Recap of our Class

1. Wk 14
A BRIEF RECAP OF THE
PROBLEMS

2. Week 1: Trends in Info Environment
• Truth is fragmented
• Changes in media industry
• Power of private media platforms
• New tools for interference &
influence

4. Week 2: Language & Brain
• Us/Them-ing is automatic & hard-wired
• How to resist Us/Them-ing
• Contact
• Priming with counter-stereotype
• Understand implicit biases
• Practice perspective taking
• Individuate
• Flatten hierarchies

5. Week 2: Language & Brain
• Language is how we perceive and
create reality
• Weaponizing language:
• Deliberate use of language to create
sense of belonging
• Deliberate use of language to create
stark binaries between us & them
• Deliberate use of thought-
terminating cliché

7. Week 3: Perception
• Robber’s Cave experiment
• Illusion of asymmetric insight
• Our minds unite us into teams, divide us
against other teams, and blind us to the
truth
• Cognitive biases prevent us from being
rational

8. Week 5 & 6: Generative AI
• AI can discriminate against marginalized
groups, especially women and people
of color
• AI can reinforce harmful stereotypes
and misinformation
• AI can erode people’s privacy and
autonomy
• Need for more regulation of AI & more
critical & ethical literacy among users
and creators of AI

9. Week 7: Disinformation
• International and domestic users co-opt
social media platforms to spread
disinformation. Difficult to monitor because:
• evade take-downs (friend of friend, ?)
• amplified by influencer accounts (the
disinformation dozen)
• spread across platforms
• amplified by algorithms
• leverage pics & ephemeral content
• Factual correction is ineffective. Self-
affirmation is effective.

10. Week 8: Algorithms & Echo Chambers
• Algorithmic (curated) newsfeed versus
chronological feed
• Echo chambers lead to confirmation bias
• How to resist? Seek disconfirmation
• Like everything
• Follow across the political spectrum
• Look at follower/following ratio
• Use chronological feed
• Allow new voices

11. Week 9: Section 230 of the CDA
• Passed in 1996 (pre-social media)
• Platforms can’t be held legally liable for
content posted by users
• Does it need to be revised?
• Facebook whistleblower, Frances
Haugen: engagement based ranking is
the problem

12. Week 10: Media Literacy
• Media literacy can be weaponized by those
who want to spread misinformation and
distrust (i.e. conspiracy theorists, trolls, and
extremists use media literacy techniques
to sow doubt and division).
• Media literacy can backfire when it is
taught without context and nuance. Simply
asking students to question everything and
doubt authority can lead to cynicism.

13. Week 10: Media Literacy
• Media literacy can be ineffective when it is
disconnected from the social and
emotional aspects of information
consumption and production. It should also
address the psychological and cultural
factors that influence how people interpret
and share information, such as identity,
belonging, and validation

14. Week 11: Images & Memes
• Instagram: ongoing Meme War
• Problem: lack of context, image
manipulation, soundbites
• Feel authentic because made by users
• Have become weaponized for political
warfare

15. Week 12: Trust, Truth, Expertise
• Edelman trust barometer
• Disagreements are over who to trust, not
what to think
• Narrative warfare: warfare over the meaning
of the information. Information consists of
facts — raw data. Narratives do not tell the
facts. Narratives tell the meaning of the facts.