What weapons do we have for fighting for the truth? It’s easy to agree with one notable British thinker about the urgency of taking on this task (listen). But in a time of post-truth and untruthtelling, it has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult, uphill battle. At times, one wonders if the battle can even be won, especially in democratic politics.
In considering this issue, we will encounter an age-old paradox. To defend the Truth, someone must play the role of the defender. Yet, who is to say that a particular individual, corporate entity, or political leader is equipped to act as the arbiter of Truth? Indeed, what is to prevent them from putting their own interests above the Truthseeking principles they claim to defend.
17. Tuesday, March 18
Tools and techniques for distinguishing fact from fiction, lies, disinformation, and bizarro conspiracy theories.
Today, I would like to address the possibility of designing effective tools for fact-checking in an era of Post-Truth, conspiracy theories, and artificial intelligence.
Assignment: In preparation for this class, I will divide our class into smaller groups and ask each group to identify two specific and workable tools for combatting lies and disinformation on social media. Each group must test these tools beforehand.
For background on the subject of Tools for Combating Disinformation:
Darrell M. West, “How to Combat Fake News and Disinformation.” Brookings, 18 Dec. 2017 READ A good general article about the need for combatting disinformation and the prospects and perils of doing so.
Checkpoint: A tool for identifying malicious Covid-related websites HERE
The new Twitter comes up with a new approach, Community Notes: HERE
See Musk’s new approach to fact-checking HERE
As you identify these and other tools, ask whether or how each could paradoxically end up promoting Untruth.
Another tool is persuasion. What does one need to do to persuade someone to change their mind? A good example here is the refusal of many people to get vaccines to combat Covid.
Adam Grant, “The Science of Dealing with Unreasonable People” PRINT AND READ
And then for a healthy, but unsettling dose of reality, read this scholarly study and ask yourself whether we have a realistic chance of successfully combatting real the appeal of “fake news”:
Oscar Barrera, Sergei Guriev, Henry Emeric, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, “Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics”: READ the abstract and parts I and V AND TAKE NOTES
18. Thursday, March 20
Should we allow others to do the work of safeguarding and pursuing the Truth for us? Or if we say no, are we fooling ourselves in thinking we have a choice over the matter?
What role should the leaders of global communications networks play in deciding what information can and should be posted on their platforms? In this section, we will use the controversy over banning Donald Trump’s access to social media platforms to reflect upon two issues. First, what are the premises on which these media moguls justify their decisions (keep our great thinkers in mind)? Second, how should we judge the negative and/or positive political and social implications of these decisions?
Consider the evolution of the banning debate over time: Have these individuals already supplanted the traditional roles of politicians? Are they the new moral dictators and Masters of the Universe?
Richard Nieva, CNET, 2019: “Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and the Fight for Social Media’s Soul”: PRINT AND READ
Elon Musk Reverses Trump’s ban on Twitter (while seeking to reassure his users and sources of revenue): HERE
Dorsey makes matters confusing, going from consistently defending the ban of Trump and then calling the decision into question (kind of) :
First: Defend the Ban: HERE
Second: Lift the ban (note how he explains why it was a mistake): HERE
One result: Clare Duffey, “NPR and PBS stop using Twitter after receiving ‘government funded media’ label” READ (Also, note the reference to Russian state media)
Yet, Americans do have a tendency to lionize these figures, much as we used to do for cowboys and superheroes. Sometimes, we give them awards:
The Ruth Bader Ginsberg Woman of Leadership Award goes to . . . THESE FOUR MEN AND ONE WOMAN
Wait! Never mind . . . SEE HERE
Two years ago, two of the members of the jury were the wife of actor, Sylvester Stallone, and Martha Stewart. This past year, the jury was chaired by the lawyer for Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame. Another juror, Michael Milken, is a convicted felon.
GrEat Journalists as Protectors of Democracy
20. Tuesday, March 25
We will have a class visit (by Zoom) with one of my former students, Robert (Bob) Costa (’08), who is chief election and campaign correspondent for CBS News, author of Peril (with Bob Woodward), and former host of PBS Washington Week
“On Reporting and Politics — Bob Costa” READ, PRINT, LISTEN
For background on Bob’s visit, please read the following interview with Tim Russert was one of America’s greatest reporters and political interviewers. This interview will give you a good idea of his approach to truth-seeking: READ AND TAKE NOTES
Russert’s last public address was at Notre Dame. See his Notre Dame 2002 commencement speech HERE
21. Thursday, March 27
THE SECOND GREAT DEBATE
Prompt: “The Ruth Bader Ginzburg jury was absolutely right in awarding Elon Musk the prize”
22. Tuesday, April 1
Let’s Chat–GPT! Or, maybe not.
OpenAI Read its Charter PRINT AND READ
David Gewirtz, “Just how big is this new generative AI? Think internet-level disruption” ZDNET, February 27, 2023: PRINT AND READ
Noam Chomsky,” The False Promise of Chat GPT” PRINT AND READ
Tony Simons, “The High Cost of Lost Trust,” Harvard Business Review, September 2022: PRINT AND READ
Jacob Shapiro and Chris Mattmann, “AI is coming for the past, too” PRINT AND READ
Zvi Moshowitz, “How AI Chatbots became political” PRINT AND READ
Your second essay question will be around HERE
23. Thursday, April 3: John Dewey Revisited. Public Engagement as a solution
THE GREAT WIKIPEDIA PROJECT
TBA
In this session, we will have three or four group presentations about the Wikipedia sites you have been following and editing.
24. Tuesday, April 8: The View from Within the Machine
Kaitlin Sullivan (ND ’10), another one of my former students, will join us to talk about her work as Director of Content Policy for Meta (Facebook)
Readings: TBA