Dismiss the Noise – a misinformation event
Dismiss the Noise
A media literacy conference, entitled ‘Dismiss the Noise’ was held on the 16th of October in Waterford City. Organisers included Waterford SLí, the Waterford Youth Information Centre and the Waterford City Libraries, and the Europe Direct Centre.
Over 400 young people from local schools joined the Conference opened by Deputy Mayor Adam Wyse, followed by the great energy of BEAT 102103 ‘Digital Media and You’ presentation. Our MC for the day was Mara Matthews – the current vice chair of Waterford Comhairle na nOg. The keynote was delivered by Dr. Eileen Culloty Assistant Professor in the School of Communications and deputy director of the DCU Institute for Media, Democracy, and Society. There were also inputs from Sinead Beirne from Spunout who spoke about mental health in an online environment and Caoilinn Walsh, last year’s winner of the European Soapbox Competition, who spoke about the perils (and positives) of Artificial Intelligence. Charlotte Dwan and Kaitie Anne Joubert, members of Waterford’s Youth Advisory Climate Council, also spoke on the tactics used to spread mis and disinformation on the climate crisis and how to avoid them. Clara Wemyss represented Waterford Comhairle na nOg discussing how your algorithm affects your mental health.
On the day there were also spoken word performances, music and speeches by young people interested in and impacted by social media. The programme was rich and diverse with experts in various fields exploring how we can empower ourselves to understand and question media from algorithm-driven newsfeeds to deepfake technology to information and story sources. This conference was the first step towards empowering the young people of Waterford to use their voice in an informed and thoughtful way and to use social media to bring people together not divide them.
