Truth, Lies and Clickbait: Media Literacy for a New Era

 While “fake news” is not new and fabricated stories have been presented as truth for centuries, we live in an era when it is easier than ever to create and share information that is neither vetted nor substantiated.  Add to that a divided electorate and a social media landscape where misinformation is shared with a click, and learning to decipher fact from fiction has become a key skill for all news consumers. Join us for a thoughtful discussion among media and information literacy experts on how we got here and how we might move forward as more informed consumers of media.  

Panelists: Nhia Yang, David Gallianetti, Kevin Anderson

Kevin Anderson has extensive newsroom experience with the BBC, The Guardian and Gannett, including more than five years in management and leadership roles. He currently is the founder and principal of Ship’s Wheel Media, a full-service media and communications consultancy, providing training, consulting and content services for clients around the world. 

David Gallianetti has been a communications professional for nearly 30 years. He is in this 17th year as director of external relations at Lakeland University, where he leads public and media relations efforts, internal and external message development and Lakeland’s social media strategy. For several years, he has taught a number of courses involving media, including Intro to Mass Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Sports Marketing and Intro to News Writing. Prior to joining the Lakeland family, Gallianetti was a newspaper reporter for 11 years, including seven years at The Sheboygan Press. During that time he also gained experience working in radio and television. An Illinois native, he has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Ever since junior high (back when it was called “junior high”), Nhia Yang has always had her hands in media in one way or another. In those early days, she wrote stories and took photos and got her feet wet with design. That love for journalism — and soon after, love for multimedia storytelling — followed her through high school and college, where she majored in Mass Communication at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind. Her second job out of college was as a reporter for The Sheboygan Press, where she would stay for more than 11 years. While at The Press, Nhia helped lead the paper through the shifting landscape that saw the explosion and integration of digital and multimedia journalism. Nhia left media and The Sheboygan Press as the General Manager/Executive Editor in 2013. She is now the Creative Media Director for Time of Grace Ministry in Milwaukee.

Moderator: Anthony Sigismondi

Anthony Sigismondi is the Associate Academic Librarian at the University of Wisconsin Colleges-Manitowoc.   Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin in September 2016, he spent four years as the Information Literacy and Instruction Librarian at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, where he helped coordinate the library instruction program.  As an information literacy specialist, Anthony regularly works with students to help them develop critical research and evaluation skills.  He also conducts research related to the problem of bias and the information-seeking behaviors of individuals which he has presented at local and national library conferences.  

This program is part of the Civic Lab series at Mead Public Library; for further exploration of this topic, join us for the book discussion on “The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media” on June 7 at 6:00 pm at Paradigm Coffee & Music (1202 N 8th St, Sheboygan).