Bias, Misinformation, and Polarization How Can My Students Find Anything on the Internet

Quickly finding reliable, transparent information on the internet is becoming a near-impossible task for educators and students. Internet search is degenerating into a race to the bottom. Generative AI and misinformation are flourishing. Americans struggle to agree on basic facts. The majority of premium news is moving behind paywalls. Gen Z scrolls TikTok to get their news. This presentation walks through each of these issues, arming educators with powerful, up-to-date knowledge and insights on the rapidly changing technologies and societal dynamics driving these trends. First, we discuss broadly the evolution of the internet, AI technologies, and the rapidly falling costs to create and publish content on the internet. With audience participation, we conduct a quick quiz that challenges the audience’s perception of what “reliable” websites look like. We also review the ratings methodology developed by NewsGuard that evaluates the journalistic integrity of news and information sites. Next, we explore the rise of generative AI and its nefarious possibilities using real examples of recent misinformation social media narratives. We discuss AI image generation, deepfakes, and viral growth patterns used to promote narratives. Then we review the latest data and surveys regarding politics, polarization, news paywalls, and digital ad revenues and how these all influence the environment in which students consume information. Finally, we show comparative search results across numerous popular search engines and chatbots to highlight where and how they fall short as reliable research and learning tools for students. We wrap up with recommendations, followed by Q&A.