Week 5:

Purpose of Journalism

"The purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information

they need to be free and self-governing."

Understanding Fake News

How would you define fake news?

● Definitions can vary; consider providing examples.

Key Aspects of Fake News

● Rhetorical Device: Used by former President Donald Trump.

● Mistakes in Reporting: Errors due to speed, but often corrected.
● Bias: News may be shaped by personal or institutional biases.
● Deliberately False Information (Disinformation):
○ Origins may include Macedonia, Russia, the U.S., and other locations.

Disinformation

Definition:

● "Deliberately false information" (Oxford Dictionary)

● "Intentionally and verifiably false information" (Alcott & Gentzkow, 2017, p.
213)
● Information "designed to manipulate people’s perceptions of real facts,
events, and statements" (CITS, 2019)

Key Features:
 ● Intentional deception
● Purpose is to mislead and manipulate

Misinformation

Definition:

● False Information
● Inaccurate Information
● "Information that is incomplete" (Cooke, 2017, p. 213)
● "Information that is uncertain, vague, or ambiguous" (Cooke, 2017, p. 213)
● Can be biased, subjective, or myopic

Key Features:

● Deception is not necessarily the focus

● Some truth may exist within the misinformation
● Can result from errors, misunderstanding, or partial reporting

Categories of Misinformation:

● Missing Information
● Wrong Information
● Bias
Week 7

Understanding Fake News

How would you define fake news?

● Definitions can vary; consider providing examples.

Key Aspects of Fake News

● Rhetorical Device: Used by former President Donald Trump.

● Mistakes in Reporting: Errors due to speed, but often corrected.
● Bias: News may be shaped by personal or institutional biases.
● Deliberately False Information (Disinformation):
○ Origins may include Macedonia, Russia, the U.S., and other locations.

Disinformation

Definition:

● "Deliberately false information" (Oxford Dictionary)

● "Intentionally and verifiably false information" (Alcott & Gentzkow, 2017, p. 213)
● Information "designed to manipulate people’s perceptions of real facts, events, and
statements" (CITS, 2019)

Key Features:

● Intentional deception
● Purpose is to mislead and manipulate

Misinformation

Definition:

● False Information
● Inaccurate Information
● "Information that is incomplete" (Cooke, 2017, p. 213)
● "Information that is uncertain, vague, or ambiguous" (Cooke, 2017, p. 213)
● Can be biased, subjective, or myopic

Key Features:
 ● Deception is not necessarily the focus
● Some truth may exist within the misinformation
● Can result from errors, misunderstanding, or partial reporting

Categories of Misinformation:

● Missing Information
● Wrong Information
● Bias

Week 7 (October 21) - Fake News, Disinformation, and Misinformation (Part 2)

Important Announcements

Continuation of Fake News Discussion

Principal, Information Agent, Object Agent (PIA Model):

● P = Principal
● IA = Information Agent
● OA = Object Agent
● Relationship illustrates how information moves between entities.

Previous Uses of "Fake News"

Satire:

● Humorous presentation of arguments, often political.

● Examples: The Daily Show, Weekend Update (SNL), This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Parody:

● Uses non-factual information to highlight absurdity.

● Examples: The Onion, The Borowitz Report, The Beaverton.

Sensationalism:

● Appeals to emotions with shocking or exciting material.

● Tabloid journalism, e.g., The Great Moon Hoax (1835), War of the Worlds (1938).
Fake News Motivations and Creators

● Creators are not journalists

● Motivations: Money and Political Influence

Post-Truth Era

● Audiences value emotional appeal over factual accuracy (Cooke, 2017, p. 212).
● Concept similar to "Truthiness".

Why People Click on Fake News

1. Decline in Traditional Audiences (Bakir & McStay, 2018)

○ Revenue loss for news outlets.
○ Loyalty to single news sources decreased.
○ Rise of free, unverified sources.
2. 24-Hour News Cycle (Bakir & McStay, 2018)
○ Speed over accuracy.
○ Social media emphasizes instant information.
3. Misinformation and Disinformation Spread (Bakir & McStay, 2018)
○ Multiple sources may repeat incorrect information.
○ People seek information that aligns with their beliefs (confirmation bias).
4. Emotionalized Content (Bakir & McStay, 2018)
○ Focus on emotionally charged content to attract clicks.
○ Online disinhibition and anonymity can lead to more extreme behavior.
5. Digital Advertising Revenue (Bakir & McStay, 2018)
○ Clickbait designed to generate ad revenue.

Role of Bots in Disinformation

Definition: Automated programs that mimic real users to manipulate public opinion (Woolley &
Howard, 2016).

Types of Bots:

● Dampener Bots: Suppress specific messages or voices, creating a "chilling effect."

○ Example: Amplifying a negative tweet to discourage users from engaging.
● Amplifier Bots: Boost attention for certain messages or accounts.
○ Example: Bot promoting political party messages during elections.
Role of Trolls in Disinformation

Definition: Real people working to upset, confuse, or manipulate others using confirmation
bias.

