4th April 2022 1pm VIA ZOOM
The Public Relations Institute’s Central Committee and the PRINZ office are proud to present Communicating in the age of misinformation – MC’d by Central PRINZ Committee Chair, Morwenna Grills.
Overview
Combatting the spread of misinformation is one of the biggest challenges facing us as professional communicators today.
The recent protest at Parliament that ended in violence showed the real and dangerous impact of misinformation.
As professional communicators we are compelled to respond to misinformation. Join our panel of experts to discuss key questions on this topic – what is misinformation? How do you get the facts in front of people who don’t want to engage with you? How can we support journalists and the media to keep being a source of truth?
To discuss the challenges of dealing with misinformation join Chief Censor David Shanks, Charlie Sklenar from the Unite Against Covid communications team and Stuff journalist Katie Kenny in this lunchtime session.,
Your panellists are…
David Shanks is New Zealand’s Chief Censor and leads Te Mana Whakaatu – Classification Office, an Independent Crown Entity. He’s responsible for protecting New Zealanders from harm, especially harm to tamariki and rangatahi that can come from sex, crime, cruelty, horror and violence in media. This balances with upholding New Zealander’s right to freedom of expression and recognising the diverse views of all Kiwis.
Last year the Classification Office published a survey that found that almost every New Zealander is affected by misinformation. Read it here.
Katie Kenny is Chief Reporter for The Whole Truth: Te Māramatanga and its predecessor, The Whole Truth: Covid-19 Vaccination. The campaigns aim to provide New Zealanders with clear and accurate information — through videos, graphics, and words — about the pandemic and public health generally.
Charlie Sklenar spent her early career in UK Defence. During that time she became the operations manager working on developing new capability in strategic communications. Charlie moved to Aotearoa in 2019 before joining the Unite Against Covid communications and engagement team right at the start of the pandemic. She played a key role in the establishment of the Managed Isolation and Quarantine system. As part of the COVID-19 Group in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Charlie has been focussed on ensuring New Zealanders have access to credible information about COVID-19.