Tamar Wilner is a freelance journalist, researcher and master’s student in the journalism program at the University of Missouri. She specializes in writing about the evolving news media, online misinformation and fact-checking for outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter.org, and acting as an occasional consultant for media-focused organizations including the American Press Institute and the Columbia Journalism Review. Her academic research interests include science and health journalism, misinformation effects and audience notions of trust and authority. You can find her at http://www.tamarwilner.com or on twitter at @tamarwilner.

Wilner completed this white paper in fulfillment of a travel scholarship to attend the 2016 Dodging the Memory Hole Summit, a conference on the preservation of online news, held Oct. 13–14, 2016 at the University of California Los Angeles and arranged by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. The scholarship was funded by a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant (no. RE-33-16-0107-16) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.