project

ABSTRACT

This project is about the spread of mis- and disinformation and how it is affecting our society. According to Schick in the Age of Information, our information ecosystem has become polluted and dangerous (2020).
Research shows that misinformation spreads faster than the truth and people are not able to be critical and filter it all by themselves (Kleinman). Social media is a public platform and because of that anyone — including news outlets — can post anything without being accountable for fact-checking (‘Fake News on Social Media |’). By 2023, approximately two thirds of the world – 5.3 billion people – will be plugged into this rapidly evolving information environment (Schick 54).
The research explores what fake news are doing to people and what is possible to do in order to facilitate critical thinking, for people to not fall prey to misinformation and to act upon it. Although fake news is not a new phenomenon, what the society is facing now is different in terms of its universality and potency (Schick). We live in times of an Infocalypse: an information ecosystem connected to technological revo- lutions in human connectivity and communication – the Internet, smartphones, social media and video as forms of communication. The posted mis- and disinformation has real-world consequences that threaten everyone (Schick).
In order to intervene the practice part of my project is going to be meme's account, where I will post simple relatable memes that people can share in order to talk about this topic and bring attention to it.

This project started from the different topics that were talked about in the Powerplay minor classes. We talked about decolonial listening and power play. Read texts connecting to that and consumed a lot of different media.
Because we could use any method that we want for the research, I decided to start the project with the DART (Driver Analysis – Reading Trends) method.
This approach helps organize and develop intuition in the research and development phase of a creative processes.
DART (Driver Analysis – Reading Trends) is a model designed for organizing intuition. In its current form, it targets future designers, forecasters, and communicators.
Using the DART model I started collecting different hunches on the topics that interest me and what seems to be most relevant. The different initial hunches and ideas can be looked at under the research page.

TOPICS/HUNCHES:
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Zoombombing—how to make it work in a positive way?
Politician kissing his wife’s new boobs over zoom.
Only fans—exploited, but now they use it to make money
Private stuff while in public while working from home — we feel secure but is it actually so?
How much privacy are we willing to give up?
10 year challenge for facial recognition
Twitter algorithm bias thing
The black professor who's head was deleted
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Confirmation bias
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Diplomas and how they determine our status and possibilities in society.

Project ideas I've had along the way:
- Create a podcast where I talk to people who have either shared or experienced someone else sharing fake news
- Podcast with people who have been zoombombed
- Another way around manual on how to create and spread fake news

Here you can see the start of playing around with the idea of a manual.

Research topic: The threat of violence in online conferences
Research question: What will be the impact of having How can we create a safer space in online conferences?  How does the violence in online conferences affect participants? What will be the impact of violence in online conferences to our daily lives?
Overview of the research problem and where/how your research seeks to intervene:

We are currently experiencing a time where for many people life is moving from the public to the private because of working from home through internet. Even the private becomes a non-safe space because it is becoming public. Mostly in order to exit public space, means going home or to one's place of work, but for many of us currently it means staying in the same space — our homes. The private is being transgressed. People can come to this space with bad intentions to disrupt whatever you are doing. It is an action with certain level of exhibitionisn without consequences. For instance if you disrupt someone’s zoom conference with a violent act, no one will be able to easily figure out who and where you are.

FIRST RESEARCH TOPIC/QUESTION

When I was creating the manual for the practice project, I started playing around with memes and sending them to my friends to see how they react. With the manual I also ran into some problems, the same way like I did with the podcast idea - why am I doing it exactly and what is the purpose? I understood once running the manual idea by some friends who care about this topic that it gets lost. The truth is that when it comes to manuals, oftentimes they get overlooked and not read, so there is a a high possibility that the manual will not be read. I decided to look for more ideas and inspiration. What helped me here in the end was observation - what do people do around social media? What do they write about? What do they react to?