1. Overview

2. Evolution

3. Initiatives and projects
     The Persona Project    A Multi-dimensional Approach to Disinformation    The Digital Polarization Initiative    Exploring Mis/disinformation on Pinterest    Newspaper on Wikipedia (NOW) Project  

4. Activists

5. Organizations

6. See Also

7. References

8. Further readings

Information environmentalism (also known as info-environmentalism..^[1], digital environmentalism^[2])  is an initiative that advocates for the reduction of information overload, the elimination of misinformation, disinformation and information pollution, and the provision of credible information in a bid to improve the information ecosystem, especially in the digital world.

Overview

Making a connection between the digital space with the environmental and ecological ideas in natural science, the term "information environmentalism" is used as a metaphor to demonstrate the significance of information to people's lives and the vulnerability of the digital space to information pollution.

The initiators and activists of information environmentalism, or "information environmentalists", believe that information overload or information pollution is causing harm to people in a rapidly growing digital ecosystem^[1]. Therefore, actions to lift online information quality and improve online information ecology become a necessity^[3].

Information environmentalism has been highlighted in some universities and colleges in recent years since some scholars believe that higher education should play a leading role in this initiative. Relevant curricula have been developed^[4] to encourage students to "[https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/chapter/what-reading-laterally-means/ read laterally]" and "save the web" by cleaning up the misinformation and posting reliable and verifiable information on the web^[3].

Evolution

According to existing resources, the term "information environmentalism" made its first appearance in 1991 on Computerworld, a decades-old magazine with IT and business technology professionals as its target audience, to depict politician's reticence on public affairs in a humorous and ironic manner^[5]. At that time, the expression was used as a way to address the phenomenon of information overload.

There was an increased use of this term in the first ten years of the 21 century. It was not only about reducing information overload but also about providing the "context in which [the information] is delivered." As Paton (2004) argued, information overload does not only let people get too much information but also draw to misunderstanding in a way that is out of context^[6].

In 2017, Michael Caulfield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning, Washington State University, wrote a series of articles to shed a new light on the concept of info-environmentalism, calling for actions to repair the "broken information environment^[7]". Synchronously, several similar initiatives and projects emerged to address the issue of information pollution, given people increasingly realize the complex influence of information explosion.

Initiatives and projects

The Persona Project

A project (1996-1997) launched by Michael Caulfield to integrate English Composition classes with the creation and maintenance of an online encyclopedia produced by students.

A Multi-dimensional Approach to Disinformation

In January 2018, a high-level group of experts was gathered by the European Commission ("EC") to provide advice on how to counter fake news and disinformation that is widespread on the web^[8]. The experts, after reviewing the best practices, delivered a final report titled [https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/final-report-high-level-expert-group-fake-news-and-online-disinformation A Multi-dimensional Approach to Disinformation].

The Digital Polarization Initiative

The Digital Polarization Initiative, or "DigiPo," is a national effort launched by the American Democracy Project (or "ADP") to engage students in a wide range of cross-institutional projects to fact-check, provide annotations and contexts to news stories in Twitter and Facebook feeds so as to develop the students' civic, information and web literacy. Eleven universities and colleges are piloting the initiative, including Black Hills State University, CUNY College of Staten Island, Georgia College, Indiana University Kokomo, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, San Jose State University, Texas A&M International University, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, University of North Carolina Charlotte, and Washington State University Vancouver^[9].

Exploring Mis/disinformation on Pinterest

The initiative was launched by Amy Collier in March 2018 as part of Middlebury College's information environmentalism project, based on the research by Michael Caulfield in November 2017 that pictures from Pinterest have dis/misinformation problems. The purpose of the initiative is to depollute the environment and seed better information on Pinterest^[10]

Newspaper on Wikipedia (NOW) Project

It is an initiative launched by Michael Caulfield in May 2018, which aims to write 1,000 articles on historical local news sources on Wikipedia by the end of 2018. People around the world -- including a team from Middlebury College -- have joined in to help fill this data gap and curb the spread of mis/disinformation on the web, thus helping make the web a better place for credible and reliable news sources^[11]

Activists

• Michael Caulfield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning at Washington State University Vancouver; Head of the Digital Polarization Initiative at the American Democracy Project.
• Amy Collier, Associate Provost of Digital Learning, Middlebury College.

Organizations

1. [https://wikiedu.org/about-us/ Wiki Education]
2. [https://www.aascu.org/ American Association of State Colleges and Universities] (AASCU)
3. Middlebury College
4. [https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/ Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey]

See Also

• Fact checking
• Misinformation
• Information
• Information age
• Information ecology
• Information explosion
• Information literacy
• Information overload
• Information pollution
• Internet|div col end=}}

References

Further readings

1. Caulfield, Michael (December, 2017). "Refactoring Media Literacy for the Networked Age."
2. Caulfiled, Michael (January 8, 2017). [https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/ "What 'Reading Laterally' Means."]
3. Colliar, Amy (March 14, 2018). [https://dlinq.middcreate.net/digital-literacy/information-environmentalism-research-fake-accounts-and-mis-disinformation-on-pinterest/ "Information environmentalism research: Fake accounts and mis/disinformation on Pinterest."]
4. Stanford History Education Group (November 21, 2016). [https://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934 "Evaluating information: The cornerstone of civic online reasoning."]
5. Wineburg, Sam; McGrew, Sarah (November 1, 2016). [https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/11/02/why-students-cant-google-their-way-to.html?r=1308941768 "Why students can't Google their way to the truth: Fact-checkers and students approach websites differently,"] Education Week.
6. McGrew, Sara; Ortega, Teresa; Breakstone, Joel; Wineburg, Sam (Fall 2017). [https://www.aft.org/ae/fall2017/mcgrew_ortega_breakstone_wineburg "The challenge that's bigger than fake news: Civic reasoning in a social media environment,"] American Educator.
7. [https://adpaascu.wordpress.com/category/digital-polarization-initiative/ "AASCU's American Democracy Project: Preparing informed, engaged citizens for our democracy."]

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• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Men's 1500 metres
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• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Men's mass start
• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Men's team pursuit
• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Women's 1500 metres
• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Women's 3000 metres
• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Women's 5000 metres
• Speed skating at the 2011 Asian Winter Games – Women's 500 metres
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