Discerning Truth Through a Web of Online Misinformation

Knight Foundation Vice President of Communities and Impact Sam Gill on how confronting digital pollution can help our democracy overcome a “crisis of trust.”

While the benefits of a world connected by the internet abound, it’s harder and harder to ignore one of its most noxious byproducts — digital pollution. Sam Gill, Vice President of Communities and Impact at the Knight Foundation, believes the fumes of misinformation and misdirection are having a corrosive effect on our democracy and society. He has been working for more than a decade to comprehend and counteract the ways in which technology erodes trust in institutions and journalism at the local level.

“The paradox is, it’s never been easier to get accurate information about what’s going on in the world — ever, in human history,” said Sam. “On the other hand, the overwhelming amount of information and the way that we consume it — in many cases passively, through alerts and information pushed at us through our devices — is overwhelming.”

Ironically, this overflow of information causes people to feel less informed. That’s because feeling informed isn’t just about having access to information — it’s about how it’s presented and used. On this episode of Achieve Great Things, we talk with Sam about Knight’s investments in cutting through digital pollution, and the future of truth in our digital age.

You can listen to this episode directly here or through the player below. You can also subscribe to Achieve Great Things on iTunes here.

Thank you for listening and reading! Please reach out to us on Twitter, visit us on Facebook, or email us at podcast@hattaway.com.