● Examples: Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) involvement.

The "Deepfake"

● Manipulated video/audio content that appears real but is fake.

Three Democratic Problems with Disinformation

1. Wrongly Informed Citizens (Bakir & McStay, 2017, p. 160)

○ Citizens need accurate information for democracy to function.
○ Disinformation can mislead and weaken democratic processes.
2. Echo Chambers
○ Repetition of the same information in a closed system.
○ Creates an environment where competing ideas are excluded.
3. Affective Content
○ Emotions take precedence over facts.
○ Sensationalism and calls to uncivil action can emerge.

Week 8: News Literacy: Public Approach (Part 1)

How we assess news misinformation, disinformation, and fake news?

Disinformation: deliberately false information

- Information that is intentionally and verifiably false

Misinformation: false information

- Inaccurate information, information that is not complete, information that is not certain,
vague, or ambiguous, biased, subjective

Who spreads disinformation?

- Bots: poliitial bots are automated software programs that are written to learn from and
mimic real people so as to manipulate public opinion across a diverse range of platforms
and device networks.
- Types: amplifiers and dampeners
- Trolls: real people that sometimes work to upset or confuse users
- Sometimes work to use confirmation bias (info aligns with you already believe)
and other tactics to create a political discord

Russia’s social media influence operation: disinformation making - things doing in a troll farm
1. Reconnaissance:
a. You need to get to know the target audience
b. First hurdle for effectively infiltrating and influencing an audience
c. Social media
d. Identifies key influencers and adversaries
e. Platforms help bad actors orchestrate enticing tailored influence packages
cognizant of each audience
2. Placement:
a. Posting forgeries or disinformation to social media
b. Creation and then placement (images and documents)
c. Drive kremlin narratives
d. Anonymous sites rife with conspiracy theories, such as 4Chan and Reddit, offer
unlimited options for placement of digital forgeries.
3. Propagation
a. The ablity to spread narratives and themes to audiences far and wide
b. Social media is designed for this
c. Russian theme -> narrative from their state sponsored outlets -> garner a
response from mainstream media outlets, then organic audience engagement
will naturally further Russian aims and mask kremlin influences
 d. Bots help trolls -> automated reptieion and considerable volume
e. Social bots can be tailored to replicate the appearance and speech of the target
audience making unwitting observers more likely to engage with and believe
falsehoods they spread.
f. What people see first and what they see the most is what they are most likely to
believ -> like a person posting something but its actually a bot
4. Saturation
a. From disinformation to discourse
b. Lead to word of mouth communication
c. Content shared and discussed by friends and families is more likely to be trusted
than information presented by outsiders or unknown media outlets
d. Social media offer russian influence a method for spreading overt and covert
content from all social media platforms directly into American discussions.

Fake news challenge

1. Governance by platforms
2. market /popular approaches
3. Law and policy (no time to do this)

Information Literacy
Definition: the set of skills and knowledge that not only allows us to find, evaluate and use
information we need, but perhaps more importantly, allows us to filter our the information we
don’t need.
- This is a basic skill set of the 21st century
- Necessary tools that help us successfully navigate the present and future landscape of
information.
- Identify information problem and be able to locate, use, synthesize and evaluate
information in relation to those problems.

1. Task definition
a. Define the problem
b. Identify the information needed
i. Different problems require different information
ii. Clarify the context
iii. Identify the information needed to address the questions raised in that
context.
c. Determine all possible sources
 d. Select best sources
i. Best sources determined by context
ii. Best sources determines by definition of expertise
iii. How do we all find sources?

Challenges to information literacy

1. Our own limitations: biases like confirmation bias
2. The limitations of our information sources
a. Like paywalls

You must unlearn to learn - yoda

Critical Thinking
- Discerning the who, what, when, where, and how of things - and then utlizing that
knowledge in a manner that enables you to determine what matters most.
- Information consumers need to be proactive and take charge of the information allowed
into their minds and decision-making schemas
- Readers and listeners should be constantly questioning the information being presented
to them, even if it is presented by a source they think they trust.

Civic Online Reasoning:

The ability to effectively search for, evaluate, and verify social land political information
sources.
- This is a type of information literacy
- Focused online
- Focused on political and civic information
Three components of civic online reasoning:
1. Who is behind the information
a. Investigate the authors as well as the organization
b. Investigate motives “commerical, ideological, or otherwise”
c. Determine if source is trustworthy
2. What is the evidence?
a. Assess evidence chosen for presentation
b. Consider sources of the evidence
c. Method of engaging and presenting the source
d. Determine if evidence supports assertions
 e. Should question e source of the evidence, arguing that they know nothing about
the credentials of hep person who this phoot epeially since it appears on a asite
where anyone can upload a photo.
3. What do other sources say?
a. Investigating multiple sources before being satisfied that a claim is true or that a
source is authoritative.