The fourth edition of the Preston Social meetup has been announced for this coming Tuesday, and you can reserve your free place here.

The meetup will take on the theme of activists using social media, as well as a short brainstorming session to discuss the future of the Preston Social. Attendees will be tasked with suggesting what they want to see from the event in the future and give feedback on it so far.

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Activists have leapt on social media as a way to organise themselves – recent examples being uprisings in Libya and Egypt.

The nature of social media is that it spreads news quickly, but it can also be an echo chamber for rumour.

Recent tweets that claimed the death of people like Margaret Thatcher or Jeff Goldblum are examples of false rumours spreading like wildfire through social media.

So we need to look at how to filter and extract value from what can sometimes be a confusing mess of information.

Joseph Stashko is a journalist who has covered several protests in different ways using social media, all of which have presented their own challenges.

He’ll be talking about how to use Twitter and other social media as a personalised news service, why it’s important to question sources on social media, and how he sees activists using these tools to organise and promote their causes.

The evening kicks off at 6:30, and as usual there’ll be an emphasis on discussion and participation. Want to suggest a topic for a future meetup? Either get in touch with us on Twitter or raise it on the evening.

You can also sign up using the form below