a hopeful, informative, big-picture roadmap for our time
Stebbins thoroughly diagnoses the causes, culprits, and tactics of social media’s plague of disinformation, but she also does something remarkable: gives us hope for a way out of it. “Building Back Truth” is the call to action we all need to pick up and act on.
—David Sax, author of The Future is Analog.
Digital worlds promote misinformation, erode our understanding of the world, and compromise our access to the truth. Stebbins, an independent researcher and the director of Research4Ed, sheds light on the topic of misinformation and offers six paths forward to create digital spaces that prioritize the public and improve information quality: understanding how platforms are designed to exploit us, embracing agency in our interactions with digital spaces, building tools to reduce harmful practices, requiring platform companies to prioritize public good, repairing journalism, and strengthening curation to promote trusted content. She also delves into the causes of misinformation, such as a focus on profits over public value. Stebbins presents a well-researched argument, writing with an air of hope for a future of reform, improved policies, and public engagement. This book will appeal to a wide range of readers, especially teachers and students, legislators, and those in journalism and communication fields.
― Booklist
Stebbins presents a well researched argument, writing with an air of hope for a future of reform, improved policies, and public engagement. This book will appeal to a wide range of readers, especially teachers and students, legislators, and those in journalism and communication fields.
–Jennifer Adams in Booklist (February, 2023.
A librarian/researcher can be a superhero—as Leslie Stebbins demonstrates in this searing investigation of misinformation and detailed discussion of meaningful reforms. … Stebbins makes clear there is no right to viral amplification of speech—and shows promising ways to fight digital boosting of false and harmful words.
—Martha Minow, Author, Saving the News and 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University and former Dean of the Harvard Law School
In her groundbreaking work, Building Back Truth in an Age of Misinformation, Stebbins not only approaches the problems of misinformation with clarity and compassion, she charts a dynamic, care-centered response to information disorder that prioritizes agency and intentionality in how we engage in information ecosystems today. ‘This book is about Hope,’ Stebbins writes. A hope that is reflected in her thoughtful approaches to reforming platforms, policies, and public engagement to make our information environments more inclusive, equitable, and in service of those at the margins of society today.
–Paul Mihailidis, Associate professor of Civic Media and Journalism, School of Communication and Senior Fellow, Engagement Lab, Emerson College
Leslie Stebbins offers an optimistic and practical stance on how to move beyond merely documenting the problem of disinformation, political polarization, and the strategies used by powerful digital platforms to increasingly shape our lived experience. As they read Building Back Truth in an Age of Misinformation, readers will reflect on their own individual and collective behavior and be inspired to take much-needed action to restore trust and repair our communication environment.
—Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island
Combating information disorder is one of the hardest and most important challenges of our time. Stebbins gives us reason to hope we might navigate this complex landscape and, in the process, end up building something better than the internet we currently have.
–-Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Information and Communication and Founder, Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, University of Massachusetts–Amherst. (Excerpt from the Foreword to Building Back Truth in an Age of Misinformation)
Building Back Truth in an Age of Misinformation is proof we can protect ourselves from the deluge of toxic lies being pumped out on social media platforms and find the trustworthy information we need. This book lays out a smart and convincing argument for restoring our hope in a public interest internet that early pioneers once envisioned.
–-Alison Head, Director of Project Information Literacy\
Unlike most discussions of our polluted information environment, Stebbins takes a holistic view, outlining ways we can teach better, create a healthier environment for journalism, build better checks and balances into our social media platforms, use public policy to promote the public good and build new, robust digital public squares for the public good. This is a hopeful, informative, big-picture roadmap for our time.
–Barbara Fister, Professor Emerita, Gustavus Adolphus College and Author, The Librarian War Against QAnon