Truth, lies and the internet

The internet is now almost certainly the greatest source of information for people living in the UK today. The amount of information available to us at the click of a mouse when making these decisions can be both liberating and asphyxiating. Although there are more e-books, trustworthy journalism, niche expertise and accurate facts and figures at our fingertips than ever before, there are equally unprecedented amounts of mistakes, half-truths, mistruths, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and general nonsense. 

Making sense of all this – knowing how to discriminate the good, reliable, trustworthy or useful information from the bad – is therefore of tremendous importance. The ability to make these difficult judgments matters to everyone but especially young people, for whom the internet is a more important medium than any other group.

Demos is undertaking a research project which assesses the ability young people are careful, discerning users of the internet. We are exploring the ability of young people to find and critically evaluate on-line information.  This is based on an extensive review of literature and a survey of teachers.

This research paper will be released later this year.

For more information contact Jamie Bartlett or Carl Miller