AoIR14 Conference – Denver, CO October 25, 2013 Jessie Daniels, PhD CUNY-Graduate Center and Hunter College Deception, Propaganda & Epistemology on the Anti-Social Web
May 13, 2015
AoIR14 Conference – Denver, COOctober 25, 2013
Jessie Daniels, PhDCUNY-Graduate Center and Hunter College
Deception, Propaganda & Epistemologyon the Anti-Social Web
@JessieNYC#ir14
@JessieNYC #ir14
The first page of search engine
results@JessieNYC #ir14
@JessieNYC #ir14
<cloaked sites> : disguise authorship in order to conceal political agenda
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<cloaked sites> : examples of deception & propaganda with features that are unique to the web
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<cloaked sites> : used by individuals, social movements, corporate interests
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“Yeah, because the site itself, it says, ‘Martin Luther King dot org’ so I guess they’re dedicated to
that.” (study participant, age 18)
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“I actually have never, I think, in my life gone to like the third
page, or the second page, because I just stop at the first page…because I mean, there
must be a reason why everything’s on the first page
and the rest of the stuff is later.”
(study participant, age 16)
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evaluating pairs of websites
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The Racial Politics of “Bias”
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“Well, you know, in looking at this site, it appears to be created by his widow, or his
family, so, it could be biased.”
(study participant, 17)
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“Two Sides to Everything”
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“I mean, I don’t think I would disagree with it. I’m sure there are some slaves that were treated
well. So, I can understand their point of
view. There’s always two sides to everything.”
(study participant, age 17)
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<anti-abortion cloaked site>
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“complications for girls”
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“post-abortion syndrome”
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not a medical condition
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rhetorical strategy of the pro-life movement
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brick-and-mortar “crisis pregnancy centers”
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<climate change denial>
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“Americans for Balanced Energy Choices”
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<my argument>
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<epistemology>
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how we know what we say we know
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Enlightenment notions of ‘truth’ rooted in empiricism and rationalism have been the cornerstone of racist culture, ideology and ‘science.’
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Enlightenment notions of race, racism and slavery were foundational to Ivy League institutions in the U.S.
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<political struggle over knowledge>
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“Social movements in the Information Age
are essentially mobilized
around cultural values...
[and seek] to seize
the power of the minds, not
state power.”~ Manuel Castells, 1997
individuals
social movements
corporate interests
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@JessieNYC #ir14
affordances become deceptions
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on the anti-social web, URLs are propaganda tools
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@JessieNYC #ir14
@JessieNYC #ir14
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truth v. truthiness = impasse
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<new technologies require new epistemologies>
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Thank you!
@JessieNYC
@JessieNYC #ir14