Webinar On-Demand: Political Engagement in the Digital Age

Country:

United states India Russia

Media:

Video

Author:

Mikaela Schmitt
Pulitzer Center Staff

English

WhatsApp has become a battlefield for contemporary Indian elections.

Srishti Jaswal
Grantee

Key Highlights:

“I would say that one of the trends that we're seeing this year, at least, is that there are a lot of deep fakes that have contaminated the political conversation,” Talev said. “And yet, I think that voters perceptions about the prevalence of them is even worse than the reality. And yet, voters are not being discerning in how they weigh and compare content.”
“You need to fight AI with AI technology development. And then, you need to have legislation making sure that you're not unnecessarily limiting the First Amendment or any of those things that are fundamentals to democracy. And then, enforcing those [regulations],” Malik said.
“Unfortunately, we have to remember that India is a country where digital literacy is less, but digital penetration is a lot,” Jaswal said. “The data in India is very cheap; everyone has a smartphone in their hand, but they don't know how much to trust this particular information or not. The literacy is very poor, so it's very easy to make fools of these naive people, especially when the fact checks don't reach them.”
“I think it's definitely a big challenge at the moment to regain [the public’s] trust. I think all we could do as journalists is really focus on doing really strong accountability, journalism. Tracking down the actors who are polluting the information ecosystem and trying to shed a bit of light on their activities,” McIntyre said.
“I feel like we're entering an age where we're all AI journalists now,” Strong said. “It doesn't really matter whether you cover politics or education or pharma or supply chains. All of us are going to have to have some level of awareness and yet AI is intimidating. This is outside of most people's area of expertise, and the barrier to entry feels high.”
“I think education is hugely important. I think we have thought about that at the college level, but there are so many Americans and people around the world who don't have access to a four-year degree. I think it really is essential that this not be just reserved for something that students are taught in university. [It’s important] that students are taught in high school or earlier, that they're taught in community colleges and trade school programs, and that we are teaching through major employers… People do tend to trust their employers more than they trust just about anyone else. I think [we need] partnerships with employers on modern media literacy, on social media literacy,” Talev said.
"We need to attack this from multiple levels, not just from news organizations. Everybody needs to be singing off the same page. This really is a matter of national security, of democratic freedoms, of preserving civil rights and human rights… This is something that everybody has a stake in working on together.”