The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently quoted Dr. Judith Miller, Associate Professor of history, in an article on misinformation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The piece, “COVID vaccine efforts in immigrant communities include debunking rumors,” focuses on the prevalence and consequence of the spread of COVID-related fake news among immigrant communities in Atlanta and beyond. In 2019 Miller taught a first-year seminar on fake news, which was profiled by the Emory News Center in the article, “‘Fake News’ class helps students learn to research and identify false information.” Read an excerpt of the recent AJC piece below along with the full article.

“Judith Miller, a professor of history at Emory University, says getting ahead of the misinformation, or ‘pre-bunking’ information, is the key because once lies begin to spread online, it’s often too late to change the minds of those who’ve been convinced.

“‘Even if someone is clinging to fake news and has a friend or family member who is trying to persuade them that something they believe is false,’ Miller said, ‘often that just makes that boundary harder and the person who lives the fake news retreats even farther.'”