What weapons do we have for fighting for the truth? It’s easy to agree with one British philosopher 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.
In considering this issue, we will encounter an age-old paradox. To defend the Truth, someone must play the role of the defender. But who is to say that a particular individual, corporate entity, or political regime 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 19
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.
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 what Elon Musk has to say about Community Notes HERE. It’s also interesting to see whose tweets he is sharing.
See Musk’s new approach to fact-checking HERE
As you identify these and other tools, ask whether or how each could inadvertently and 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 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, Emeric Henry, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, “Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics”: READ TO GET A GENERAL SENSE FOR THE ARGUMENT AND TAKE NOTES
Great Journalists as Protectors of Democracy
18. Thursday, March 21: CLASS VISIT
We will have a class visit (by Zoom) with Robert (Bob) Costa (’08), 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
19. Tuesday, March 26
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)
In case you haven’t heard, the Ruth Bader Ginsberg Woman of Leadership Award goes to . . . THESE FOUR MEN AND ONE WOMAN
Wait! Never mind . . . HERE
Two of the members of last year’s jury were Stallone’s wife and Martha Stewart herself. This year, the jury was chaired by the lawyer for Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame. Milken is a convicted felon.
21. Thursday, March 28
THE SECOND GREAT DEBATE
Prompt: “The Ruth Bader Ginzburg jury was absolutely right in awarding Elon Musk the prize”
Your second essay question is here
22. Tuesday, April 2
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
Lewis Hyman, “It’s Not the End of Work. It’s the End of Boring Work” PRINT AND READ
Zvi Moshowitz, “How AI Chatbots became political” PRINT AND READ
23. Thursday, April 4
THE GREAT WIKIPEDIA PROJECT
John Dewey Revisited. Public Engagement as a solution
In this session, we will have four group presentations about the Wikipedia sites you have been following and editing.