After a week without a newsletter, we have a packed lineup of podcast episodes, new publications, and great opportunities to share with you.
The latest from Does Not Compute
Episode 4: What You Think is What You Find
We like to think of ourselves as savvy searchers, but the truth is that most of us have no idea how search engines work, and that leaves us vulnerable. Francesca Tripodi hosts.
Episode 5: Across Oceans, Tables, & Platforms
Rachel Kuo explores how mis- and disinformation spread in Asian American communities, and how applications like WhatsApp and WeChat make communication across national borders easy—sometimes even easier than conversations across the dinner table.
Understanding the role of racial narratives in disinformation
In a new paper in New Media + Society, Madhavi Reddi, Rachel Kuo, and Daniel Kreiss propose identity propaganda as a concept drawn from critical race theory to inform studies of online disinformation and propaganda. They write:
Propaganda and disinformation in US politics often work in the service of maintaining existing power structures—in this particular case, by leveraging anti-Black racism, misogyny, and xenophobic sentiment to protect conservative interests.
The piece, “Identity propaganda: Racial narratives and disinformation,” applies this concept to attacks made against Vice President Kamala Harris during the course of the 2020 election cycle, sorting them into three key types: othering narratives, essentializing narratives, and authenticating narratives.
Recent publications and appearances
Francesca Tripodi’s work on women’s biographies on Wikipedia is still finding new audiences, from NPR’s All Things Considered to Fortune magazine.
"Traditional media would set the agenda but not necessarily tell people what to think. Ben Shapiro is sort of cornering both aspects: telling [people] what to think about, and secondly, telling them what their opinions should be about those particular topics." Deen Freelon spoke to NPR about how Ben Shapiro has leveraged right-wing outrage to build a following.
“Misrepresentations of CRT and the 1619 Project are disinformation, mustering 'false information, distorted stereotypes, and mischaracterizations as part of a long-term conservative battle against public higher education and the teaching of American racial history. Only by identifying these campaigns as disinformation can we counter them.'” Alice Marwick and Daniel Kreiss’s recent essay for Slate was referenced in an analysis of how the January 6 insurrection has evolved into a racist relapse.
“While serving as a journalist in the Army, I often found that our own efforts at outreach... rewarded minimizing contact with the outside world. Media organizations were kept at arm’s length, and all news releases were strenuously reviewed to ensure that they were on message.” Graduate Student Affiliate Daniel Johnson discusses how a stronger civil-military relationship could prevent unnecessary wars.
“After 2017, the online left misjudged its declining popularity. Corbynism was no shortcut to power, but its digitally propelled rise made it seem like it might be. Digital organization was robust during campaigns, but it couldn’t compensate for analog disorganization.” Zeynep Tufekci’s work was referenced in an essay about online political organizing in the UK.
Coming soon
September 14: Shannon McGregor will join a panel discussion on Democracy and Public Discourse, organized by Carolina Public Humanities and the General Alumni Association. The panel will take place in-person at UNC’s Center for Global Education, but will also be live-streamed.
“One Democratic strategist said Facebook informed them it rejected an ad for a gay candidate because it ran afoul of prohibitions on ads for mail order brides.” Affiliates Matt Perault and Scott Babwah Brennen have a new report out on the efficacy of political ad bans by tech companies (PDF).
Rest of Web
The Knight Foundation has an exciting new call out for proposals aimed at disinformation in communities of color:
It’s not too late to add Alice’s Networked Harassment paper to your syllabus!
We’re all reading Kevin Roose’s piece on the internal Facebook struggles about CrowdTangle.
Rachel Kuo and colleagues seek more folks to join Sick of It!, a project to amplify the voices of the incarcerated disabled:
If you’re a grad student studying the internet and/or going on the job market, Joan Donovan wants to know about your work: