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Disinformation & Social Media Bootcamp

The Bootcamp workshops were developed and delivered in the lead-up to Election 2020. While the specifics of the disinformation campaigns may be different, the principles, themes and strategies discussed are relevant to communication dynamics on social platforms. Whether we are facing an unprecedented national election, or a local off-year battle, the lessons and the strategies remain the same. In fact, we can make an even bigger difference in local elections as strategic, proactive social media consumers and creators.

The following resources are referenced during the Disinformation and Social Media Bootcamp training sessions.

General Resources:

First Draft News - Understanding Information Disorder

First Draft News - Training Videos (most videos have subtitles in multiple languages)
Center for Humane Technology - Nonprofit dedicated to humane and ethnical technology design and policy advocate.

Renee DiResta - Yale Review - Computational Propaganda - Make it Trend, Make it True

Twitter

One of the best ways to learn about disinformation is to follow trustworthy experts who study online culture and propaganda. Here are accounts that we turn to for insights:

@cward1e - Claire Wardle - Strategy Lead at FirstDraft News (see above)

@JaneLytv - Jane Lytvynenko - Senior Reporter, Buzzfeed

@RVAWonk - Carolyn Orr - Behavioral Scientist and Reporter

@MelissaRyan - Melissa Ryan - Producer - Ctrl-Alt-Right-Delete (subscribe)

@noUpside - Renee DiResta - Stanford Internet Observatory - Make it trend, make it true.

@selectedwisdom - Clint Watts - Author, Reporter, MSNBC contributor

@BostonJoan - Joan Donovan, PhD - Research Director, Shorenstein Center at Harvard - also check out Joan's Big If True series and subscribe to Meme War Weekly

@BrandyZadrozny - Brandy Sadrozny - Reporter, NBC

@conspirator0 - Conspirador Norteño - Data Scientist, Twitter researcher extraordinaire
@oneunderscore_ - Ben Collins - Reporter, NBC
@digitalsista - Shireen Mitchell - Disinfo fighter in diversity, tech, media & politics
@BrandingBrandi - Brandi Collins-Dexter - Campaign Director at Color of Change overseeing media, democracy and economic justice
@donie - Donie O'Sullivan - Reporter, CNN
@katestarbird - Kate Starbird - Professor of Human Centered Design and Researcher at University of Washington
@womenindisinfo - Women of Influence - Community of female academics with expertise in information warfare, propaganda studies and disinformation

This is a growing list and they have been compiled in this Twitter list - Disinfo Detectives.

Newsletters

Melissa Ryan - Ctrl Alt Right Delete (newsletter sign-up)

Meme War Weekly - weekly newsletter produced by the Technology and Social Change (TaSC) Research Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University (and subscribe)

ACRONYM - FWIW (For What It's Worth) - a weekly newsletter tracking political spending and digital trends.

Videos

View in YouTube for translated subtitles.

How you can help transform the internet into a place of trust - Claire Wardle, First Draft News

How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day - Tristan Harris, Center for Humane Technology

Fact-checking

These sites are a good first-stop for checking the veracity of a story you're seeing:

Snopes

Factcheck.org

Politifact

Many fact-checking resources were initially developed for journalists, and available to anyone. The following are resources that teach you how to fact check:

First Draft - Verifying online information: The absolute essentials

First Draft - Verification Training Materials

Verification Handbook for Disinformation and Media Manipulation

Michael Caulfield - Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers

Disinformation self-test and quizzes

Can you spot the fakes?

Clemson University Media Forensics Hub - Spot the Troll - an instructive self-test
First Draft News - Observation Challenge to test your eye for verification