Sep 2022 Dr Rakoen Maertens - The Psychology of Fake News.
Mon, Sep 26th 2022 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
6pm Meet in the Arundel Bar for a chat. Meal due 6.30pm.
5pm Project Committee Meeting (meet David E).
Dr Rakoen Maertens works in the Cambridge University Psychology Department.
His current work is around the psychology of Fake News (mostly online) and how to identify it and armour yourself against it.
A very interesting and relevant topic.
Menu - Gammon and Berry Meringue.
Remember to Book by previous Wednesday via Alan Shipp.
Rakoens work has been extensive and is incredibly relevant to finding a way through the current confused climate of abundant Fake News and Misinformation.
He suggests a shield of healthy scepticism, keeping an Open mind and checking facts from a number of sources and finding reliable unbiased news sources, dont end up in an echo chamber - innoculate yourself against the tendency to be sucked into Fake News !.
He outlined and defined 3 levels of the problem :
1. To Misinform - to spread false or spread misinformation and implication.
2. To Disinform - to intentionally spread misinformation.
3. Propaganda - a carefully organised influence campaign.
He talked about the 6 Degrees of manipulation that builds to problems :
D.E.P.I.C.T.
Discredit - create a cloud of doubt.
Emotion - use highly emotive language to stir people up.
Polarisation - use hot-button topics to divide and polarise groups.
Impersonation - misusing the identity of prominent people such as politicians, experts or celebrities online.
Conspiracy - cast doubt on mainstream narratives to provide an attractive but erroneous story in which a sinister group of people is responsible for doing harm to many.
Trolling - elicit reactions from people by provoking them online.
The destructive results of this activity has been seen in such acts as eg. the setting on fire of 77 cell phone masts in response to a weird coronavirus 5G conspiracy theory. Also the vaccine hesitancy during Covid.
BOOK to read : The Debunking Handbook 2020 https://sks.to/db2020
GAMES TO PLAY ONLINE :
www.GetBadNews.com - get a measure of how vulnerable you are.
https://harmonysquare.game/ - help to protect you against misinformation.
https://www.goviralgame.com/
Check your news source Fake News Rating : https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
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