Prof Dr Marten Risius was welcomed and introduced by HNU President Prof Dr Uta M. Feser and HNU Vice President Prof Dr Jens Kolb. In his lecture, MR addressed current issues that he often encounters in his role as an expert. He covered topics such as the emergence and spread of fake news, categorised related terms such as disinformation and misinformation and illustrated his statements with many current examples. He explained, for example, that for social media, it is not the quality and truthfulness of a post that is important, but the engagement with likes and comments. The more polarising the topic, the more successful the post, the faster the fake news spreads. He also gave food for thought on how fake news and disinformation can be recognised and how they can be better prevented: Social media users, who often consume content passively, should read posts critically and carefully. In addition, people need to be made aware of the fact that fake news and distorted information is circulating on social media and their media skills need to be honed. Caution should also be exercised when generating text with the help of AI: When compiling information, it may also use news sites on which false information has been published.
About the speaker
Prof. Dr Marten Risius has been enriching research and teaching in the field of "Digital Society and Online Engagement" at HNU since November 2024 as part of the top professorship programme of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts (StMWK). He studied psychology at the University of Osnabrück and completed his doctorate in business informatics at the House of Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Mannheim, he managed the research network "ForDigital" between the University of Mannheim and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). His career then took him abroad: an assistant professorship at Clemson University in South California, USA, was followed by a position as Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia, where he received the Discovery of Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) as one of the Australian Research Council's (ARC) outstanding young researchers.
About the HNU Management Forum
The HNU regularly invites leading personalities from business and science to the university to report on current, practical topics from the various areas of corporate management and to share their valuable wealth of experience at the HNU Management Forum.
