Lecture notes and seminars of resistance and persuasion in the right order. This document also contains a summary of the corresponding articles, which cover the materials necessary for the final exam.
Lecture 1
Alternative facts:
Ex. Trump said that he had more visitors on the
inauguration. But Obama had more. Visualization
presenting truth. He said that it was framed by
people who hate Trump (you can decide when to
take the picture).
- Facts.
- Believes: What you believe to be a fact.
Difference objective truth (universally accepted,
we all agree that this is a flower. Truth verified by
abundant evidence) versus subjective truth (not
accepted. I.e. beliefs backup by some evidence,
hypothesis, or theories, often competing with other beliefs Alternative facts.
They need further justification. Confirming it with more research about it, then it
can change in objective).
Examples:
The world is not flat
Climate change is due to human interference Fact but still debated.
2 + 2 = 4 Fact.
Everyone dies at some point Fact.
More than two hours of gaming is bad for your health More nuanced.
Needs further substantiation.
Truthfulness and facts are related.
Factual truth versus emotional truth (truthful because it feels true. Gut
feeling about the trustfulness. And the farmers in Dutch).
Allows Trump to share natural instincts and belief about climate change.
Example: The Dutch Nitrogen Issue (RIVM Calculates and measures nitrogen
levels. It can not be too high. The bulk of it is found at the farmer part. They felt
threatened. They rejected the facts and made unfair accusations. Still, a problem
needs to be solved.
Example: Vaccination. Many studies that found that there is no link between
autism and vaccinations. There was only one who said that it could be, and this
was believed.
Post-truth/post-fact era: era in which we don’t think facts are important anymore.
Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential
in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotions and personal belief.
If you can’t agree with each other what is true, then anyone and everyone can do
whatever they want with the truth. So, try to find the facts.
Downside is that you become skeptical.
Misleading information: Disinformation vs. Misinformation
The intent of the sender is the difference.
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,Disinformation = Resulting from deliberate intention to deceive. Makes people
think about an issue (De Speld/The Union).
Misinformation = results from honest mistakes. You had honest intentions to do
the right thing. But is travels fast. You often see it in science generalizism.
Journalists don’t have the skill to interpret the information. It also could be
important sources were left out.
Ex. Russian troll factories. Claiming that Russia was not involved in M17. These
posts were made public.
Framing: select a way to look at reality. Focus on specific thing and leave
something else out. A way is equivalence framing (ex. positive versus negative).
Misleading data: data can be misleading. What choices people sometimes
make to have hypothesis confirmed. Confirmation bias.
Dealing with misleading information: People refuse the facts that were told
(ex. Boeren). Why do they want to accept or resist the facts. Inoculation theory.
(Misleading) visualizations: Face value.
Conspiracy theories and filter bubbles: Story telling. Memes.
Lecture 2 Fact-checking
Why fact-checking? Facts matter. We can be wrong and we have to make
decisions. Mis- and disinformation spreads among others. Should seek for the
truth. We have the right.
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
One click you can spread a post without factchecking it. Extra risk we have to
deal with this time.
Hyperconnectivity = everything is connected with everything. A false facts
journey. The harm is already done by retweets.
Digital wildfire = Message not checked. Things can lead their own lives again.
Once spread you can’t really stop it. Lord McAlpine he was linked to child abuse.
It was not true, but hard to correct.
• Massive digital misinformation
• Impact amplified by hyperconnectivity.
• Rapid viral spread of information, with potential serious consequences.
Artificial amplification = The artificial amplification of online traffic to create
illusion of popularity and support. Not real you pretend like you have more
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,followers for example. When you check, it turns out fake. Social media
manipulation (ex. Election being influences as the troll factories). Influence is
rather limited, but you see some influence of misleading information.
Example: Visualisation of the follower base of Geert Wilders account on
Instagram, based on results from the HypeAuditor tool. Segmented based on
“audience type” and geographical provenance. Popular suspicious countries,
that may suggest an inauthentic follower base (brazil).
