Reading ReOpen
From April 2020 – December 2020, Francesca Tripodi conducted ethnographic observations of the public Facebook groups devoted to reopening the US that began forming in response to the closure of churches over Easter Sunday (April 12, 2020).
In the resulting paper, “ReOpen demands as a public health threat,” she concludes that if we want to understand why people believe and share mis- and disinformation, we need to combine data-driven analytics with what Alice Marwick refers to as a “sociotechnical model of audience ethnography.”
A tagline for Reopen proponents (who oppose mask and vaccine mandates) is that “the cure is worse than the disease.” This hinges on a logic that COVID is akin to the flu, and since states don’t typically close during flu season, they shouldn’t for COVID. To back this false claim, members post counter-visualizations, as documented by Cristal Lee and others. Armed with this counter-data, Reopen group members share tips for how to get out of wearing a mask. These include literalist interpretations of the ADA, the 5th Amendment, Roe v. Wade, and most recently HIPAA law. Such media literacy practices are akin to the compare and contrast method of closely reading “the words” found among conservative audiences more generally (#scripturalinference).
Misinformation flags added by social media platforms further validated the source/claim credibility. When Facebook labeled a Federalist article as “partly false,” members commented that now they “know it’s true,” mirroring recent findings from NYU’s CSMaP.
Making relevant policies about democracy and technology
When policymakers try to stop threats to democracy from digital tech, what exactly do they think is being threatened? How does this stack up against what we know about anti-democratic trends? Bridget Barrett, Katharine Dommett, and Daniel Kreiss review U.S. and U.K. policy-making and find inconsistencies in how policymakers understand and respond to digital threats to democracy.
“Our analysis has shown policymakers to often be promoting utopian conceptions of citizen behavior that existing empirical research suggests do not reflect actual practice.”
— Bridget Barrett, Katharine Dommett, and Daniel Kreiss
“The capricious relationship between technology and democracy: Analyzing public policy discussions in the UK and US” The article identifies 6 core democratic ideals: transparency, accountability, engagement, informed public, social solidarity, & freedom of expression. They argue that policy-making discourse is often out of step with a growing literature suggesting that political conflicts between social groups, right-wing extremism, and antidemocratic actions are at the root of growing democratic crises.
How we talk about tech and democracy matters, especially for attempts to develop policy.
Recent publications and appearances
“Over a year after the pandemic started, the institutions and systems that have failed us are telling us to “go back.” In the words of Lynn Shon and José Luis Vilson, ‘No, we’re not going back.’ We need each other. We need each other more than ever.” Rachel Kuo joined a group reflection on Black and Asian Feminist solidarities.
Congratulations to affiliate Shanetta Pendleton on receiving the AEJMC Public Relations Division’s Inez Kaiser award!
Coming soon
September 10: UNC’s School of Information and Library Sciences will host a virtual symposium on AI and Knowledge Work as part of the school’s 90th anniversary celebrations.
September 10: CITAP welcomes Daniel Greene for a conversation about his book The Promise of Access with Tressie McMillan Cottom and Alice Marwick. The panel will be held at 10:30am in the Pleasant Family Assembly Room in Wilson Library. (We’ll livestream the welcome and keynote from the SILS symposium from 10-10:30am for early arrivals.)
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 the Center for Global Education and on livestream.
September 29: Deen Freelon will join a panel conversation on shared governance and academic freedom hosted by the Royster Society of Fellows.
October 8: Alice Marwick and Will Partin will present work on the Q Clock and and knowledge production within the QAnon conspiracy at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) annual conference.
October 12: Tressie McMillan Cottom will appear live with Kate Bowler and Kelly Corrigan at Durham’s Carolina Theatre.
Rest of Web
A randomized trial of mask effects on Covid spread is exceptionally challenging to do. A thread from Zeynep Tufekci reviews a study that pulled it off:
And if you need your own super-official “ACADEMIC” badge, we’ve got just the Canva template for you.