{"id":33,"date":"2020-05-16T10:41:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T14:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/?page_id=33"},"modified":"2021-04-18T11:13:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T15:13:22","slug":"fighting-for-truth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/fighting-for-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting for Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this section of our seminar, we consider diverse ways in which one can fight for the truth.\u00a0 However, we also encounter an age-old paradox.\u00a0 To defend the truth, someone must play the role of the defender.\u00a0 \"\"But who is to say that this individual or political regime is equipped to act as the arbiter of truth.\u00a0 Indeed, what is to prevent them from putting their own interests above the principles they claim to defend?<\/p>\n

20. Wednesday, October 14 Tools and techniques for distinguishing fact from fiction, lies, disinformation, and bizarro conspiracies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are a number of recommendations about ways to distinguish facts from fictions. Which ones are likely to have the greatest chance of success?<\/p>\n

Valerie Strauss, “Fighting the Misinformation Pandemic” READ<\/a><\/p>\n

Checkology: READ<\/a><\/p>\n

West, Darrell M. \u201cHow to Combat Fake News and Disinformation.\u201d <\/span>Brookings, 18 Dec. 2017\u00a0 READ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

NPR, “News is scary, here’s how to spot misinformation” READ<\/a><\/p>\n

Subhashish Bhadra and Varad Pande,”Fighting the Misinformation Pandemic in the age of Covid-19″ READ<\/a><\/p>\n

Now that you have considered these recommendations, read this scholarly study and ask yourself whether any of the preceding techniques will have a realistic chance of success:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
Oscar <\/span>Barrera, <\/span><\/span><\/span>Sergei <\/span>Guriev, <\/span><\/span><\/span>Emeric <\/span>Henry, and <\/span><\/span><\/span>Ekaterina <\/span>Zhuravskaya, “<\/span><\/span>Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics”:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

PRINT AND READ<\/a><\/p>\n

21. Monday, October 19\u00a0 Assuming others will do the work for us<\/strong><\/p>\n

What role should the leaders of global communications networks play in defending the Truth? In this section, we will reflect on both the policies of digital giants and their potential political and social implications<\/p>\n

I. The heads of Google, Twitter, and Facebook have responded to the challenge of controlling digital content in provocatively different ways. Which approach would you choose?<\/p>\n

Compare and contrast:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Daisuke Wakabayashi\u00a0and\u00a0Shane Goldmacher , “Google Policy Change Upends Online Plans for 2020 Campaigns” PRINT AND READ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Cecilia Kang\u00a0and\u00a0Mike Isaac, “Defiant Zuckerberg says Facebook won’t police free speech”\u00a0 PRINT AND READ<\/a><\/p>\n

Kate Conger, “Twitter will ban all political ads, CEO Jack Dorsey says” PRINT AND READ<\/a><\/p>\n

II. How comfortable should we feel about putting Truth-telling in the hands of global communications corporations?\u00a0 This is a good occasion to meditate on Fahrenheit 451<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Amnesty International Report, Surveillance Giants <\/em>READ<\/a> pp. 5-11 and skim the rest<\/p>\n

Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post<\/em>, August 19, 2016, “98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you”\u00a0 READ<\/a>\u00a0 If politics is about power, this is a lot of power!<\/p>\n

Could these data points be 98 good reasons for shutting down your Facebook account?<\/p>\n

See this journal abstract confirming that computers can know you better than anyone else READ SUMMARY HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

22. Wednesday, October 21\u00a0 The Second Great Debate!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Topic: “Twitter definitely should have flagged Donald Trump’s tweet for glorifying violence<\/p>\n

Please prepare for this debate by reading about Twitter’s actions HERE<\/a>\u00a0 and reflecting on the issues we have covered in our preceding class.\u00a0 Also, look through the linked articles on the preceding sites for lots of evidence supporting both sides<\/p>\n

Debate structure TBA<\/p>\n

Your second essay assignment is HERE<\/strong><\/h5>\n

23.\u00a0 Monday, October 26 John Dewey Revisited:\u00a0 Public Engagement as a solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

Could participatory democracy provide the solution to safeguarding the Truth? Is Truth-seeking from the ground up possible?<\/p>\n

In this session, consider the unique croudsourced experiment in Truth-telling called Wikipedia.\u00a0 Also, please remind me to tell you what it’s like to be banned by Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

What standards does the participatory encyclopedia, Wikipedia, employ to determine “what’s fit to print”? How are these standards upheld?\u00a0 Please choose the most controversial political issue you can think of (e.g., the Arab-Israel conflict) and attempt to determine whether Wikipedia’s respective site lives up to its pretensions “to\u00a0 provide a neutrally written<\/a>\u00a0summary of\u00a0existing mainstream knowledge<\/a>\u00a0in a fair and\u00a0accurate manner<\/a> with a straightforward, “‘just-the-facts style.’<\/a>”\u00a0 If your site meets these standards, see if you can find one that doesn’t.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia’s Mission Statement READ AND PRINT<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Pasternack, “H<\/span>ow Wikipedia\u2019s volunteers became the web\u2019s best weapon against misinformation<\/span>” PRINT AND READ<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Cooke, “Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet” PRINT AND READ<\/a><\/p>\n

To pique your curiosity, see if you can figure out why certain Wikipedia sites ranked among the 5000 most accessed pages over the past week.\u00a0 The page is regularly updated. I was fascinated by both the topics and their rankings HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this section of our seminar, we consider diverse ways in which one can fight for the truth.\u00a0 However, we also encounter an age-old paradox.\u00a0 To defend the truth, someone must play the role of the defender.\u00a0 But who is to say that this individual or political regime is equipped to act as the arbiter … Continue reading “Fighting for Truth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/truth-and-politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}