Taiwan Institute for Governance and Communication Research (TIGCR) has this honor to invite Professor Ang Peng-Hwa at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore to visit our centre for six days (Dec 2th to 7th).
The phenomenon of overflowing with fake news has become more serious in recent years. Prof. Ang presented an open speech in topic of “Countering Fake News in Terms of Legislation as well as How People Have Actually Countered Propaganda” on Dec 5th, which have nearly a hundred teachers and students joined. Director of TIGCR Prof. Huang hosted the speech, and then Prof. Ang raised the question - “what kind of information online should we trust?” to start the talk and explained why “Fake News” is new this time. In the talk, he brought out the idea of how to prevent and regulate the widely spread of fake news in online social environment and the reality world. He also mentioned about how the government in other countries face to the crush of fake news and how the individuals become the regulation of fake news. He brought out the idea of “The Market of Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and Market Mechanism” by George Akerlof. He further explained the asymmetric information in online environment led to news authenticity distortion and declines the quality, like people in Singapore using WhatsApp as source to share the fake news with their friends and family.
Professor Ang's speech
(Photo credit: TIGCR)
Excessive freedom in online social communities could possibly affect the reality world. Prof. Ang introduced 4 modes of online regulation raised by Lawrence Lessig: law, social norms, market and architectures. He thought that it is necessary to establish a health and trustable online eco-system in order to trace the truth. Both teachers and students appreciated having Prof. Ang toggle them an insightful speech and enthusiastically shared the phenomenon of fake news in Taiwan and the government and public attitude towards fake news.
The speech was attended by almost a hundred students and the faculty of NCCU.
(Photo credit: TIGCR)
After the talk, Prof. Ang had a closed talk with TIGCR members. Professor and TIGCR member both shared their research ideas and experiences. Prof. Ang suggested TIGCR could have more corporations with the international institutes and claimed that willingly to see more interactions between TIGCR and the related institutes in Singapore.
Group photo after the talk
(Photo credit: TIGCR)
