Claire Wardle
Associate Professor, Department of Communication
Claire Wardle is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. Her research focuses on user-generated content, verification and misinformation. She has spent the past two decades working across sectors, including as an academic at different universities in the U.K. and the U.S., working with different international news organizations as well as the United Nations, and advising different policy-makers. She also co-founded the non-profit First Draft and the Information Futures Lab at Brown University. She holds an M.A. in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania.
Her research focuses on the contemporary information ecosystem, and the vulnerabilities and opportunities offered through participatory community spaces, both on and offline. Her current work is attempting to understand how more effective responses to community information needs by and with communities might create resilience against misinformation.
Everyday people struggle to find information they can use to make decisions that will hopefully keep themselves and their families safe and healthy. Her work centers the voices in communities who can help others find relevant information they can trust. This research can only happen by partnering with communities to co-design and co-create research questions and interventions that make sense to different communities in Ithaca, across New York state and the wider world.
All of her classes are focused on contemporary information ecosystems, so teaching materials are often being updated the morning of any session! Whether it’s the latest update to an AI product, the implementation of a new tech policy or the latest TikTok trend, her classes take theories and apply them to the latest practices. Her assignments are designed so that students can practice creating material – whether that’s a Social Media Toolkit for communicators, a Strategy Memo advising an organization about improving their practices, or a simulation designed to teach others about the tactics of disinformation actors – that they might use with communities or organizations.
Education
BA, Hull University, UK
MA, University of Pennsylvania
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Awards & Honors
2022, Wayne A. Danielson Award for contributions to the field of communication
Contact Information
Journal Publications
Ishizumi, A., Kolis, J., Abad, N., Prybylski, D., Brookmeyer, K.A., Voegeli, C., Wardle, C., Howard Chiou, (2024). Beyond misinformation: developing a public health prevention framework for managing information ecosystems. The Lancet Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(24)00031-8
Jin, S.L., Kolis, J., Parker, J., Proctor, D.A., Prybylski, D., Wardle, C., Abad, N., Brookmeyer, K.A. Voegeli, C., Chiou, H. (2024). Social histories of public health misinformation and infodemics: case studies of four pandemics. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00105-1
Smith, R., Chen, K., Winner, D., Friedhoff, S., Wardle, C. (2023). A Systematic Review of Covid-19 Misinformation Interventions: Lessons Learned. Health Affairs. 42 (12). https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00717
Ranney, M.L., Conrey, F. R., Perkinson, L., Friedhoff, S., Smith, R., Wardle, C. (2022). How Americans encounter guns: Mixed methods content analysis of YouTube and internet search data. Preventive Medicine. 165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107258
Saltz, E., Barari, S., Leibowicz, C., Wardle, C. (2021). Misinformation interventions are common, divisive, and poorly understood. Harvard Misinformation Review. 2(5). https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-81
Wardle, C., Williams, A. (2010). Beyond user-generated content: a production study examining the ways in which UGC is used at the BBC. Media, Culture and Society. 32(5): 1–20
Williams, A, Wardle, C, Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2010). “Have They Got News for Us?” Audience revolution or business as usual at the BBC?” Journalism Practice, 5(1): 85-99.
Wardle, C. (May 2023). Misunderstanding Misinformation. Issues in Science and Technology.
Wardle, C. (Sept. 2023). Tackling Misinformation: A Three-Pronged Approach, NIH: Science, Health and Public Trust.
Wardle, C. (January 2023). Getting Ahead of Misinformation, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.
Wardle, C. et al. (June 2022) 10 Recommendations by the Taskforce on Disinformation and the War in Ukraine. European Digital Media Observatory.
Wardle, C. (August 2022). Moving the Needle on Health Disinformation. Think Global Health.
Smith, R., Cubbon, S., Wardle, C. (2021). Under the surface: Covid-19 vaccine narratives, misinformation and data deficits on social media. First Draft News.
Wardle, C. (2021). The Challenge of Debunking Narratives: How TV News Failed on Trump’s Claims of Electoral Fraud. MediaWell: Social Science Research Council.
Wardle, C., Singerman, E. (2021). “Too Little, Too Late: Social Media Companies Failure to Tackle Vaccine Misinformation Poses a Real Threat” British Medical Journal. 372: 26.
Wardle, C. (2021) The information ecosystem that led to the Capitol attack. Boston Globe.
Phillips W., Wardle, C. (2021). Disinformation goes to Hollywood: four lessons from journalism, First Draft News.
Wardle, C. (2020). How to get through this election. Scientific American. 2020
Wardle, C. (Nov 2020). The drip, drip, drip of misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine. Boston Globe.
Donovan, J., Wardle, C. (2020). Misinformation is everyone’s problem now. Social Science Research Council.
Wardle, C. (2019). Misinformation Has Created a New World Disorder. Scientific American.
Wardle, C., Derakshan, H. (2017). Information Disorder: An interdisciplinary framework for researchers and policymakers. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Wardle, C., Dubberley, S., Brown, P. (2014). Amateur Footage: A Global Study of User Generated Content. New York: Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Columbia University.
Wardle, C., Williams, A. (2008). ugc@thebbc: A production and audience analysis of user generated content at a news organisation. Cardiff, UK: Cardiff University.
Wardle, C. (2019) How you can help transform the internet into a place of trust. TED. 2019
Wardle, C. (2019) This video might not be real. New York Times.
Claire in the news
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- Department of Communication
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