News Literacy

From The New York Times:

Read the weekly installments.

Whistle-blowing and the Politics of Truth
Iain Munro, Human Relations, Volume 70, Issue 5, 2017.

This article investigates the role of ‘truth’ as an object of contention within organizations, with specific reference to the ‘politics of truth’ in the WikiLeaks case. For an empirical illustration of a ‘truth game’, this article draws on varied accounts of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website. The article shows how different ‘truth games’ are mobilized by different organizational actors engaged in a politics of truth. The article demonstrates the existence of different truth games at work in the WikiLeaks case.

Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age
Lee Rainie and Janna Anderson, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, February 8, 2017

Algorithms are aimed at optimizing everything. They can save lives, make things easier and conquer chaos. Still, experts worry they can also put too much control in the hands of corporations and governments, perpetuate bias, create filter bubbles, cut choices, creativity and serendipity, and could result in greater unemployment.

Processing political misinformation: comprehending the Trump phenomenon.
Briony Swire, Adam J. Berinsky, Stephan Lewandowsky, Ullrich K. H. Ecker, Royal Society Open Science. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160802, March 1, 2017.

On the statistical properties of viral misinformation in online social media. 
Alessandro Bessi, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Volume 469, Pages 459–470, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2016.11.012, March 1, 2017.

Many Americans Believe Fake News Is Sowing Confusion
Michael Barthel, Amy Mitchell and Jesse Holcomb, Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media, December 15, 2016

23% say they have shared a made-up news story – either knowingly or not.

Evaluating information: the cornerstone of civic online reasoning. 
Sam Wineburg, Sarah McGrew, Joel Breakstone, and Teresa Ortega. (2016). Stanford Digital Repository. http://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934.

When Fake News Becomes Real: Combined Exposure to Multiple News Sources and Political Attitudes of Inefficacy, Alientation, and Cynicism.
Meital Balmas, Communication Research, Volume 41, Issue 3, Pages 430-454, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0093650212453600, April 2014