Data in public communications, history, impact, and key lessons for scientists and policy-makers

The use of data on the media and in public communications has seen a massive increase in the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a tipping point: for the first time in history, data and their graphical visualisation have been used and, occasionally, abused daily by world leaders and journalists. With the increasing role played by social media, data has become matter of debate, it has sometimes been weaponised, it has occasionally shed light and settled argument on mysterious phenomena, it has helped ask new question, and it has been misused to manipulate facts. Historically, this is not new, but the magnitude of data use has increased. This lecture will present a few case studies of the use and misuse of data in public communications and science, and try and draw some key lessons on how to make sure that data is used properly.

Giuseppe Sollazzo

Head of Artificial Intelligence Skunkworks and Deployment, NHSX, UK National Health Service.

Before joining the Civil Service, and after swiftly dropping out of a PhD in Computer Science at Imperial College London, he worked as a computational research and data expert in the clinical sector, as a data strategist, and a digital projects consultant for public and third-sector organisations. His experiences include being a EU Horizon 2020 monitor, a UKRI evaluator, and supervising computational neuroscience researchers. He has also advised the UK Government on its Open Data agenda. Giuseppe has written and spoken publicly about the use of data for public good, and received the “Individual Champion of Open Data” award by the Open Data Institute in 2016.