Consequences of Exposure
What happens when individuals are exposed to misinformation? Researchers are studying effects on the societies in which those individuals live, communicate, and make decisions. One of the biggest challenges is measuring the actual effects of misinformation. Scholars have employed ethnographic and behavioral science techniques to try to tease out the ramifications of contaminated information environments.
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Explore course modules, handouts, teaching tools and syllabi about dis- and misinformation.
Latest News on Consequences of Exposure
Since the 2016 US presidential election, the deliberate spread of misinformation online, and on social media in particular, has generated extraordinary concern, in large part because of its potential effects on public opinion, political polarization, and ultimately democratic decision making. Recently, however, a handful of papers have argued that both the prevalence and consumption of […]
By Duncan J. Watts, David M. Rothschild, and Markus Mobius
As denazification and reconstruction efforts ramped up across Germany in the wake of World War II, Germans and occupying Allied forces found themselves struggling with difficult questions around censorship and preservation, among them what to do with decades worth of Nazi writings. While books including Mein Kampf were banned for a period of years after […]
By John Bowers, Elaine Sedenberg, and Jonathan Zittrain
I was in a cavernous college auditorium on the frigid winter afternoon in New Delhi in 2015 when Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, was selling the promise of India, his home country and the company’s largest market, to 2,000 high school and college students. “Part of the reason we’re all very interested in India […]
By Pranav Dixit
By now, those of us working in news media know what online violence looks like. It manifests as sexist abuse, threats to life and limb, doxing and trolling. Recent well publicized incidents include attacks against New York Times media reporter Taylor Lorenz, who was targeted after being singled out by Fox’s Tucker Carlson; Brazilian journalist […]
By Elisa Lees Munoz
Facebook has repeatedly allowed world leaders and politicians to use its platform to deceive the public or harass opponents despite being alerted to evidence of the wrongdoing. The Guardian has seen extensive internal documentation showing how Facebook handled more than 30 cases across 25 countries of politically manipulative behavior that was proactively detected by company […]
By Julia Carrie Wong
Since the 2016 US presidential election, the deliberate spread of misinformation online, and on social media in particular, has generated extraordinary concern, in large part because of its potential effects on public opinion, political polarization, and ultimately democratic decision making. Recently, however, a handful of papers have argued that both the prevalence and consumption of […]
By Duncan J. Watts, David M. Rothschild, and Markus MobiusAs denazification and reconstruction efforts ramped up across Germany in the wake of World War II, Germans and occupying Allied forces found themselves struggling with difficult questions around censorship and preservation, among them what to do with decades worth of Nazi writings. While books including Mein Kampf were banned for a period of years after […]
By John Bowers, Elaine Sedenberg, and Jonathan ZittrainI was in a cavernous college auditorium on the frigid winter afternoon in New Delhi in 2015 when Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, was selling the promise of India, his home country and the company’s largest market, to 2,000 high school and college students. “Part of the reason we’re all very interested in India […]
By Pranav DixitBy now, those of us working in news media know what online violence looks like. It manifests as sexist abuse, threats to life and limb, doxing and trolling. Recent well publicized incidents include attacks against New York Times media reporter Taylor Lorenz, who was targeted after being singled out by Fox’s Tucker Carlson; Brazilian journalist […]
By Elisa Lees MunozFacebook has repeatedly allowed world leaders and politicians to use its platform to deceive the public or harass opponents despite being alerted to evidence of the wrongdoing. The Guardian has seen extensive internal documentation showing how Facebook handled more than 30 cases across 25 countries of politically manipulative behavior that was proactively detected by company […]
By Julia Carrie Wong
May 6, 2021