Hometown, Alaska Alaska Public Media

Graphic from World Health Organization in its public campaign against disinformation.Here’s a new word for you: infodemic. The World Health Organization coined the term and centered a recent global conference around coming to terms with a glut of mis- and dis-information that is harming public health.Click here for a full-size version of the poster. From the News Literacy Project.While this is a global issue, and links below will take you to the WHO’s many universal resources, a local group has been fighting inaccurate information on Facebook pages. Called the Alaska Public Health Information Response Team, it enlists UAA strategic communications students to spot the bad information, and local health professionals to intervene with posts on Facebook that introduce accurate information.The effort is more than two years old, and continues. On today’s Hometown Alaska, we’ll meet some of the participants. They’ll offer insight into the fight against mis- and dis-information, how it so easily spreads on social med