Legislation Session Preview; Fake News; Children Coping With Disasters

Today on the 21st: Representatives convened in Springfield yesterday to take their oaths of office. And on Monday, Governor Pritzker will take a similar oath. But what will they do as your elected officials? And what are different stakeholders in the process thinking? We speak with Illinois Public Radio statehouse reporter Brian Mackey and WTTW Politics reporter Amanda Vinicky. Plus, a new study finds that fake news is shared most by older Americans. We speak with someone very interested in this topic, journalism professor Nikki Usher. Also, an Illinois researcher shares how her work with natural disasters, like Hurricane Maria, is now being used to help children overcome other trauma.

Yesterday, the state’s newly elected representatives convened in Springfield to take their oaths of office. The Democrats have historic control, so what do they want to get done and how can they accomplish that? Helping us look forward at this year to come are Illinois Public Radio statehouse reporters Brian Mackey and WTTW Politics reporter Amanda Vinicky.

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We’ve heard a lot about fake news. It is now to the extent that researchers are actually studying it. The good news about fake news is that, when it comes to platforms like Facebook, which is where you might assume a lot of fake news gets circulated, the proportion of people who shared fake links is pretty low. The bad news is that the majority of people who were doing that sharing was older Americans, especially those over age 65. We talk more about the research that was published yesterday in the Journal 'Science Advances' with someone who is also very interested in this topic of fake news, U of I journalism professor Nikki Usher.

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How do young children living in chronic poverty deal with traumatic experiences in their lives? That was the focus of University of Illinois’ social work professor Powell in her latest research. In 2017, she developed an emotional coping program to help natural disaster survivors overcome their trauma. Her program was used to help survivors of Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, and had positive results. Recently, Powell’s program was taken up by Save The Children as an intervention strategy for children affected by poverty and trauma early in their life. Teachers involved with the program say it has brought about positive change. We talk more about how it all started and how it can help children.