In a world of mass information, and misinformation, truth seems both easier and harder to find than ever before. As trust in traditional media erodes and social media blurs the line between fact and fiction, with authoritarian regimes weaponising disinformation and post-truth world leaders taking centre stage, how do we defend and promote knowledge, evidence and informed debate? Our panel will explore the relationship between truth, the media, politics and society in the digital age.
Meet our speakers and chair
J. McKenzie Alexander is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE. His research interests include evolutionary game theory, the philosophy of social science, and the philosophy of society. His first book, The Structural Evolution of Morality, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2007. His second book, Evolutionary Game Theory, published by Cambridge University Press as part of its series Elements in Decision Theory and Philosophy, appeared in 2023. His most recent book The Open Society as an Enemy: A critique of how free societies turned against themselves was published by LSE Press in 2024 and is available Open Access. His article on evolutionary game theory in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has been viewed over 100,000 times and competes for first place in the Google search returns with the Wikipedia article on the same subject.
Charlie Beckett (@charliebeckett.bsky.social) is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, and the founding director of Polis, LSE's think-tank for research and debate around international journalism and society. Polis runs events for journalists and the public as well as a programme of fellowships and research. Charlie leads the Polis JournalismAI project and was Lead Commissioner for the LSE Truth, Trust & Technology Commission (T3). Charlie is the author of SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save The World (Blackwell, 2008) and WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era (Polity, 2012). He also published research on journalism and emotions, journalism and Artificial Intelligence, and reporting on terrorism. Prior to joining LSE, Charlie was a programme editor at ITN's Channel 4 News. Before that he was a senior producer and programme editor at BBC News and Current affairs for ten years.
Other speakers to be confirmed.
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025, with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future, and what a better world could look like. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.
The Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method was founded by Karl Popper in 1946 and is renowned for a type of philosophy that is both continuous with the sciences and socially relevant.
Hashtag for this event: #LSEFestival
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