Contact: Peggy Creer, LWVMC president
[email protected]
414-232-1138 

League of Women Voters: Public forum on truth, trust, and democracy

Milwaukee – “Truth, Trust, and Democracy” is the topic of a public forum presented by the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County on Saturday, October 20, 2018. This free program will be held at Alverno College, Christopher Hall-Wehr Auditorium, 3400 S. 43rd St., Milwaukee. The program runs from 10:15 a.m. to noon, with social time beginning at 9:45. 

The forum includes a panel discussion on the challenges facing voters who seek truthful and accurate reporting in today’s news and social media landscape, where opinion is sometimes mistaken for fact and sources can be hard to identify. The panel will offer expert advice on how to be more savvy consumers of news and better-informed voters — all for the good of our democracy. 

“The mission of the League of Women Voters is to empower voters and defend democracy,” said Peggy Creer, president of the Milwaukee County League. “It’s hard to make sound public policy in a democracy when voters are making decisions based on differing sets of facts, and when they are confronted with social media messages that are deliberately designed to deceive.” 

The event is co-sponsored by WUWM 89.7 FM Milwaukee Public Radio and the Alverno College Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

The program will be moderated by Bonnie North, host and producer at WUWM. 

Panelists are:

Young Mie Kim, Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a faculty affiliate of the Department of Political Science, UW-Madison
She will speak on “the dark side of social media: dark money, dark sources, and disinformation.”

Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and author of the best-selling book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
He will speak on the role of  journalism in polarized eras of American history via a pre-recorded audio interview conducted exclusively for this forum.
Amy Waldman, Librarian at Mill Road Library and journalist
She will speak about navigating the media landscape to find credible sources.

Amy Shapiro, Director of the Philosophy Department at Alverno College and co-director of the Alverno College Women’s and Gender Studies Program
She will speak about how to be discerning critical thinkers in distinguishing opinion from fact.

Ashley Luthern, Reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, currently researching gun violence as part of a Marquette University O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service
She will speak about the importance of  research, facts and fact-checking in investigative journalism and also consider the future of in-depth investigative reporting.

For more information, visit www.lwvmilwaukee.org

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