Nowadays, fakes are easier to create and harder to detect - Deepfakes = type
of software that enable people to imitate or fake real people (how they look/talk).
Videos have the label of truthful and it can be done nowadays. Detrace tries to
detect it, because it is hard to detect. Indication can be if someone never blinks.
• AI video tools like FakeApp
• Putting one person’s face/voice etc. on another person
• Few traces of manipulation – hard to detect
Why fact-checking? Each one of use can create something. Fact-checking is no
longer the sole domain (providers) and/or responsibility of the journalist. We are
all responsible for checking before sharing. We all need to have
media/information literacy skills (knowing how to do fact-check).
What is a fact? Fact = A statement:
That can be verified: true or false (to a certain extent); it needs to be ‘fact-
checkable’.
About something that is taking place or has taken place (as opposed to
predictions and explanations).
That is objective, independent of the one who utters the statement.
Independent of who says it.
That contains concepts with (kind of) fixed meaning in certain context.
That can be verified with a specifiable method (e.g. observation,
measurement).
As opposed to beliefs, opinions, et cetera.
‘’This is a sentence’’ Fact: Grammar knowledge.
‘’I am looking forwards to this course’’ No fact, but opinion: subjective and it
has not taken place yet.
‘’All students will pass the course’’ No fact: Prediction.
‘’Hurray’’ No fact.
‘’Climate change is caused by humans’’ ? fact. Do we have enough evidence
that can support this claim.
‘’The lecture of the course data & misinformation are all on Tuesday’’ Fact.
Based on the schedule we have now. But it is not a fact because we know it is on
Monday.
‘’You are not allowed to park your vehicle in front of Tilburg University’s Dante
building’’ No fact, because you don’t know where vehicle stands for.
‘’Renske van Enschot has her birthday today’’ ? Access to the one who is
involved.
‘’Renske will be treating cream puffs in the break’’ You cannot check yet.
People dying at some point Fact because occasions happened in the past as
well.
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, Sometimes it is hard (between clear facts and clear opinions):
1. “The unemployment rate has decreased by two points in the four months since
I became President.”
2. “The private sector’s confidence in my government has led to a 2-point
decrease in the unemployment figures.”
3. “Without my government, we wouldn’t have seen unemployment fall by two
points.”
o What is something we can fact-check? Unemployment figures between
the 4 months. All contain the same basic fact: “The unemployment rate
has decreased by two percentage points over a four-month period.”
Checkable at national statistical agency.
o 2 is more difficult, because causal relationship. The one was going up
when the other was going up, but it is not led by something. Tricky to fact
check (correlation – causation).
o 3 is what he thinks but you cannot prove it. There is no way to know what
would have happened to the unemployment rate, had the country been
governed by someone else.
Fast is not as straightforward as we may think.
- When something is false, is it still a fact then? Statement false or unverified.
When it is verified, you can call it a fact.
- Postmodernistic claim: There is no absolute truth at all, so you cannot fact
check. ‘
Fact-checking initiatives: 210 worldwide. ‘’Nieuwcheckers’’
Be careful, there are also fake fact checkers.
Lecture 3 Framing
You want to find what is true by nature. When the facts are correct, the (news)
story is objective and unbiased. In the perfect world media (should) reflect reality.
Something in the world happens, which has an impact (ex. Disease). And you
want the media to write about it. People are going to think that these are the
important topics (news stories make stuff important) = agenda setting. Framing
= Take different perceptive. Audience thinks that this is the important aspect.
Difference is important aspects or important event.
You see two covers. Headline and picture are different.
Aspect of agenda setting is that the media started writing
about it and people in the world found it an important
happening. Offend and not to accuse him. 2. Because he is
black, he is accused (it was not honest). That is why the
picture was darker. Take the same case but a completely
different perspective.
Agenda setting
What to think about. More attention leads to more importance. McCombs & Shaw:
“… refers to the idea that there is a strong correlation between the emphasis that
mass media place on certain issues and the importance attributed to these issues
by mass audiences.”
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