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Fake News

From the US election to the Covid-19 crisis, every major event is now accompanied by a wave of fake news. But is this…

Posted by Le Monde diplomatique in English on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

https://mondediplo.com/2021/01/13fakenews

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Herd Immunity to Internet Propaganda

Internet propaganda is becoming an industrialized commodity, warns Phil Howard, the director of the Oxford Internet…

Posted by SPIEGEL International on Friday, January 15, 2021

Posted by SPIEGEL International on Friday, January 15, 2021

Can We Develop Herd Immunity to Internet Propaganda?

Internet propaganda is becoming an industrialized commodity, warns Phil Howard, the director of the Oxford Internet Institute and author of many books on disinformation. In an interview, he calls for greater transparency and regulation of the industry.
https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/philip-howard/
Platforms like Parler, TheDonald, Breitbart and Anon are like petri dishes for testing out ideas, to see what sticks. If extremist influencers see that something gets traction, they ramp it up. In the language of disease, you would say these platforms act as a vector, like a germ that carries a disease into other, more public forums.
at some point a major influencer takes a new meme from one of these extremist forums and puts it out before a wider audience. It works like a vector-borne disease like malaria, where the mosquitoes do the transmission. So, maybe a Hollywood actor or an influencer who knows nothing about politics will take this idea and post it on the bigger, better known platform. From there, these memes escalate as they move from Parler to maybe Reddit and from there to Twitter, Facebook,  Instagram and YouTube. We call this “cascades of misinformation.
Sometimes the cascades of misinformation bounce from country to country between the U.S., Canada and the UK for example. So, it echoes back and forth.
Within Europe, two reservoirs for disinformation stick out: Poland and Hungary.
Our 2020 report shows that cyber troop activity continues to increase around the world. This year, we found evidence of 81 countries using social media to spread computational propaganda and disinformation about politics. This has increased from last years’ report, where we identified 70 countries with cyber troop activity.
identified 63 new instances of private firms working with governments or political parties to spread disinformation about elections or other important political issues. We identified 21 such cases in 2017-2018, yet only 15 in the period between 2009 and 2016.
Why would well-funded Russian agencies buy disinformation services from a newcomer like Nigeria?
(1) Russian actors have found a lab in Nigeria that can provide services at competitive prices. (2) But countries like China and Russia seem to be developing an interest in political influence in many African countries, so it is possible that there is a service industry for disinformation in Nigeria for that part of the world.
Each social media company should provide some kind of accounting statement about how it deals with misuse, with reporting hate speech, with fact checking and jury systems and so on. This system of transparency and accountability works for the stock markets, why shouldn’t it work in the social media realm? 
We clearly need a digital civics curriculum. The 12 to 16 year olds are developing their media attitudes now, they will be voting soon. There is very good media education in Canada or the Netherlands for example, and that is an excellent long-term strategy. 

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“Rudderless” QAnon

“Rudderless” QAnon may reinvent itself after US election, warn experts – Trump’s defeat hurts movement, but influencers continue to hype conspiracy theory. from r/politics

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/rudderless-qanon-may-reinvent-itself-after-us-election-warn-experts/XEPR5CB7IVUVK4ZUHROBKY4HLU/

https://www.ft.com/content/357272df-46a1-4ed9-88b2-f5188d624e62

https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/12/qanon-rudderless-could-reinvent-itself-after-us-election-experts-warn.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab_(social_network)

the managing director of the right-wing social network Gab described the conspiracy theory as a “new decentralized media network that surfaces, distributes and verifies information in real time.”

Meanwhile, a core of QAnon influencers who have built their careers on conspiracy theory – selling products like health supplements and healing rituals – are unlikely to give up their meal ticket. ”

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disinformation cybersecurity

It’s time to accept that disinformation is a cyber security issue from r/technology

https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Its-time-to-accept-that-disinformation-is-a-cyber-security-issue

Misinformation and disinformation are rife, but so far it’s been seen as a challenge for policy-makers and big tech, including social media platforms.

