For this summer semester, I designed a new research seminar on misinformation, disinformation and other digital fakery.
Course Description: Threats of misinformation, disinformation, and other digital fakery are prominent in academic and public discourse. News media feature examples of digital disinformation prominently. Politicians accuse opponents regularly of slinging disinformation. Regulators justify initiatives of increasing corporate and state control over digital communication environments with threats of disinformation to democracies. But responsible regulation means establishing a balance between the risks of disinformation and the risks of regulatory interventions. This asks for a solid, empirically grounded understanding of the reach and effects of digital disinformation and underlying mechanisms. This raises the importance for the social sciences to reliably conceptualize, measure, and analyze the nature, spread, and impact of disinformation in digital communication environments. This course provides students with a solid understanding of core concepts related to misinformation, disinformation, and other digital fakery and supports them in the independent development of related research projects.
[Syllabus]