So-called fake news and problematic information on social media assume an increasingly important roles in political debate. Focusing on the (early) run-up to and aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, this study examines the extent of the problematic information in the most engaged-with content and most active users in ‘political Twitter’. We demarcated three time spans, the first surrounding Super Tuesday (March 2-22, 2020), the second providing a snapshot of the aftermath of the elections and the run-up to both the Senate run-off elections in Georgia (December 24, 2020 – January 4, 2021) and the (unforeseen) Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021. In the third time span (March 10-21, 2021), when election activities had ceased, we examine the effects of Twitter’s deplatforming (or so-called purge) of accounts after the Capitol riots in January, 2021. In order to shed light on the magnitude of problematic information, we mapped shared sources, labelled them and assessed the actors engaged in their dissemination. It was found that overall, mainstream sources are shared more often than problematic ones, but the percentage of problematic sources was much higher in December compared to both the March, 2020 and 2021 periods. Significantly, (hyper)partisan sources are close to half of all sources shared in the first two periods, implying a robust presence of them on social media. By March 2021, both the share of problematic and of (hyper)partisan sources had decreased significantly, suggesting an impact from Twitter’s deplatforming actions. Additionally, highly active, problematic users (fake profiles, bots, or locked/suspended accounts) were found on both sides of the political spectrum, albeit more abundantly from conservative users.
This paper discusses the positioning of higher education in the information or so-called network society. As part of a broader PhD research into media literacy and the success of students in higher education, this theoretical disquisition submits links between information problem-solving skills (IPS-skills), students’ success, social media and the position of student’s assignments and higher education in society. First, I'll explain by using pedagogical theories, that when researching students’ success in higher education in contemporary society, it is important to know why and how students use social media. Secondly, the necessity of IPS-skills is discussed along with the challenges and difficulties. Not only the skills of searching for reliable and useful information are addressed but also the construction of the Internet and the way a part of the Internet works, is discussed, in particular the filter bubble. Thirdly, with the use of the network theory, the role of social media (in the present case: Facebook) in higher education is analysed. Ultimately, this paper complements the pedagogical theory on students’ success in contemporary society. Furthermore, distinguishing education as a distinctive field within the network society will tighten the network theory.
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This extended abstract introduces the work of the Netherlands AI Media and Democracy lab, especially focusing on the research performed from an AI/computer science perspective at CWI, the Netherlands National Research Center for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam. We first provide an overview of the general aims and set-up of the lab, and then focuses in on the research areas of the 3 research groups at CWI, outlining there are of research and expected research contributions in the areas between AI and media & democracy
