Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description
Confronting Fake News and Misinformation
Course Code
KF_044
Branch of Science
Communication Theory; Media and communications
ECTS
3.00
Target Audience
Information and Communication Science
LQF
Level 6
Study Type And Form
Full-Time
Study Course Implementer
Course Supervisor
Lāsma Šķestere
Structure Unit Manager
Ieva Puzo
Structural Unit
Faculty of Social Sciences
Contacts
Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf@rsu.lv
About Study Course
Objective
Society in general and each individual depends on information to make their political and economic decisions, but can all information be trusted? Someone may feel that mass manipulation and disinformation are the part of ancient history, but they are becoming more prominent part of our daily lives because of increasing depdence on technology. This course addresses the renewed phenomemon of fake news, misinformation/disinformation and its related concepts; then focuses more explicitly on psychological factors that make people vulnerable to misperceptions and conspiracy theories. Students will develop sustantive expertise in how to measure, diagnose and repond to false believes in digitial environment. This course includes practical learning excercices and special simulation game to strenghten crital thinking skills.
Preliminary Knowledge
Basic knowledge of communication, public relations or journalism.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge
1.Students will learn to: - Understand the use of key concepts misinformation/disinformation, fakes news; - Understand the power of news media and information; - Identify key characteristics of real news: verification, accountability, indepencence and multiple perspectives; - Evaluate the reability and accuracy of sources in news stories and other information; - Deconstruct news stories; - Use news and other information to counter disinformation/misinformation.
Skills
1.- Multidisciplinary teambuilding and collaboration; - Solving complex problems; - The ability to communicate in order to generate path-breaking solutions to complex problems.
Competences
1.- Ability to screen and critically review media, especially digitial media content; - individually and in groups summarize, discuss and present topic-relevant problems; - apply theoretical knowledge into practice.
Assessment
Individual work
|
Title
|
% from total grade
|
Grade
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Individual work |
-
|
-
|
|
Independent work: use of knowledge obtained at lectures and seminars in detection misinformation and choosing the possible strategy to counter it. Studying literature. Creating an analytical article.
In order to evaluate the quality of the study course as a whole, the student must fill out the study course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal.
|
||
Examination
|
Title
|
% from total grade
|
Grade
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Examination |
-
|
-
|
|
The final mark depends on the invididual assignements, group assignements, practical tasks and performance in simulation game.
2 individual analytical papers: “Where do I get my news?” (20%); “The development of a myth” (40%); 1 group analysis: “Application of misinformation” (20%); performance in simulation game (20%) = 100% in total.
|
||
Study Course Theme Plan
FULL-TIME
Part 1
-
Lecture
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Introduction to the course. What is truth; fake news; fact cheking; cognitive bias; logical fallacies and truth sorting?
|
-
Lecture
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
The psychology of false beliefs. Bias in information exposure, processing and interpretation.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Media coverage and fact checking. Individual assignment: Where do I get my news from?
|
-
Lecture
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Conspiracy theories: causes and consequences.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Applications of misinformation. Group assignment. Case study analysis (group work 3-4 students). Students will be asked to write a case study decription and to prepare presentation about it.
|
-
Lecture
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Rumors, social media and online misinformation. Adressing the challenge of fake news, disinformation in digital era.
|
-
Lecture
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Responses to disinformation: goes and no-goes.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
The practical seminar in misinformation detection (visual evidence verification, geolocation, advanced search techniques).
|
-
Lecture
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Simulation game I part.
|
-
Class/Seminar
|
Modality
|
Location
|
Contact hours
|
|---|---|---|
|
On site
|
Auditorium
|
2
|
Topics
|
Simulation game II part.
|
Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
3.00
Contact hours:
20 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam (Written)
Bibliography
Required Reading
1.
Vraga, Emily K., Bode, Leticia (2020). “Defining Misinformation and Understanding its Bounded Nature: Using Expertise and Evidence for Describing Misinformation.” Political Communication 37(1): 136–144.
2.
Li, Jianing, Wagner Michael (2020). “The Value of Not Knowing: Partisan Cue-Taking and Belief Updating of the Uninformed, the Ambiguous, and the Misinformed.” Journal of Communication 70(5): 646–669.
3.
Gillian Murphy, Elizabeth F. Loftus, Rebecca Hofstein Grady, Linda J. Levine, and Ciara M. Greene (2019). “False Memories for Fake News During Ireland’s Abortion Referendum.” Psychological Science
4.
Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule (2009). “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures.” Journal of Political Philosophy 17(2): 202–227.
5.
J. Eric Oliver and Thomas J. Wood (2014). “Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style(s) of Mass Opinion.” American Journal of Political Science 58(4): 952–966.
6.
Oscar Barrera, Sergei Guriev, Emeric Henry, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (2020). “Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics.” Journal of Public Economics 182: 104123.
7.
Marwick, Alice, and Rebecca Lewis. (2017). ”Media manipulation and disinformation online." Pages 1-56
8.
C. Thi Nguyen. (2018). “Escape the echo chamber.” Aeon, newsletter, April.
9.
Tim Boucher (2018). “Adversarial Social Media Tactics Exposing Red Team Tricks To Empower Blue Team Defenders.” Medium.
Additional Reading
1.
Deibert, Ronald J. (2019). “Three Painful Truths About Social Media.” Journal of Democracy 30, no. 1: 25–39.
2.
Read, Max (2020). “5 Theories About Conspiracy Theories.” New York Magazine, February 6.
3.
Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook, Ullrich Ecker, and Sander van der Linden (2020). “How to Spot COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories.” George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.
Other Information Sources
1.
A Neuroscientist Explains What Conspiracy Theories Do To Your Brain (Inverse, 2019).