Photo by History in HD on Unsplash In 2011, Donald Trump went on Fox News and made a claim that started an absolute wildfire in the conspiracy theory community. A theory that had been floating around the internet for years finally got the exposure it needed, and Birtherism erupted, engulfing half of the Republican partyContinue reading “Birtherism – How Desperation and Fear Created a New Ideology”
Category Archives: Misinformation
A Case Study in Misinformation: Chemtrails in the UK
Photo by Joachim Süß on Unsplash The fact that my spell checker doesn’t recognize “chemtrails” as a word should tell you something about their existence, but here we are… On September 7th, a Facebook user in the UK posted a video of him removing a reddish-colored layer of sand off his car with a magnet.Continue reading “A Case Study in Misinformation: Chemtrails in the UK”
How To Talk To Young Kids About Misinformation
Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash Misinformation is a particularly messy problem. And problems this messy often require a wide array of tools to solve. It’s hard enough protecting yourself from fake news, but it’s quite a different process teaching your kids to spot it. If you have young children, teaching them to avoid misinformationContinue reading “How To Talk To Young Kids About Misinformation”
A Tale of Two Papers
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash How do you know if a news site (or any site for that matter) is giving you good information or if they’re pulling your leg? Like most questions about misinformation, the answer is a bit tricky. Fortunately, the good folks at The Trust Project have devised an easy-to-use toolContinue reading “A Tale of Two Papers”
You Can Learn A Lot From A Platform’s Misinformation Policy
Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash With misinformation spreading faster than a virus in a ball pit, online communities are having to devote more and more time to finding that misinformation and figuring out what to do with it. Some sites, like Facebook, have become breeding grounds for misinformation and no amount of mitigation measuresContinue reading “You Can Learn A Lot From A Platform’s Misinformation Policy”
Case Study: Kathleen Kennedy is Getting Fired!
Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm.com The internet has forever changed the way we communicate. The people we surround ourselves with, the ways we keep in touch with them, and even the ways we define community are all drastically different now than they were even ten years ago. In many ways, it helps us communicate, while also sometimesContinue reading “Case Study: Kathleen Kennedy is Getting Fired!”
I Won The Misinformation Game. Twice.
The “Newsroom” Misinformation is everywhere. Many of us are familiar with Russia’s efforts to affect the 2016 election on Facebook. Bots on Twitter are definitely a problem, even if we can’t agree on the scale of that problem. But if misinformation is everywhere, it only makes sense that anything that could inoculate us from thatContinue reading “I Won The Misinformation Game. Twice.”
Donald Trump Tried To Break the Media with “Fake News,” And Someone’s Got To Fix It
Photo by History in HD on Unsplash When considering a career in journalism, one must ponder such questions as “Can I make a real difference?,” “How will I survive on such meager pay?,” and “What am I even doing with my life?,” but perhaps my most vexing concern is “How will I get through toContinue reading “Donald Trump Tried To Break the Media with “Fake News,” And Someone’s Got To Fix It”
(Mis)Adventures in (Mis)Information
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash After 24 hours analyzing my media consumption, let me tell you: we all have some work to do. Ferreting out misinformation is tedious work. We all know it’s out there, lurking on the dark web, in extremist Facebook groups, and of course on a certain “news” channel whose nameContinue reading “(Mis)Adventures in (Mis)Information”