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Presentations, talks & workshops

The Disinformation Project team have presented research to both academic and community institutions. Public intellectualism is an important component of our research as disinformation can influence a wide spectrum of areas, including inciting racism, xenophobia, culture wars, and can affect politics through the mobilization of populism.

Presentations & academic conferences

 

  • Ahmed Al-Rawi served as a panelist in “How can we deal with hate on the Internet?”. Online Hate, Media (Mis)Representation, and Systemic Racism Conference. Toronto Metropolitan University, Ted Rogers School of Management, Diversity Institute. June 23, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi. “The Weaponization and Discourses of Misinformation in Facebook Ads”. In ‘Fake News, Misinformation, and All That Junk: What We See and Why Some Believe’. International Communication Association Conference (ICA), Toronto, Canada. May 26, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi served as a panelist in “Polarization, Populism and Post-Truth” session. In “Our Whole Society: Finding Common Ground in a Time of Polarization” Conference, Wilfrid Laurier University & Martin Luther University College. Waterloo,  Ontario, Canada. May 8, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi served as a discussant and moderator for the “The Domestic Disinformation Dilemma” panel, “The Weaponization of Disinformation in Canada” Workshop. University of Waterloo, Cyber Security & Privacy Institute, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. April 28, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi. “The networked trolling of critical journalists and news organizations in Iraq”. Online Symposium on Digital Threats against Journalists. Organized by the Journalism Safety Research Network (JSRN), the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM), & the Department of Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK. March 28, 2023.
  • Chris Tenove, A. Al-Rawi et al. “Shooting the Messenger: Forms and Impacts of Reputational Attacks on Journalists”. in the Online Symposium on Digital Threats against Journalists. The Journalism Safety Research Network (JSRN) et al. (see above), the University of Sheffield, UK. March 28, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi participated as a panelist in the “Democracy in Crisis” panel, 2023 CIVIX Democracy Bootcamp, Vancouver, Canada, March 2, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi presented a guest lecture on “Misinformation in/on Canada”. Library & Learning Centre, Douglas College. Westminster, December 15, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi. “Misinformation, mobilization, & violence”. The Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS) Gala Conference, Ottawa, Ontario, October  13, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi. “Trolling the Messenger: How state-run Disinformation weaponizes the public sphere”. Informação/Information: VII Congresso Internacional de Comunicação, Jornalismo e Espaço Público| VII International Congress on Communication, Journalism and Public Sphere. Coimbra University, Coimbra, Portugal, July 15, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi & Devan Prithipaul, "The Public’s Appropriation of Multimodal Discourses of Fake News on Social Media". Pre - International Communication Association Conference (Pre-ICA), Post-Truth and Affective Publics’ Challenges to Social Ties. Disinformation, Populism, Data-Driven Propaganda. Centre for Research on Mediations (CREM), Université de Lorraine, Metz, France. May 25, 2022. 
  • A. Al-Rawi delivered a lecture entitled "Misinformation in the Middle East". The Media & Digital Academy of Beirut (MDLAB), the Lebanese American University, Beirut, May 21, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi delivered a workshop for academics entitled "Practical research toolkits and guides to research misinformation". The Media & Digital Academy of Beirut (MDLAB), the Lebanese American University, Beirut, May 21, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi, Nicole Stewart, Carmen Celestini, & Nathan Worku. “Delegitimizing the Legitimate: Dark Social Movements on Telegram”. with . The Canadian Communication Association (CCA), the Canadian Congress for Social Sciences and Humanities, May 19, 2022. 
  • A. Al-Rawi. “Topic modelling of Far-right Canadians’ tweets on COVID-19”. Navigating Information and Race in the Era of COVID-19 Symposium. York University, Toronto, Canada. May 3, 2022. 
  • A. Al-Rawi participated as a panelist in the "Disinformation on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: Prevalence and journalistic challenges". The panel discussion was organized by the Rogers Chair in Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology, Western University, Ontario. April 28, 2022.
  • Carmen Celestini gave a talk at Montclair State University on "Angry Religion: The Rise of American Theocracy". Part 3: The Phenomenal Rise of Conspiracy Theories. April 28, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi gave a talk on disinformation and COVID-19 at the Communications Department of Vancouver Coastal Health. March 28, 2022.  
  • A. Al-Rawi served as a panelist in the "Digital Disinformation and Right-Wing Extremism" Webinar. Concordia University, Department of Communication Studies. February 24, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi, Nathan Worku, Carmen Celestini, and Nicole Stewart. “Dark Participation on BitChute by the Canadian Far-Right Extremists”. Hating on Social Media Symposium at the Centre on Hate, Bias, and Extremism, Ontario Tech University. February 7-10, 2022. 
  • A. Al-Rawi participated as a panelist in the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) Expert Rountable on “Video Games and Violent Extremism”. December 6, 2021.
  • A. Al-Rawi participated as a panelist in the Roundtable on alt-right in Canada event. Concordia University, Montreal.  December 3, 2021.
  • A. Al-Rawi, Carmen Celestini, Nicole Stewart, and Nathan Worku. “How Google autocomplete algorithms mainstream hate and mislead the public?”. The Media/Culture Journal special issue Workshop- ‘Conspiracy’. Federation University Australia. November 28, 2021. 
  • A. Al-Rawi delivered a plenary speaker presentation as part of the Educational Speakers Series organized by Toronto Public Library and CanAge entitled “Fake News:  Identify and Ignore”. November 23, 2021.  
  • A. Al-Rawi participated as a panelist in the “Digital Media Literacy in Canada”, Media Literacy Week 2021, MediaSmarts. October 28, 2021. 
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Disinformation under a networked authoritarian state: Saudi trolls’ credibility attacks against Jamal Khashoggi”. The 3rd Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media. MISDOOM. The Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, UK. September 21-22, 2021.  
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Foreign interference in the Canadian elections”. CIVIX’s 2021 Democracy Bootcamp. Democracy, Disinformation and Social Media: Sorting through Political Messaging in Canada. August 25, 2021.  
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Disinformation discourses in Canadian news media”. with Joseph Nicolai. The Canadian Communication Association, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. June 4, 2021. 
  • A. Al-Rawi, “The weaponizing of fake news in the Facebook ads targeting Canadians” with Abdelrahman Fakida. The 71st Annual ICA Conference, Engaging the Essential Work of Care. May 27-31, 2021.
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Covid-19 in North America: Managing the risks of discrimination of marginalized populations” with Lea Hellmueller. Panel on Cross-Cultural Approaches to Identifying Pressures on Journalists Covering COVID-19: A Project of the Global Risk Journalism Hub. The 71st Annual ICA Conference, Engaging the Essential Work of Care. May 27-31, 2021.
  • A. Al-Rawi,  “Disinformation and bad actors”, Canadian Science Policy Pre-Conference - Building Bridges between Science, Policy and Society- Limiting the Impact of Misinformation and Disinformation; Planning, Recognition, and Response, Ottawa, Canada. November 3-15, 2020. 
  • A. Al-Rawi,  “Instagram’s memes on fake news,” the 70th Annual ICA Conference, Open Communication, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. May 21-25, 2020.
  • A. Al-Rawi,  “Kek’s memes war on Instagram”, the 70th ICA preconference - Visual Politics: Image Production, Perception, and Influence, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. May 21, 2020.
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Russian Trolls’ Representation of Islam on Social Media”. Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. November 7, 2019.
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Facts or Fiction? Misinformation, Media and the Canadian Election”, SFU Public Square, Strengthening Canadian Democracy Initiative, Vancouver Public Library. October 17, 2019.
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Fake news on Instagram”, the 1st Tsinghua TransCultural Communication Roundtable. Transcultural Solidarities across Global Divides: Histories, Institutions and Agencies. Future Media Lab, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. October 12, 2019.
  • A. Al-Rawi, "Fake news in Canada" at “Fake vs. Fact: A Free Journalism Workshop Series”. New Canadian Media & the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. September 28, 2019.
  • A. Al-Rawi, "Fake news and the war on truth" at “Fake vs. Fact: A Free Journalism Workshop Series”. New Canadian Media & the School of Journalism, Mount Royal University, Calgary. September 27, 2019.
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Manufacturing rage: The Russian Internet Research Agency’s political astroturfing on social media”, with Anis Rahman, the Canadian Communication Association, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. June 3-6, 2019.
  • A. Al-Rawi, "Fake news discourses on Instagram", Simon Fraser University’s Public Square event “Confronting the Disinformation Age: 2019 Community Summit- Innovations in Research”. April 10, 2019. 
  • A. Al-Rawi, “Topic modelling & fake news discourses on MSM vs. SNS”. Symposium on Public Discourse and Data Science, Big Data Hub, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada. October 12, 2018.
  • A. Al-Rawi, "What the fake? An analysis of online media dissemination and the bot-assisted amplification of fake news”. In Internet, Politics, Policy 2018: Long Live Democracy? St Anne's College, University of Oxford, UK. September 20-21, 2018.

