Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies (390-0-20)

Topic

Witches, Bots & Trolls: Misinformation in Society

Instructors

Ann Kathryn Wilkinson

Meeting Info

University Hall 102: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Topic: Witches, Bots, and Trolls: Misinformation in Society.

This course surveys the social scientific study of misinformation in society. We will query the past to learn about how misinformation has evolved over time as a sociocultural feature of human societies. We will interrogate the present to examine how misinformation figures in the defining political, social, and economic problems of our time. And we will imagine the implications of misinformation for the future and explore our agency in shaping that future. We will draw on case studies, documentaries, and anthropological and social scientific literature on rumor and gossip, conspiracy theories, post-truth politics, deradicalization, and social media to explore topics and concepts such as "fake news," digital populism, algorithmic bias, weaponized disinformation, the "infodemic," deep fakes, and more. Case studies may include COVID-19 and climate change denialism, political conspiracy theories from the French Revolution to the Red Scare to Pizzagate, troll farms and other tactics of information warfare, and the role of misinformation in current controversies over "gender ideology," trans rights, and critical race theory.

Class Materials (Required)

1. Phillips, Whitney, and Ryan M. Milner. You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape. Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England: The MIT Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780262539913 2. Rid, Thomas. Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020 ISBN: 9780374287269 3. Stengel, Richard. Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle against Disinformation & What We Can Do about I. First edition. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2019. ISBN: 9780802149428