Critical Disinformation Studies Syllabus
Hi all, Today I’m excited to announce the Critical Disinformation Studies syllabus, a collective effort to make disinformation research more contextual, historical, and power-oriented. The syllabus is hosted at https://citap.unc.edu/research/critical-disinfo/ The goal of the syllabus is to push back on narratives of disinformation that begin with the 2016 US presidential election and focus on the role of social media platforms in spreading and generating false content. At their worst, these narratives imply that in the past, everyone shared the same sense of what was true and what was false; that this collective understanding was reinforced by legacy media like newspapers and TV news; and that “fake news,” disinformation, and inauthentic online behavior are responsible for a global far-right shift to populism exemplified by Brexit and the Trump presidency. None of these assumptions hold up to scrutiny. At CITAP, we take a critical approach to research on platforms, politics, and information which incorporates history, inequality, power, and culture. To demonstrate how these principles play out in practice, we created a Critical Disinformation Studies syllabus as a provocation to disinformation researchers to rethink many of the assumptions of our nascent field. While the syllabus is fully-functional as is—it could be implemented in its current form for a graduate level seminar—it is also an essay in syllabus form. We draw from a very broad range of scholarship, much which falls outside of conventional studies of “disinformation,” to expand our understanding of what “counts” as disinformation. The syllabus also draws from historical case studies - Japanese incarceration, the Welfare Queen, the Central Park 5, Black liberation, AIDS/HIV - to examine how the state, the media, and the political establishment regularly use disinformation to reinforce inequality. My co-authors on this project are Rachel Kuo, Shanice Cameron, and Moira Weigel. The syllabus is supported by CITAP. And our thanks go out to the many scholars whose work inspired us to bring this project to life. Warmly Alice Alice E. Marwick, PhD (she/her) Associate Professor, Department of Communication Principal Researcher, Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill amarwick@gmail.com http://www.tiara.org http://citap.unc.edu
My student found this yesterday and shared. It is AMAZING. Thank you so much for doing this -- it really helps the field! Sarah Oates Pronoun: she/her Professor and Senior Scholar Philip Merrill College of Journalism iSchool Affiliate Professor University of Maryland College Park, MD 20457 Email: soates@umd.edu Phone: 301 455 2332 www.media-politics.com Twitter: @media_politics *Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding> today. * On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 9:31 AM Alice E. Marwick <amarwick@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Today I’m excited to announce the Critical Disinformation Studies syllabus, a collective effort to make disinformation research more contextual, historical, and power-oriented.
The syllabus is hosted at https://citap.unc.edu/research/critical-disinfo/
The goal of the syllabus is to push back on narratives of disinformation that begin with the 2016 US presidential election and focus on the role of social media platforms in spreading and generating false content. At their worst, these narratives imply that in the past, everyone shared the same sense of what was true and what was false; that this collective understanding was reinforced by legacy media like newspapers and TV news; and that “fake news,” disinformation, and inauthentic online behavior are responsible for a global far-right shift to populism exemplified by Brexit and the Trump presidency. None of these assumptions hold up to scrutiny.
At CITAP, we take a critical approach to research on platforms, politics, and information which incorporates history, inequality, power, and culture. To demonstrate how these principles play out in practice, we created a Critical Disinformation Studies syllabus as a provocation to disinformation researchers to rethink many of the assumptions of our nascent field. While the syllabus is fully-functional as is—it could be implemented in its current form for a graduate level seminar—it is also an essay in syllabus form. We draw from a very broad range of scholarship, much which falls outside of conventional studies of “disinformation,” to expand our understanding of what “counts” as disinformation. The syllabus also draws from historical case studies - Japanese incarceration, the Welfare Queen, the Central Park 5, Black liberation, AIDS/HIV - to examine how the state, the media, and the political establishment regularly use disinformation to reinforce inequality.
My co-authors on this project are Rachel Kuo, Shanice Cameron, and Moira Weigel. The syllabus is supported by CITAP. And our thanks go out to the many scholars whose work inspired us to bring this project to life.
Warmly
Alice
Alice E. Marwick, PhD (she/her) Associate Professor, Department of Communication Principal Researcher, Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill amarwick@gmail.com http://www.tiara.org http://citap.unc.edu _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Yes, I agree... sent private comments to Alice myself. I have been getting increasingly frustrated with the spinning off of disinfo studies as something completely new and separate from wider studies of related forms of propaganda, as well as the history of its study and structural studies of media and communication. While there are certainly new and emergent developments they need understanding in context and it's an important effort to anchor these studies back in the field. Bravo I say... On Sun, Mar 28, 2021 at 1:00 PM Sarah Ann Oates <soates@umd.edu> wrote:
My student found this yesterday and shared. It is AMAZING. Thank you so much for doing this -- it really helps the field!
Sarah Oates Pronoun: she/her
Professor and Senior Scholar Philip Merrill College of Journalism iSchool Affiliate Professor University of Maryland College Park, MD 20457 Email: soates@umd.edu Phone: 301 455 2332 www.media-politics.com Twitter: @media_politics
*Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding> today. *
On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 9:31 AM Alice E. Marwick <amarwick@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Today I’m excited to announce the Critical Disinformation Studies syllabus, a collective effort to make disinformation research more contextual, historical, and power-oriented.
The syllabus is hosted at https://citap.unc.edu/research/critical-disinfo/
The goal of the syllabus is to push back on narratives of disinformation that begin with the 2016 US presidential election and focus on the role of social media platforms in spreading and generating false content. At their worst, these narratives imply that in the past, everyone shared the same sense of what was true and what was false; that this collective understanding was reinforced by legacy media like newspapers and TV news; and that “fake news,” disinformation, and inauthentic online behavior are responsible for a global far-right shift to populism exemplified by Brexit and the Trump presidency. None of these assumptions hold up to scrutiny.
At CITAP, we take a critical approach to research on platforms, politics, and information which incorporates history, inequality, power, and culture. To demonstrate how these principles play out in practice, we created a Critical Disinformation Studies syllabus as a provocation to disinformation researchers to rethink many of the assumptions of our nascent field. While the syllabus is fully-functional as is—it could be implemented in its current form for a graduate level seminar—it is also an essay in syllabus form. We draw from a very broad range of scholarship, much which falls outside of conventional studies of “disinformation,” to expand our understanding of what “counts” as disinformation. The syllabus also draws from historical case studies - Japanese incarceration, the Welfare Queen, the Central Park 5, Black liberation, AIDS/HIV - to examine how the state, the media, and the political establishment regularly use disinformation to reinforce inequality.
My co-authors on this project are Rachel Kuo, Shanice Cameron, and Moira Weigel. The syllabus is supported by CITAP. And our thanks go out to the many scholars whose work inspired us to bring this project to life.
Warmly
Alice
Alice E. Marwick, PhD (she/her) Associate Professor, Department of Communication Principal Researcher, Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill amarwick@gmail.com http://www.tiara.org http://citap.unc.edu _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Dr Emma L Briant Independent Researcher/Author/Analyst Associate Researcher at Human Rights Program Bard College, Annandale on Hudson New York Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change *from Manchester University Press Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr. Pauline Donald from Pluto Press. Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant
participants (3)
-
Alice E. Marwick -
Dr. Emma Briant -
Sarah Ann Oates