Research Guides: Misinformation, Disinformation &amp; Fake News: Digital technologies

Disinformation and digital technologies

Creating Chaos Online: Disinformation and Subverted Post-Publics by Asta Zelenkauskaite Unmasks the disinformation propagated by Russian trolling in public discourse
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0472902903
Publication Date: 2022-10-10
Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinfromation in the Digital Age by Melissa Zimdars (Editor); Kembrew McLeod (Editor) New perspectives on the misinformation ecosystem that is the production and circulation of fake news. What is fake news? This book examines the real fake news: the constant flow of purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news. Rather than viewing fake news through a single lens, the book maps the various kinds of misinformation through several different disciplinary perspectives, taking into account the overlapping contexts of politics, technology, and journalism. Contributors consider possible solutions to the complex problem of fake news - ways to mitigate its spread, to teach students to find factually accurate information, and to go beyond fact-checking.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780262357388
Publication Date: 2020-01-24
The Information Manifold: Why Computers Can't Solve Algorithmic Bias and Fake News by Antonio Badia An argument that information exists at different levels of analysis--syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic--and an exploration of the implications. Although this is the Information Age, there is no universal agreement about what information really is. Different disciplines view information differently; engineers, computer scientists, economists, linguists, and philosophers all take varying and apparently disconnected approaches. In this book, Antonio Badia distinguishes four levels of analysis brought to bear on information: syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and network-based. Humans live at the semantic and pragmatic level (and at the network level as a society), computers at the syntactic level. This sheds light on some recent issues, including "fake news" (computers cannot tell whether a statement is true or not, because truth is a semantic notion) and "algorithmic bias" (a pragmatic, not syntactic concern). Humans, not computers, the book argues, have the ability to solve these issues.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780262355179
Publication Date: 2019-10-11

Research institutes

Algorithmic Justice League
The Algorithmic Justice League is an organization that combines art and research to illuminate the social implications and harms of artificial intelligence.
The Disinformation Project
The Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University's School of Communication examines fake news discourses on Canadian news media and social media.
European Digital Media Observatory
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) brings together fact-checkers, media literacy experts, and academic researchers to understand and analyse disinformation, in collaboration with media organisations, online platforms and media literacy practitioners.
Internet Observatory
A program of the Cyber Policy Center, a joint initiative of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Law School.
NATO Association of Canada: Centre For Disinformation Studies
The Centre for Disinformation Studies (CDS) is a nonpartisan research and public outreach wing of the NATO Association of Canada. The goal of the CDS is to facilitate engagement between academics, government, and the public on the topic of disinformation.
Network Contagion Research Institute
The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) provides pioneering technology, research, and analysis to identify and forecast cyber-social threats targeting individuals, organizations, and communities. The NCRI is committed to empowering partners to become proactive in protecting themselves against false narratives that create rifts of distrust that impact institutions, capital markets, public health, and safety.
Programme on Democracy & Technology
University of Oxford's Programme on Democracy & Technology (DemTech) investigates the use of algorithms, automation, and computational propaganda in public life.
Shorenstein Center
Harvard's Shorenstein Center addresses the spread and impacts of misinformation, disinformation, and media manipulation through a range of research-based approaches.
University of Ottawa Information Integrity Lab
The University of Ottawa Information Integrity Lab convenes Canadian and international experts, frontline practitioners, academic researchers and analysts from various fields to collaborate on a wide array of initiatives that contribute to the protection of the integrity of the information ecosystem, in support of democratic institutions, enterprises, and private citizens.