How do journalists and tech platforms determine what information is verifiable online? How can news consumers determine which media outlets to trust when the line between partisan bias and disinformation becomes hazier and hazier? On today’s episode, David and Sarah are joined by Renée DiResta—a technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory and a writer at Wired and the Atlantic—for a conversation about disinformation online. “Anybody with a laptop can make themselves look like a media organization, can use a variety of social media marketing techniques to grow an audience, and then can push out whatever they want to say to that audience,” DiResta warns. Where do we go from here? Tune in to learn about journalistic ethics surrounding the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story and what to expect from disinformation actors this election cycle.

Show Notes:

-“Emails reveal how Hunter Biden tried to cash in big on behalf of family with Chinese firm” by Emma Jo-Morris Gabriel Fonrouge in the New York Post, “The Conspiracies Are Coming From Inside the House” by Renée DiResta

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  1. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Coolidge
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone

    How do journalists and tech platforms determine what information is verifiable online?

    “Fact-Checkers,” right?!

    This looks like a good place to drop this:

    NeverTrump Website The Dispatch Colludes With Big Tech To Censor SBA List’s Pro-Life Ads

    Facebook censored two advertisements from the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List’s, claiming the videos contained “partly false information” about Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden and VP Nominee Kamala Harris’s views on late-term abortions.

    The ads, which focus on the Democratic Party’s position in support of abortion on demand and up until the moment of birth, were labeled by “independent fact-checkers” who claim to “look carefully into claims from elected officials, reports from the media, and disinformation on social media to help you understand what’s true and what’s not.”

    The “independent fact-checker,” was NeverTrump website, The Dispatch, which labeled the ads as “partly false” because Biden has not explicitly stated that he supports late-term abortions, even though he has repeatedly said he wants no restrictions on “a woman’s right” to choose.

    “Anybody with a laptop can make themselves look like a media organization, can use a variety of social media marketing techniques to grow an audience, and then can push out whatever they want to say to that audience,” DiResta warns.

    She must be talking about you guys.

    How can news consumers determine which media outlets to trust when the line between partisan bias and disinformation becomes hazier and hazier?

    Well for starters, don’t trust The Dispatch.

    • #1
    • October 16, 2020, at 4:34 PM PDT
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  2. Architectus Coolidge
    Architectus

    Ricochet Audio Network: “Anybody with a laptop can make themselves look like a media organization, can use a variety of social media marketing techniques to grow an audience, and then can push out whatever they want to say to that audience,” DiResta warns.

    Get that? She says that like its a bad thing. She “warns” rather than celebrates the ability for people to reach an audience without “media organization” approval. Thank God for PowerlineBlog and others for not waiting for MSM approval before pushing out what they have to say. Act like an adult, do your research, and decide for yourselves.

    • #2
    • October 17, 2020, at 3:45 PM PDT
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