uwcip

uwcip, 26 days ago to random

One of the primary ways that false election rumors take shape is through misinterpretations and/or mischaracterizations of “real” evidence. A recent tweet thread about anomalies in Washington state voter registration demonstrates two dimensions of those misinterpretations.

Read our analysis: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2024/05/14/washington-voter-registration-data-mischaracterization/

#2024Elections #VoterRegistration #WashingtonState

uwcip, 3 months ago to Seattle

"Around the time the U.S. government was testing nuclear bombs on Bikini Atoll in the spring of 1954, residents of Bellingham, Washington, inspected their windshields and noticed holes, pits, and other damage."

Read more in "Rumors Have Rules" by @uwcip co-founders Emma Spiro and @katestarbird, recently republished in American Scientist: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/rumors-have-rules

#BellinghamWA #Seattle

uwcip, 4 months ago to newhampshire

In case you missed the @uwcip rapid research blog post from last week with observations about election rumors around the New Hampshire primary: "Despite the relative 'quiet' of intra-party rumor during this primary, the engagement with these extra-party narratives, 10 months before the general election, signal a group of supporters eager — and perhaps impatient — to rerun the claims and tropes of the 2020 election."

https://www.cip.uw.edu/2024/01/26/republican-new-hampshire-conspiracy-theories/

#2024elections #NewHampshire

uwcip, 4 months ago to random

In a @nbcnews article, @zadrozny interviewed @uwcip research scientist @mikecaulfield and writes: "The delay in catching false narratives early is essentially giving disinformation a head start, Caulfield said, and could mean a delay in fact-checking efforts and context from journalists."

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/disinformation-unprecedented-threat-2024-election-rcna134290

#Disinformation #2024elections

uwcip, 4 months ago to random

Do you (or someone you know) have a JD, LLM or PhD in Law and have an interest in studying the legal and policy aspects of misinformation?

The University of Washington School of Law is seeking a visiting or acting assistant professor who will serve as a @uwcip resident legal fellow.

Learn more: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2024/01/10/uw-law-school-visiting-acting-assistant-professor-cip-resident-legal-fellow-position/

Full position description, application requirements and other information:
https://apply.interfolio.com/138703

#LawFedi #Misinformation #TechPolicy

uwcip, 5 months ago to random

"People are very impatient," @uwcip research scientist @mikecaulfield , co-author of the recently released book "Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions on What to Believe Online," said in a recent KUOW Public Radio interview. "They want to share the thing, right? They want to move on. If you tell people, look, you've got to spend 10 minutes before you share something, there's a there's a very easy choice for them."

https://www.kuow.org/stories/tips-for-sorting-online-fact-from-fiction

#MediaLiteracy

uwcip, 5 months ago to random

We're currently seeking applications for up to 2 postdoctoral scholars to join our team at the @uwcip in Seattle, starting a two-year term as early as June. Preference will be given for applications submitted before January 15.

Complete position description and information on the application process, salary and benefits and minimum qualifications: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/11/16/cip-seeking-applications-for-up-to-2-postdoctoral-scholars/

uwcip, 6 months ago to instagramreality

"Advertisers are in a unique position to push for a more responsible and ethical online environment, addressing a gap where platforms have been slow to act. But it must be done with caution," @uwcip legal fellow Elissa Melendez writes in a blog post about the recent advertiser exodus from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/12/04/advertiser-influence-platform-accountability-x-twitter/

#SocialMedia #UWCIP

uwcip, 7 months ago to internet

Social-media researchers overemphasized the platform now called X for years. But now, as it rapidly changes into something new and frightening, we risk paying too little attention, @uwcip research scientist @mikecaulfield writes in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03483-8

#SocialMedia #UWCIP

uwcip, 7 months ago to instagramreality

“It would be odd if TikTok consumption was not having an effect on younger people’s perceptions of the war,” @uwcip research scientist @mikecaulfield told Gizmodo. “I don’t think there’s any doubt it has an impact. But it’s a long leap from there to claiming that this is due to specific suppression of content. There are just so many other possibilities.”

https://gizmodo.com/tiktok-responds-to-republican-attacks-anti-israel-1850987427

#TikTok #SocialMedia #MediaLit #UWCIP

uwcip, 7 months ago to random

The WarMonitors and sentdefender accounts "were among seven cited a week ago by researchers at the University of Washington as the 'new elites' of influence on X, with more than 1.6 billion combined views in the first three days of the war," @JosephMenn of The Washington Post reports: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/27/x-twitter-elite-hamas-accounts-london-georgia/

Read our recent @uwcip rapid research report, "The 'new elites' of X: Identifying the most influential accounts engaged in Hamas/Israel discourse" here: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/10/20/new-elites-twitter-x-most-influential-accounts-hamas-israel/
#UWCIP

uwcip, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to internet

In a new @uwcip rapid research report, "The ‘new elites’ of X: Identifying the most influential accounts engaged in Hamas/Israel discourse," our team examines how a small group of users are responsible for a significant amount of the content seen in the discourse around the current conflict.

