Date: Tuesday, 12 February 2019

Time: 6:00 to 7:30pm

Speaker: Jeff Malone

Venue: Belconnen Community Service, 26 Chandler Street, Belconnen ACT 2616

Cost: Free

In this presentation, Jeff Malone provide a critical account of the phenomena of (sic) ‘fake news’, and how the challenges its poses might be addressed. The presentation starts with an overview of fundamental theory regarding deception, drawing primarily upon the works of Barton Whaley. Jeff will then discuss the emergence of the contemporary term ‘fake news’, and the impact of ‘fake news’ in domestic and international politics. Jeff will then focus upon how and why ‘fake news’ works, with insights drawn from a variety of scientific disciplines. The presentation concludes with a discussion of how ‘fake news’ can be identified and countered, again by drawing upon a variety of scientific disciplines.

Jeff Malone has served in the Australian Army, the private sector, the public sector and academia. During his Army service, he was intimately involved in the adoption of information operations (IO) by the Australian Defence Force (ADF). This included drafting the ADF’s first joint IO doctrine, redesign of the ADF’s joint IO staff course, and designing the ADF’s architecture for the planning and conduct of strategic IO. For this work, Jeff was appointed the Chief of Defence Force Fellow in 2003. He teaches a Masters-level IO unit in the School of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of New South Wales (Canberra), and has published extensively on IO. Jeff is the Vice President of the Australian Chapter of the Association of Old Crows (the global electronic warfare, cyber operations and IO professional body), and was the Convention Director for the Australian Chapter’s 2016 and 2018 conventions.

Dinner will follow the lecture (venue TBC). To RSVP for the dinner please email canberraskeptics@gmail.com.

Canberra Skeptics Inc. is a non-profit association incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory for the purpose of promoting critical thinking. For further information about Canberra Skeptics, please visit our website: http://www.canberraskeptics.org