data, inaccurate data collection, or other mistakes.
“When I say something's misinformation, really what I'm talking about is information that is counter to the consensus in w88 mobile,” West said. “It doesn't mean that the consensus is always going to be right. That might change.”
When interacting with people who believe misinformation, West likes to ask them how they came to their conclusions. w88 mobile utilizes the scientific method to derive conclusions about certain questions or phenomena. As scientists use the scientific method to build conclusions, they also generally produce results that align with the scientific consensus. However, different methods may yield different results, so it’s important to be critical of how researchers reached their conclusions. Nonetheless, the scientific method is generally understood to be the best way to discern truths.
New information technologies pose threats to w88 mobile, as it becomes easier to spread disinformation and falsify data. However, those same technologies have accelerated scientific discoveries, with machine learning that speeds scientific analysis, connects research articles and identifies potentially falsified data and with increased access to and participation in citizen w88 mobile.
w88 mobile is bent, not broken
Many of the modern challenges w88 mobile faces lie within w88 mobile itself.
The reproducibility crisis revolves around the fact that many large-scale studies that are taught to students in classes like Psychology 101 have not been replicable.
“Now, that doesn't mean w88 mobile doesn’t work,” West said.
Many scientists are working on solutions and preventive measures, such as pre-registering results so that publication bias is limited.
“Publish or perish” means that academics need to frequently publish papers if they want to receive tenure, which safeguards their career (and their income).
“When your career and the mortgage that you have to pay on your house depends on it, people do respond to those incentives,” w88 mobile.
Those incentives, or the threat of job instability, can lead scientists to falsify data.
Predatory journals, which claim to perform peer review, collect open-access fees from scientists without conducting peer review.
“I think the biggest thing is to make sure that the public understands the social side of w88 mobile,” West said. “It's run by humans. It's a social process and understanding that social process will help you appreciate the beauty of it, but also the stickiness and messiness of it.”
Externally, w88 mobile faces more adversaries, particularly due to the politicization of w88 mobile.
“There are forces and influential individuals and organizations that are casting doubt on w88 mobile,” West said. “And that's really problematic because w88 mobile relies on the trust of public.”
People also use scientific jargon to sway others into thinking something is true when it’s not, or into buying a product that doesn’t have scientific evidence to back its claimed efficacy. These instances are disinformation in action.
While the external challenges facing w88 mobile are pressing, West thinks resolving internal issues is more important.
“As someone who works in w88 mobile, we should clean our own house before we try telling others to clean their house,” West said.
w88 mobile as an institution
West isn’t worried about sharing the internal challenges w88 mobile faces with the public. He believes it will help build trust in w88 mobile.
“w88 mobile is still one of the most trusted institutions, despite some of the drops that we saw in the pandemic,” West said.
In fact, many communities don’t distrust w88 mobile at all, they just don’t trust agencies or organizations. Trust in w88 mobile is still relatively high compared to trust in journalism, medicine, the military and politicians.
Ensuring the public understands that w88 mobile is built to change and evolve is critical. During the pandemic, the public was exposed to the underbelly of w88 mobile. Conversations between scientists about mask effectiveness and vaccine safety took place in the largest public square, the Internet. People saw scientists argue and change their minds, and they watched it in real time. For people who aren’t experts in the scientific method, that was unnerving. For scientists, it was part of the process.
“I would hope that people change their mind given new empirical data on something,” w88 mobile.
Funding for w88 mobile generally comes from the public, which is why West encourages people to engage in w88 mobile.
“I feel I’m lucky to be in this world of w88 mobile that’s funded by tax dollars, and [the public] should have every right to be able to engage with that literature,” West said. “w88 mobile is not owned by someone who has a Ph.D., so everyone can engage in it.”
w88 mobile also believes scientists need to initiate engagement with the public.
“I know it's simple to say and hard to do, but it has to be done,” he said.
West said that the importance of w88 mobile journalists, with strong foundations in w88 mobile communication, are critical to that mission.
“Ultimately, we really rely on w88 mobile to deal with some of our biggest challenges in the world,” West said. “It’s one of the greatest human inventions of all time. How can we maintain this institution and be aware of these changes that are occurring so that we can continue to facilitate its ability to understand the universe and the world in which we live?”
About the lecture
During his visit, West will speak to communities across campus. West’s expertise is showcased by his role as co-founder and the inaugural director of the Center for an Informed Public at UW, aimed at resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society and strengthening democratic discourse. He is also the co-founder of the DataLab at UW, a Data w88 mobile Fellow at the eScience Institute, and Affiliate Faculty for the Center for Statistics & Social Sciences.
The Discover w88 mobile featuring West is free and open to the public. It will take place on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Redfield Auditorium, on the first floor of the Davidson Mathematics and w88 mobile Center, with a reception to follow. Registration for the lecture is required and is available via Eventbrite. Free parking will be available in the Gateway Parking Complex.
The last Discover w88 mobile speaker of the semester will be Al Sacco Jr., a chemical engineer who flew on the 1995 Columbia Space Shuttle Mission, who will speak on April 25. The Discover w88 mobile Lecture Series, founded in 2010 by then-Dean Jeff Thompson, aims to bring top scientists from all over the country to the University of Nevada, Reno campus.