These "new elites" use X differently than traditional news accounts, in ways that may be disorienting to audiences.

https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/10/20/new-elites-twitter-x-most-influential-accounts-hamas-israel/

#SocialMedia #UWCIP #MediaLiteracy

uwcip, 7 months ago to random

As A.W. Ohlheiser recently wrote in @Vox, the SIFT method, developed by digital literacy expert and CIP research scientist @mikecaulfield, "is a good framework for learning how to evaluate emotionally charged or outrage-inducing online posts in the middle of an unfolding crisis."

Read more in Vox: https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/10/12/23913472/misinformation-israel-hamas-war-social-media-literacy-palestine
Learn more about SIFT: https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/

#MediaLiteracy #FactChecking #SIFT #Misinformation #UWCIP

uwcip, 7 months ago to random

“There wasn't suddenly a massive decline in critical thinking,” @uwcip research scientist @mikecaulfield, co-author of "Verified: How to think straight, get duped less and make better decisions about what to believe online," told EdSurge. “People were just applying approaches to information on the internet that weren't really appropriate to the internet, that people were applying some of these pre-internet approaches that weren't really applicable.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-10-10-how-to-help-students-avoid-getting-duped-online-and-by-ai-chatbots

#MediaLiteracy

uwcip, 8 months ago to random

“Anecdotal evidence that X is failing this stress test is plentiful,” @uwcip research scientist @mikecaulfield told @JosephMenn in a Washington Post report. “Go on the platform, do a search on Israel or Gaza — you don’t have to scroll very far to find dubious or debunked information.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/08/israel-hamas-disinfo-musk-twitter-x/

#UWCIP #Misinformation #Disinformation #MediaLiteracy

uwcip, 8 months ago to random

At the @uwcip, we're pleased to welcome two new postdoctoral scholars.

Mert Can Bayar, who comes to us from Binghamton University’s Political Science Department, will be focusing primarily on the CIP’s rapid-response research in the elections space.

Yiwei Xu, who comes to us from Cornell University's Department of Communication, will be focusing on misinformation and disinformation primarily in the areas of health and wellbeing.

Learn more: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/09/25/cip-postdoctoral-scholars-mert-can-bayar-and-yiwei-xu/

#UWCIP #Misinformation

uwcip, 8 months ago to random

In a @lawfare op/ed, @uwcip director @katestarbird writes: "As we navigate this multifaceted and sustained assault on disinformation researchers, it’s important to take stock of the implications for our country and, most immediately, the upcoming 2024 elections."

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-battle-for-better-information

#UWCIP #Misinformation #Disinformation #UniversityOfWashington

uwcip, 8 months ago to random

When the University of Washington's popular "Calling Bullshit" course, co-developed and co-taught by @uwcip faculty members Jevin West and @ct_bergstrom, was first offered in spring 2017, the course filled in one minute when registration opened at midnight.

“The people in the records office told us it was the fastest they’d ever seen any course fill,” Bergstrom said in a September 2023 UW Arts & Sciences article. “The demand was there.”

https://artsci.washington.edu/news/2023-09/hows-your-bs-detector

#UWCIP #UniversityOfWashington

uwcip, 9 months ago to random

In a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences news feature, "How to mitigate misinformation," M. Mitchell Waldrop interviews @uwcip co-founder Jevin West about work with University of Washington colleagues to "develop a computer simulation that treats the spread of misinformation as a kind of contagion and that’s calibrated with real-world data on 10.5 million misinformation tweets during the 2020 election." https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2314143120

#UWCIP #UniversityOfWashington #Misinformation

uwcip, 9 months ago to maui

🧵 In a new @uwcip rapid research report, @mikecaulfield and @katestarbird found that YouTube’s search surfaced reliable information about the Lahaina fire’s causes, even when prompted with a search targeted at bringing up coverage of non-existent deliberate causes. However, “other factors both internal to YouTube (existing channel subscribers) and external (social sharing on other platforms) may be driving a different kind of consumption.” [1/3]

https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/08/31/youtube-lahaina-wildfires-causes/

#UWCIP #Maui #Wildfire

uwcip, 10 months ago to ai

In a recent interview with Axios about how AI will turbocharge misinformation, @uwcip director @katestarbird shared three key ideas:

1. Generative AI is great at churning out misinformation.
2. Generative AI helps those who deliberately seek to mislead.
3. Generative AI models themselves offer a new target for those who seek to shape the information debate on a topic.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2023/07/10/ai-misinformation-response-measures

#UWCIP #AI #Misinformation #GenerativeAI

uwcip, 11 months ago to random

Be part of our vibrant, multidisciplinary research community here at the @uwcip in Seattle! We're still seeking applications for our CIP Community Fellowship program.

We're looking for practitioners from a wide range of fields interested in exploring the intersection of research and professional experience through experiential learning and practical application.

Apply by July 15! Learn more: https://www.cip.uw.edu/community-fellowship/

uwcip, 1 year ago to random

In a recently published Issues in Science and Technology article, @uwcip co-founders Emma Spiro and @katestarbird explore how decades-old research about how and why people share rumors is even more relevant today in a world with social media.

Spiro and Starbird write: "The study of rumors, which surged around World War II, is still very relevant."

➡️ Read more: https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/05/19/spiro-starbird-rumors/

#UWCIP #Misinformation #Rumors #MisinformationResearch