How to Become an Online Conspiracy Agony Aunt: Reporting on the Disinformation Front-Line with Marianna Spring

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27th April 2021

The past year has been something of a “conspiracy-theory bonanza,” as perfectly ordinary people with way too much time on their hands have found themselves falling head-first down the rabbit hole of online disinformation. Fortunately for us, if not so much for her, it was also the first year the BBC had a specialist disinformation and social media reporter to fight back.

Marianna Spring, who has faced, with extraordinary compassion and empathy, a coordinated barrage of horrendous online harassment for undertaking this vital work, may not be the hero we deserve, but she is the hero we need. Effectively becoming the BBC’s first online conspiracy agony aunt, she has set out to humanise disinformation and explain its impact to viewers.

Join Cambridge Skeptics: Live! Where Erika Nitsch will be taking us back to a previous pandemic to ponder on the origins and spread of HIV/AIDS. The conversation will commence at 7:00pm (BST) on Tuesday, 4th May on our YouTube channel.

Cambridge Skeptics

How to Become an Online Conspiracy Agony Aunt:
Reporting on the Disinformation Front-Line

with Marianna Spring
Thursday, 29th April 2021 at 7:00pm

twitch.tv/sitp

The BBC’s first-ever specialist disinformation and social media reporter, Marianna Spring, has spent the past year down the online conspiracy rabbit hole, investigating the real-world impact of disinformation being shared on social media. Families have been torn apart, lives lost and violence inspired. What’s it like speaking to the victims and leaders of these online conspiracy networks – and what’s the best approach?

Marianna Spring is the award-winning specialist disinformation and social media reporter for BBC News and World Service. Previously, she worked for BBC Newsnight and on the Guardian news desk and makes frequent appearances on BBC TV segments including recently presenting on BBC Panorama about her investigation into anti-vaccine content. Recently Marianna was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list.

FIND OUT MORE

As lockdown kicked in, Marianna Spring started her job as the BBC’s new disinformation reporter. The hoaxers and true believers have kept her busy, she writes for The Times.

SEE ALSO

Investigations show doctors were pressured to prescribe "early treatment protocol" Covid kits made up of unproven, ineffective interventions, writes Natália Pasternak for The Skeptic.

The connection between three legendary paranormal sightings tells us a lot about why we see what isn't there... and miss what's really there, writes David Mountain for The Skeptic.

Crystal healing continues to undergo a resurgence in popularity, but when put to the test, believers can't tell the difference between a real crystal or a fake, writes Chris French for The Skeptic.

'Stuff You Should Know' are the latest to report on the epidemic of dogs jumping off Overtoun bridge - but the numbers tell a different story - writes Brian Eggo for The Skeptic.

CATCH UP

Join the statitician supreme Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter to discover the lessons he's learned from putting the pandemic into perspective. This event, which was streamed live on 22nd April 2021, is now available for catch up on the SitP Online YouTube channel.

Catch up with Cambridge Skeptics: Live for our discussion on the important factors for a good voting system and which system would work best, and all without getting too political. This event, which was streamed live on 6th April 2021, is now available for catch up on our YouTube channel.

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GROUPS WE COLLABORATE WITH

We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the COVID-19 pandemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focusing on Science, reason, and critical thinking. Every Thursday at 7 pm BST, you will find us presenting live-streamed talks, all for free – you don’t even need to create an account. Simply open up twitch.tv/sitp. Take a look at our events, past and future, we’re sure you’ll see a lot of content you will find interesting.

The Good Thinking Society is a nonprofit organisation promoting scientific scepticism established by Simon Singh in September 2012. The society aims to raise awareness of and fund sceptical projects. The goal of the society is 'to encourage curiosity and promote rational thinking'. In partnership with its advisory board the organisation has run several successful campaigns promoting public awareness of such issues. To find out more about The Good Thinking Society, please visit www.goodthinkingsociety.org.

The Cambridge Humanist Group is a welcoming and diverse community of atheists and secularists. We are committed to good company and a good life without religion. We stand up for the right of non-believers to be free from imposition by religious views and organisations. We run Sunday coffee mornings at CB2 Bistro, hold a pub social at a central Cambridge venue on most 1st Thursdays of the month, hold discussions and various social events throughout the year.

The Cambridge Alehouse Philosophers are a group of people who enjoy talking about ideas, and who are philosophically inclined or would like to find out more about philosophy. Once per month, one of our members will prepare a short talk for the evening and discussions will start to spin off from that; we also have organised debates; otherwise, we simply meet up for a sociable chat. Everyone is welcome, we have absolute beginners to philosophy as well as people who been involved in the subject for some time.

The effective altruism community is a global community of people who care deeply about the world, make benefiting others a significant part of their lives, and use evidence and reason to figure out how best to do so. In Cambridge, our local effective altruism community runs plenty of events each week, including lectures, workshops, discussion groups, socials and trips away.

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Cambridge Skeptics is a not-for-profit community organisation run by volunteers. The organisation aims to promote science, positive skepticism and critical thinking skills via public engagement.