Extreme weather events provide unique opportunities for misinformation to spread widely: rumors swirl on social media, telecom lines go down, and people’s worst fears and angers come to the surface.
Grist and Climate Central held a virtual conversation with meteorologists, journalists, and researchers about how we can communicate more accurately and thoughtfully before, during, and after extreme weather. Speakers included: Deanne Criswell, former FEMA administrator; Shel Winkley, senior engagement specialist and chief meteorologist at Climate Central; Ginny Katz, hazard adaptation researcher and founder of HazAdapt Community Resilience Tools; and Jake Bittle, staff writer at Grist.
The webinar answered questions and offered tips for navigating conversations — whether they’re public or private, online or offline.
Watch the full event replay
This event was part of Grist’s new series exploring the spread of misinformation in the wake of extreme weather. Distorted: Truth and Trust in an Age of Climate Disasters examines the pathways through which mis- and disinformation spreads in the wake of extreme weather, and how those falsities disrupt relief and recovery and upend real people’s lives.
The series highlights successful attempts to build trust and ground truth in disaster-prone communities, while giving readers the tools to navigate disrupted information systems, and to identify what’s real and what’s fake when disaster strikes. Learn more about Grist’s Distorted series.
