Organization holds forum in Lexington aiming at stopping spread of misinformation

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - One organization is working to clear up confusion some may see on social media sites, especially around election cycles.

“Election time is really when people start getting tuned in. Seeing all kinds of misinformation. And it comes from all over the place. You’re seeing things on social media. You’re seeing ads on maybe your search engine and you don’t even recognize that they’re ads,” said Jillian Youngblood, the executive director of Civic Genius.

Youngblood says now is a perfect time to host this seminar, which invited people out to have conversations and learn. The goal is to talk with people you don’t know, from different backgrounds, in different careers and with different political ideologies.

“We say you don’t just want to turn out and vote. You want to exercise your civic muscle every day. So we have all kinds of opportunities for folks to get involved, whether it’s just learning how to reach out to your elected officials. Whether it’s getting pointers on how to write an op-ed,” Youngblood said.

And it’s a chance to learn how to communicate with people who have different opinions from yours, especially on social media.

“It’s interesting to see what people think and what people feel, maybe most importantly what people fell. And in terms of political curiosity, that’s why I’m here,” attendee Dima Strakovsky said.

As a participant, Strakovsky said it’s important to keep productive conversations going.

There are two more sessions on Thursday, and you can find out more information here.

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