Stellenbosch University expert joins authoritative new global information environment expert panel

Prof Herman Wasserman, Chair of the Department of Journalism at Stellenbosch University (SU), has been invited to join a new international authoritative panel of experts who will address threats to the global information environment.

The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) was officially launched yesterday (24 May 2023) at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit held in Washington DC.

The Swiss-based IPIE is an independent and global science organisation committed to providing the most actionable scientific knowledge about threats to the world’s information environment.

IPIE, chaired by Prof Philip N. Howard from the University of Oxford, brings together an unprecedented consortium of researchers from around the world as a global scientific effort to analyse systems of information manipulation and bias, provide neutral assessments on the condition of the global information environment and evaluate the best policy solutions for addressing threats to it.

Wasserman says that the establishment of this high-profile panel of experts is an indication of the importance of the issue of the global information environment that affects societies around the world. “We are experiencing a global information disorder that is manifested in problems such as disinformation, hate speech and social polarisation. These problems pose a serious risk to democratic politics and the quest for equitable and inclusive societies. I look forward to contributing perspectives to the panel on how African countries are experiencing problems such as disinformation and geopolitical information manipulation, and to help highlight the research expertise that exists in Africa that can help us understand and address these issues”.