This fantastic course will help you understand and fight disinformation, an absolutely essential skill to acquire during this global election season. Sign up and help safeguard the future of democracy. Professor Sander van der Linden, social psychologist, University of Cambridge, UK.
World-leading experts have come together for an important new training course from Thomson Foundation offering innovative ways to stop the spread of false information.
Rethinking disinformation: psychology, prebunking and other tactics to halt the spread' is a guide on new approaches to tackle the phenomenon.
Leading social psychologist Professor Sander van der Linden, who's the director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, explains the concept of prebunking and exposes the tactics used by disinformers.
In addition, he explains how and why conspiracy theories evolve to help equip journalists with digital resilience and critical thinking skills.
When everyone's happy, when there's economic prosperity, where theres social harmony, you don't see many people endorsing conspiracy theories. But when things are going wrong, whether it's World War Two or a supposed stolen election, that's typically where I see massive uptakes in the spread of conspiracy theories, says Sander.
Thomson research into Taiwan elections Rethinking disinformation is being released in a year when more than two billion people are going to the polls. 2024 will see more elections than any year in history with social media a battleground for false information.
Research commissioned by Thomson Foundation into AI disinformation attacks during Taiwan's Presidential Election in January features in the course.
The report found a proliferation of AI-generated material, including deep fakes targetting candidates, which added another layer of complexity for journalists trying to tell the story.
It concludes that the growing sophistication of AI techniques calls for innovative solutions.
Anyone can look at an image now and think in their head, 'I don t know if this is real or not'.
Adam Rose, Chief Operating Officer, Starling Lab
Tracking digital media The self-paced interactive course includes scenarios to help journalists outsmart the disinformers and protect their stories and newsrooms.
There's guidance on how technology can be used to safeguard digital media through adding content credentials (cr), a system which adds metadata at every point of content creation from capture to publication.
Sander is joined by experts from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, Starling Lab - an academic research lab co-founded by Stanford University and the University of Southern California, the open-source research specialists Bellingcat and experienced fact-checkers from the Western Balkans and Kenya.
Concepts like fake news and post-truth have been floating around for many years now, says Adam Rose, the chief operating officer at Starling Lab, who explains how content credentials work. So denialism is not exactly new. What is new is the really impressive changes and improvements in generative AI and the issue is that anyone can look at an image now and think in their head, well, I don't know if this is real or not.
Bespoke training videos Debunking remains a critical tool in a journalist's armoury so Charlotte Maher, who's the social media editor for Bellingcat, provides short training videos demonstrating how to use free open-source intelligence tools.
Catherine Mackie, who's Thomson's training and communications editor, says to have such a stellar cast of experts offering practical advice in one course is a privilege for journalists looking to improve their skills and stop the spread of disinformation.
Disinformers are adept at getting into a person's mind, she says. What this course does is try to put the journalist in there with them and no matter how the spread of disinformation evolves, advice in this course should help newsrooms provide a robust response.
The course Rethinking disinformation: psychology, prebunking and other tactics to halt the spread is free and available now via our Journalism Now e-learning platform.
Thomson Foundation at the International Journalism Festival, Perugia
With so many countries going to the polls, how do we build resilience and immunity to the growing sophistication of disinformation? Digital resilience for journalists in a year of elections' is the title of a panel discussion Thomson Foundation will be holding in Perugia in April 2024 with guests Dr Jon Roozenbeek, a fellow of the Social Decision-Making Lab at Cambridge University, Charlotte Maher from Bellingcat, and John-Allan Namu, CEO of Africa Uncensored.
Journalism Now courses
Artificial Intelligence in the newsroom: The ethical approach
News Analysis: The art of storytelling
Mobile Journalism - Getting Started
Explore our projects across the globe
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
This fantastic course will help you understand and fight disinformation, an absolutely essential skill to acquire during this global election season. Sign up and help safeguard the future of democracy. Professor Sander van der Linden, social psychologist, University of Cambridge, UK. 
