Nothing exists in a vacuum.
Francesca Tripodi on PragerU & Deen Freelon on technology, identity, and norms.
Happy New Year, all! 2023 was a year full of events, publications, welcoming a plethora of new affiliates, and more- thank you for coming on the journey with us!
ICYMI: Check out our 2023 retrospective newsletter here.
This year, we are planning some more exciting events that you will not want to miss. Stay tuned!
“Nostalgia for a past that never really existed”
CITAP Principal Investigator, Francesca Tripodi, appeared on "Meet the Press Reports" with Chuck Todd along with the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, to "discuss the use and potential dangers of online education tools like PragerU."
Francesca discussed the idea of indoctrination from schools and school teachers, saying "[PragerU videos] provide nostalgia for a past that never really existed. Indoctrination is about uncritical thinking, and I would say that's the opposite of what's happening in schools. Schools are not about teaching kids what to think, they're about teaching kids how to think… [PragerU] doesn't exist in a vacuum- nothing on the internet does. These kinds of videos are algorithmically connected to the other guests... and so when you advocate for something that's effectively a YouTube channel, we have to be really mindful about where that journey might lead our children."
Publications and appearances
CITAP Senior Researcher and UPenn Allan Randall Freelon Sr. Professor of Communication, Deen Freelon, published a journal article in the Journal of Communication, in which he discussed 4 books which “all share a joint concern with three core concepts: technology, identity, and norms (good and/or bad).”
He concluded the piece saying “I sense the early rumblings of what may turn out to be a major shift here, which is most evident in the recent tide of research on mis- and disinformation, which few researchers have any problem labeling as problematic. My hope is that this uncontroversial admission may open the door to our field acknowledging the harms of other social phenomena—racism, antidemocratic legislation, book bans, and police brutality, to name just a few.”
“Problems especially arise in “data voids” when information is sparse for particular topics. Often those seeking to spread a particular message will purposefully take advantage of these data voids, coining terms likely to circumvent mainstream media sources and then repeating them across platforms until they become conspiracy buzzwords that lead to more misinformation.” Francesca Tripodi spoke with Scientific American on “How Search Engines Boost Misinformation.”
Coming soon
February
February 8th @ 3:30pm in the Freedom Forum Conference Center: CITAP is hosting TJ Billard for a book talk on their “Voices for Transgender Equality”.
Register to join online or join in-person. UNC Students are eligible for CLE credit.