The sheer volume of data being created makes it hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. From destroying 5G towers to conspiracies like QAnon and unfounded concern about election fraud, distrust is becoming the default – and this can have incredibly damaging effects on society.

So far, the tech sector – primarily social media companies, given that their platforms enable fake news to spread exponentially – have tried to implement some measures, with varying levels of success. For example, WhatsApp has placed a stricter limit on its message-forwarding capability and Twitter has begun to flag misleading posts.

the rise of tech startups that are exploring ways to detect and stem the flow of disinformation, such Right of ReplyAstroscreen and Logically.

disinformation has the potential to undermine national security

Data breaches result in the loss of value, but so can data manipulation

learning paradigms

Radianti, J., Majchrzak, T. A., Fromm, J., & Wohlgenannt, I. (2020). A systematic review of immersive virtual reality applications for higher education: Design elements, lessons learned, and research agenda. Computers & Education, 147, 103778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103778

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2.2. Learning paradigms

An understanding of the existing learning paradigms is essential for performing an analysis of the current state of VR applications in higher education. Thus, we introduce the main ideas behind the existing learning paradigms. Literature distinguishes between behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism (Schunk, 2012). Other scholars also include experiential learning (Kolb & Kolb, 2012) to this list and, recently, connectivism has been introduced as a new learning paradigm (Kathleen Dunaway, 2011; Siemens, 2014). Each learning paradigm has developed various theories about educational goals and outcomes (Schunk, 2012). Each of these theories also offers a different perspective on the learning goals, motivational process, learning performance, transfer of knowledge process, the role of emotions, and implications for the teaching methods.

Behaviorism assumes that knowledge is a repertoire of behavioral responses to environmental stimuli (Shuell, 1986; Skinner, 1989). Thus, learning is considered to be a passive absorption of a predefined body of knowledge by the learner. According to this paradigm, learning requires repetition and learning motivation is extrinsic, involving positive and negative reinforcement. The teacher serves as a role model who transfers the correct behavioral response.

Cognitivism understands the acquisition of knowledge systems as actively constructed by learners based on pre-existing prior knowledge structures. Hence, the proponents of cognitivism view learning as an active, constructive, and goal-oriented process, which involves active assimilation and accommodation of new information to an existing body of knowledge. The learning motivation is intrinsic and learners should be capable of defining their own goals and motivating themselves to learn. Learning is supported by providing an environment that encourages discovery and assimilation or accommodation of knowledge (Shuell, 1986),RN23. Cognitivism views learning as more complex cognitive processes such as thinking, problem-solving, verbal information, concept formation, and information processing. It addresses the issues of how information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind. Knowledge acquisition is a mental activity consisting of internal coding and structuring by the learner. Digital media, including VR-based learning can strengthen cognitivist learning design (Dede, 2008). Cognitive strategies such as schematic organization, analogical reasoning, and algorithmic problem solving will fit learning tasks requiring an increased level of processing, e.g. classifications, rule or procedural executions (Ertmer & Newby, 1993) and be supported by digital media (Dede, 2008).

Constructivism posits that learning is an active, constructive process. Learners serve as information constructors who actively construct their subjective representations and comprehensions of reality. New information is linked to the prior knowledge of each learner and, thus, mental representations are subjective (Fosnot, 2013; Fosnot & Perry, 1996). Therefore, constructivists argue that the instructional learning design has to provide macro and micro support to assist the learners in constructing their knowledge and engaging them for meaningful learning. The macro support tools include related cases, information resources, cognitive tools, conversation, and collaboration tools, and social or contextual support. A micro strategy makes use of multimedia and principles such as the spatial contiguity principle, coherence principle, modality principle, and redundancy principle to strengthen the learning process. VR-based learning fits the constructivist learning design (Lee & Wong, 2008; Sharma, Agada, & Ruffin, 2013). Constructivist strategies such as situated learning, cognitive apprenticeships, and social negotiation are appropriate for learning tasks demanding high levels of processing, for instance, heuristic problem solving, personal selection, and monitoring of cognitive strategies (Ertmer & Newby, 1993).

