Miriam Havelin - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Miriam Havelin
Misinformation and disinformation online is one of the great problems of our time. The digital er... more Misinformation and disinformation online is one of the great problems of our time. The digital era has enabled new and increasingly complex communication systems to flourish. Information flows across vast distances instantly and people are more interconnected than ever before. This also means that information which is inaccurate, misleading or objectively false can also travel at unprecedented rates, and often travels faster and farther than objectively truthful content. This information contaminates the online landscape and impacts people’s ability to discern accurate and truthful content. Misinformation and disinformation is often more sensationalized, which often leads to it being engaged with more often on platforms, this can in turn cause it to become favoured by algorithms. These algorithms tend to prioritize popular content to maintain users on platforms longer and exposes them to more advertisements, in order to gain advertising revenue.
This research used interviews, a survey and an extensive literature review to understand the spread of misinformation and disinformation in Canadian society today, and to map this using a systems approach. Following this, strategic foresight tools were used to generate potential future scenarios with the goal of making strategic recommendations for the current context.
Open offices are taking over the office design landscape, their initial popularity being driven b... more Open offices are taking over the office design landscape, their initial popularity being driven by technology companies and start-ups. Their advocates cite improved collaboration, increased socialization and a more cohesive collective intelligence leading to creativity and innovations not possible within conventional office design. However, more and more reports and studies are showing that open offices are having a negative impact on the individuals working in them, ranging from increased reported distraction and dissatisfaction at work, to elevated stress levels and an increase in rates of sick leave. Perhaps these would be a worthy price to pay for increased collaboration, but a recent Harvard study used biometric sensors to show that face to face interaction actually dropped by 70% when workplaces switched from conventional to open office floorplan (Bernstein 2018).
Misinformation and disinformation online is one of the great problems of our time. The digital er... more Misinformation and disinformation online is one of the great problems of our time. The digital era has enabled new and increasingly complex communication systems to flourish. Information flows across vast distances instantly and people are more interconnected than ever before. This also means that information which is inaccurate, misleading or objectively false can also travel at unprecedented rates, and often travels faster and farther than objectively truthful content. This information contaminates the online landscape and impacts people’s ability to discern accurate and truthful content. Misinformation and disinformation is often more sensationalized, which often leads to it being engaged with more often on platforms, this can in turn cause it to become favoured by algorithms. These algorithms tend to prioritize popular content to maintain users on platforms longer and exposes them to more advertisements, in order to gain advertising revenue.
This research used interviews, a survey and an extensive literature review to understand the spread of misinformation and disinformation in Canadian society today, and to map this using a systems approach. Following this, strategic foresight tools were used to generate potential future scenarios with the goal of making strategic recommendations for the current context.
Open offices are taking over the office design landscape, their initial popularity being driven b... more Open offices are taking over the office design landscape, their initial popularity being driven by technology companies and start-ups. Their advocates cite improved collaboration, increased socialization and a more cohesive collective intelligence leading to creativity and innovations not possible within conventional office design. However, more and more reports and studies are showing that open offices are having a negative impact on the individuals working in them, ranging from increased reported distraction and dissatisfaction at work, to elevated stress levels and an increase in rates of sick leave. Perhaps these would be a worthy price to pay for increased collaboration, but a recent Harvard study used biometric sensors to show that face to face interaction actually dropped by 70% when workplaces switched from conventional to open office floorplan (Bernstein 2018).