News/Media Literacy, Fact-Checking, and Popping Your Filter Bubble: Additional Readings

"To understand the misinformation ecosystem, here's a break down of the types of fake content, content creators motivations and how it's being disseminated." - From Claire Wardle, First Draft

"A basic understanding of where news comes from is back on the syllabus as students navigate an increasingly bewildering media environment" - From Michael Rosenwald, Columbia Journalism Review

"Commissioned by the Council of Europe, our new report lays out a new definitional framework for thinking about information disorder, provides an overview of current responses, and summarizes key academic studies on how people consume information. It ends with thirty-four recommendations, targeted at technology companies, national governments, media organizations, civil society, education ministries and funding bodies." - From Claire Wardle and Hossein Derakhshan, First Draft/Council of Europe

"The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. This weekly roundup offers the highlights of what you might have missed." - From Nieman Lab

"A list of non-academic readings related to different aspects of the "fake news" debate, covering the impact of advertising, its role in the US election, the growing awareness of disinformation campaigns aimed at upcoming European elections, and some of the psychological theories that help explain why our brains can be so easily fooled." - From Claire Wardle, First Draft

"The company offered advertisers a breakdown of the US electorate's interests, religions, races, and dislikes during a fraught election season compromised by bad actors." - From Alex Kantrowitz, Buzzfeed

"We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines aren't even the real threat. What we need to understand is how the powerful might use AI to control us -- and what we can do in response." - From Zeynep Tufekci, TED Talk

"Civic Reasoning in a Social Media Environment" - From Sarah McGrew, Teresa Ortega, Joel Breakstone, and Sam Wineburg, American Federation of Teachers

"It’s time for Facebook and Google to pay attention to the psychology of the illusory truth effect." - From Brian Resnick, Vox

NPR series on social media and the spread of misinformation.

"Journalists fighting spread of fake news raise concerns over possible conflicts of interest and say site has refused to disclose needed data." - From Sam Levin, The Guardian

"Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online is a new report from Data &
Society which offers comprehensive insight into why the media was vulnerable to manipulation from radicalized groups that emerged from a variety of internet subcultures in 2016."

"The future of fake news is messaging apps, not social media. And it’s going to be even worse." - From Nic Dias, Foreign Policy

Ferrara, Emilio, Onur Varol, Clayton Davis, Filippo Menczer, and Alessandro Flammini. "The Rise of Social Bots." (2014): Communications of the ACM 59 (7), 96-104, 2016. Web.