Other activities

  • Ahmed Al-Rawi was invited as an expert witness to the Canadian Senate’s 44th Parliament, 1st Session to discuss the spread of misinformation and how to combat it. The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, December 7, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi delivered a workshop to high school teachers for their professional day training on misinformation in Canada. Vancouver Technical Secondary School. September 22, 2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi guest edited a journal special issue on Mis/Disinformation in/on Canada for the Global Media Journal - Canadian edition in 2022. See details here of the published papers. 
  • A. Al-Rawi served as a member in the Advisory Committee of the Vaccination, Misinformation and Digital Media Project, {refugee613} from April 2022 until March 2023.
  • Carmen Celestini was invited to the Canadian House of Commons as an expert witness. The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU), 44th Parliament, 1st Session. Rise of Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism in Canada. April 28, 2022.
  • Ahmed Al-Rawi was invited to the Canadian House of Commons as an expert witness. The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU), 44th Parliament, 1st Session. Assessment of Canada’s Security Posture in Relation to Russia. April 5, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi participated as a disinformation expert  in the  Climate Change 2050: National Climate Change Science Plan, Science Communication & Knowledge Mobilization Roundtable, co-hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada. March 9, 2022. 
  • A. Al-Rawi participated in the MediaSmarts online symposium to create a digital media literacy strategy in Canada. "From Access to Engagement: A Digital Media Literacy Strategy for Canada". February 9, 2022.
  • A. Al-Rawi guest edited a journal issue on Disinformation in the Middle East for the Open Information Science journal in late 2021.
  • A. Al-Rawi served as an expert reviewer and contrributor to develop the Canadian Association of Journalists’ training course “Misinfo 101: How to identify and report on misinformation” from 2021-2023.
  • A. Al-Rawi participated with a number of cognitive scientists in the SciBeh 2020 Virtual Workshop on "Building an online information environment for policy relevant science"- Combatting COVID-19 misinformation with lessons from climate change denial, 9-10 November, 2020. 
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