Experientialism describes learning as following a cycle of experiential stages, from concrete experience, observation and reflection, and abstract conceptualization to testing concepts in new situations. Experientialism adopts the constructivist’s point of view to some extent—e.g., that learning should be drawn from a learner’s personal experience. The teacher takes on the role of a facilitator to motivate learners to address the various stages of the learning cycle (Kolb & Kolb, 2012).

Connectivism takes into account the digital-age by assuming that people process information by forming connections. This newly introduced paradigm suggests that people do not stop learning after completing their formal education. They continue to search for and gain knowledge outside of traditional education channels, such as job skills, networking, experience, and access to information, by making use of new technology tools (Siemens, 2014).

Steve Bannon misinformation

Steve Bannon Caught Running Facebook Misinformation Network from r/technology

Steve Bannon Caught Running a Network of Misinformation Pages on Facebook

https://gizmodo.com/steve-bannon-caught-running-a-network-of-misinformation-1845633004

the Bannon-related pages tended to publish content at the same time and linked to the Populist Press, an even more right-wing Drudge Report copycat trafficking in disproven election fraud claims.

“If 2016 was an accident,” Quran added, “2020 has been negligence.”

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From Steve Bannon To Millennial Millie

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/10/933235773/from-steve-bannon-to-millennial-millie-facebook-youtube-struggle-with-live-video

nearly 300,000 others kept an eye on the YouTube channel of 29-year-old Millie Weaver, a former correspondent for the conspiracy theory website Infowars, who offered right-wing analysis to her followers in a live-stream that carried on for almost seven hours the day after the election.

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fake news
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news

Chief Disinformation Officer

“Trying to debunk misinformation after it has spread is like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. By pre-bunking, we aim to stop the spread of fake news in the first place,” said Dr Sander van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making lab and senior author of the new study.Game combats political misinformation by letting players undermine democracy: A short online game in which players are recruited as a “Chief Disinformation Officer” and use tactics like trolling to sabotage elections in a peaceful town has shown to reduce susceptibility to political misinformation from r/science

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/game-combats-political-misinformation-by-letting-players-undermine-democracy

Game combats political misinformation by letting players undermine democracy

The free-to-play Harmony Square is released to the public today, along with a study on its effectiveness published in the Harvard Misinformation Review

It has been created by University of Cambridge psychologists with support from the US Department of State’s Global Engagement Center and Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

 

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more on disinformation in this IMS blog
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Spain tackles fake news

https://english.elpais.com/politics/2020-11-09/spain-to-monitor-online-fake-news-and-give-a-political-response-to-disinformation-campaigns.html

While the text does not mention specific cases, Russian interference has been proven in the 2016 election campaign in the United States, which saw Donald Trump victorious, as well as the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom the same year, which saw voters narrowly decide they wanted their country to leave the European Union.

the text relies on the classification of the European Commission: “Verifiably false or misleading information created, presented and disseminated for economic gain or to intentionally deceive the public.” This includes electoral processes, but also sectors such as health, environment or security. The text underlines that the current coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by an “unprecedented infodemic,” i.e. a proliferation of fake news.

The document recognizes that the “news media, digital platforms, academic world, technology sector, NGOs and society in general play an essential role in the fight against disinformation, with actions such as its identification and not contributing to its spread, the promotion of activities that raise awareness and training or the development of tools to avoid its propagation.”

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more on fake news in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news

deepfake Putin

Deepfake Putin is here to warn Americans about their self-inflicted doom. AI-generated synthetic media is being used in a political ad campaign—not to disrupt the election, but to save it. from r/technology

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/29/1009098/ai-deepfake-putin-kim-jong-un-us-election/

They then worked with a deepfake artist who used an open-source algorithm to swap in Putin’s and Kim’s faces. A post-production crew cleaned up the leftover artifacts of the algorithm to make the video look more realistic. All in all the process took only 10 days. Attempting the equivalent with CGI likely would have taken months, the team says. It also could have been prohibitively expensive.

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