(a) You & Me!
Everyday online content consumers.
We can help people engage with each other and with online content through analytical thinking, with respect for and commitment to facts, evidence and freedom of expression. An active and discerning engagement with online content rather than a passive consumption is stressed. We encourage empathy to be displayed when people engage with other people’s content online. We also, through ContentQual®, provide rating and labeling of trending online content, which at a glance, reveals the information quality of the content. We also conduct training. ContentQual hopes to contribute to what Data & Society Research Institute describes as "the social sharing of trust, credibility, and evidence in the making of an informed citizenry."
(b) Educators
Teachers/schools/libraries and other institutions of learning.
We can work with educators to help students improve their online media literacy. We can teach modules to students onsite or online. We emphasize teaching students a misinformation prevention check list, but we go beyond that and train students to develop analytical/critical thinking skills, resilience against disinformation and the dangers of sharing misinformation. We also write academic (scholarly) papers . ContentQual as an online moderating and curating resource can help researchers distinguish between high-quality and low-quality information online.
(c) Tech Companies / News Media /Publishers
Global Online Communication platforms.
Our approach can help online social media platforms transition from an algorithmic engagement-based ranking of content to a ranking method that prioritizes information quality. This would present social media users with 'algorithmic choice' as the users can decide how content on their newsfeed is organized. Tech companies have the option to use our ContentQual Web extensions for their online platforms. Our analyses are non-partisan, driven by a focus on facts while respecting online freedom of expression. We use a Wittgensteinian approach to online information quality analysis. ContentQual, our consumer-facing/content-focused online platform/app/Web browser extension, helps to amplify high quality content circulating online and add friction to low quality/misinformation (slow down/reduce the sharing). Our curation of online articles provides a signal of trustworthiness: our rating, ranking and labeling of content also help to strengthen the credibility of authentic online news sites and publishers.
(d) Readers & Decision-makers, R&D
Anyone/organization interested in research about online content quality/misinformation
We research and produce independent reports (and if requested, commissioned reports) on the quality of content online/information disorder and social media studies. This is in addition to our monthly summary of trending online content. We write papers for peer-reviewed journals, contribute to seminars/conferences focused on social media studies/information disorder. We also write opinion pieces and short articles for newspapers.