Alan Rusbridger

What to Believe in a Fake News World

Wednesday 23 November 2022

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Editor of Prospect Magazine and former Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian Alan Rusbridger considers how to stay informed, tell truth from fiction and hold those in power accountable in the modern age.

Nothing in life works without facts. A society that isn’t sure what’s true can’t function. Without facts there can be no government or law. Science is ignored. Trust evaporates. People everywhere feel ever more alienated from – and mistrustful of – news and those who make it. We no longer seem to know who or what to believe. We are living through a crisis of “information chaos”.

Alan Rusbridger’s acclaimed recent book, News and How to Use It: What to Believe in a Fake News World, offers a glossary for our bewildering age. He expands on its themes in conversation with Kate Nash, Professor of Media and Communication, and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures at the University of Leeds.

Price

£8

Start time
7.30pm

A DARE Liberty Lecture in partnership with the University of Leeds

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Alan Rusbridger

Alan Rusbridger was Editor in Chief of The Guardian from 1995-2015. He is currently editor of Prospect Magazine and Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Until 2021 he was Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

During his time at The Guardian, both he and the paper won numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism. The Guardian grew from a printed paper with a circulation of 400,000 to a leading digital news organisation with 150m browsers a month around the world. He launched now-profitable editions in Australia and the US as well as a membership scheme which now has 1m Guardian readers paying for content.

He was born in Zambia, was educated at Cambridge and lives in London. He is the co-author of the BBC drama, Fields of Gold. He is a keen amateur musician and the author of Play it Again. His memoir of journalism and its future, Breaking News, was published in 2018. He is a member of the Facebook Oversight Board. His latest book, News and How to Use It, was published in 2020.

DARE Liberty Lectures

Part of the groundbreaking partnership between Opera North and the University of Leeds, the DARE Liberty Lectures connect the curious and the experienced through a programme that has become an established part of Leeds’ cultural offering.

A series of specially commissioned public lectures at the Howard Assembly Room, these talks explore the myths and realities of liberty. The events, which include a lecture followed by Q&A, are introduced and chaired by an academic from the University of Leeds.

Previous speakers have included Afua Hirsch, Gina Miller, George Monbiot, Nazir Afzal, Ann Pettifor and Tariq Ali.