Deciding What’s True in a Polarized Society

Join UW-Madison Badger Talks speaker Michael W. Wagner for a talk that reviews research on fake news, fact-checking, selective exposure to like-minded media outlets, and describes the implications for democracy.

Speaker Bio:

Michael W. Wagner (Bachelor of Journalism, University of Nebraska; Ph.D., Indiana University) is William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair of the Wisconsin Idea and Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he directs the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. His work, exploring how individual interactions in the information ecology affect what people believe, what they want, and what they do has been published in prestigious journals such as Science, Journal of Communication, the International Journal of Press/Politics and in books he has co-authored at Cambridge University Press, CQ Press, and Sage Press. He is Associate Editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, the Founding Editor of the Forum in Political Communication, a member of the General Social Survey’s Board of Advisors and a winner of five university-wide teaching awards.