On 1 April 2025, FIMS community and wider Western and local community are invited to attend an end-of-course student poster session prepared by our hard-working graduate students enrolled in the current “Misinformation and Viral Deception” course (Winter 2025). There will be up to 20 posters showing evidence and detailed analysis of deceptive and manipulative tactics. The poster presenters will be standing nearby to walk you through their investigations. Please come out and talk to them. They investigated various Case Studies revolving around mis-/disinformative messaging and how recipients of such communication can be swayed. What happened? How? And why would anyone fall for “that”!? You can learn about recent social media trends attempting to gain influence over your decisions. Or, you could look into well-established histories of propaganda and information war tactics. What could be done to counter-act these deceptive or manipulative strategies under specific circumstances and precedent in these Case Studies? Come think it through with us!
Sample topics include (by title/presenter name):
“How Our Politicians Talk About Things They Don’t Want to Talk About: Climate Change Concerns During the 2023 Wildfire Season” by Michaela McBryde (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Influencers, Sunscreen and Misinformation: Why Teens are Trusting Influencers’ Claims on the Harms of Applying Sunscreen” by Robert Berkman (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Brexit Betrayal: How a Bo!!ocks Bus Slogan Helped Sway a Nation” by Andrea Young (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Lying to the Judge: AI Assisted Citation Misconduct in Mata v Avianca” by Briar Grayson (FIMS MLIS Student)
“YouTube Account Hacking and Crypto Scams: a Pervasive Digital Game of Whack-a-Mole” by Alex Goddard (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Sensationalized Headlines: Context Behind the “Foxy Noxy” Narrative” by Amelia Heins (FIMS MLIS Student)
“#Pizzagate: The Making of an Alt-Right Conspiracy Theory” by Dania Homsi (FIMS MLIS Student)
“QAnon: Misinformation, Conspiracy Theory, and Contemporary Legend in Action” by Cassandra Colman (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Misinformation and Deceptive Strategies in the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Trial: A Retrospective” by Dalya Emin (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Artful Ignorance: 17 years, 60 forged paintings, and $80 million USD” by Marta Kopp (FIMS MLIS Student)
“Global Reset Conspiracy: Covid-19 Disinformation” by Alanna Acchione (FIMS MS PhD Student), Meli Limani (FIMS HIS PhD Student) and Domenic Garisto (FIMS MLIS Student).
” ‘Healing’ Belle: How the Notorious Australian Wellness Influencer Deceived Thousands” by Emily Bauman (FIMS MLIS Student)
“The framing of Panjabi-Sikhs in the media: 1984—” by Harleen Grewal (FIMS MLIS Student) and Muskaan Baraech (FIMS MMJC Student).
This poster session will be held from 10:00 a.m. till 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 1 April 2025, in the Atrium of the FIMS Building (FNB) at Western University (London, ON). Open to the FIMS and Western community as well as general public. Snacks & soft drinks provided. Hope to see you all there!
Dr. Vicki Rubin