"[...] There are 70 million individuals who are administrators of Facebook groups. Many more coordinate groups across other platforms such as WhatsApp, Signal, and others, which are often run on mobile devices - with a global user base of 5.34 billion unique mobile users. Group administrators and mo
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derators act as “community stewards.” They are individuals in charge of reviewing user-generated content to ensure users adhere to rules, regulations, and community standards of social media platforms. They hold tremendous influence over the experience of their users, but they often step into these roles without fully understanding the scope of responsibilities they are taking on. Many community stewards describe their role as a “labor of love,” representing a substantial opportunity to catalyze large-scale, positive social change across societies. Yet, they face many challenges. Stewards cite myriad challenges, risks, rewards, and opportunities they face in managing their online groups and pages.
This report focuses on the role of community stewards in promoting healthier relationships in their online and digital groups in conflict-affected and fragile countries. There is growing evidence of the societal impacts stewards are driving through their platforms, such as mobilizing aid during crises, raising awareness on important issues, and fostering solutions to community challenges. Given their unique reach, influence, and trust, community stewards hold great potential to not only mobilize positive social change, but also to foster connection and belonging in a way that positively transforms relationships and disrupts the toxic polarization that divides societies and fuels violence. The potential of community stewards is clear; it is less clear how civil society, the private sector, governments, and others can best support and scale up this potential. Understanding the needs and incentives of community stewards to proactively use their roles for building healthier online (and offline) communities can help build on what works. Understanding the barriers and challenges they face in doing so, will serve as critical entry points for mobilizing the right support to stewards. This report looks to uncover the barriers and opportunities that stewards face in their efforts to build healthier and safer online communities in conflict-affected and fragile places." (Introduction)
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"The proliferation of political mis/disinformation on social media has led many scholars to embrace “inoculation” techniques, where individuals are trained to identify the signs of low-veracity information prior to exposure. Coordinated information operations frequently spread mis/disinformation
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through inauthentic or “troll” accounts that appear to be trustworthy members to the targeted polity, as in Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election. We experimentally tested the efficacy of inoculation against inauthentic online actors, using the Spot the Troll Quiz, a free, online educational tool that teaches how to spot markers of inauthenticity. Inoculation works in this setting. Across an online US nationally representative sample (N = 2,847), which also oversampled older adults, we find that taking the Spot the Troll Quiz (vs. playing a simple game) significantly increases participants’ accuracy in identifying trolls among a set of Twitter accounts that are novel to participants. This inoculation also reduces participants’ self-efficacy in identifying inauthentic accounts and reduced the perceived reliability of fake news headlines, although it had no effect on affective polarization. And while accuracy in the novel troll-spotting task is negatively associated with age and Republican party identification, the Quiz is equally effective on older adults and Republicans as it was on younger adults and Democrats." (Abstract)
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"Combining an innovative mix of traditional chapters, autoethnography, case studies, and dialogue within an intercultural framework, the handbook focuses on the future of media education and provides a deeper understanding of the challenges and affordances of media education as we move forward. Topi
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cs range from fighting disinformation, how vulnerable communities coped with disadvantages using media, transforming educational TV or YouTube to reach larger audiences, supporting students’ wellbeing through various online strategies, examining early childhood, parents, and media mentoring using digital tools, reflecting on educators’ intersectionality on video platforms, youth-produced media to fight injustice, teaching remotely and providing low-tech solutions to address the digital divide, search for solutions collaboratively using social media, and many more." (Publisher description)
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"The Digital citizenship education handbook is intended for teachers and parents, education decision makers and platform providers alike. It describes in depth the multiple dimensions that make up each of 10 digital citizenship domains, and includes a fact sheet on each domain providing ideas, good
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practice and further references to support educators in building the competences that will stand children in good stead when they are confronted with the challenges of tomorrow’s digital world. The Digital citizenship education handbook is consistent with the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture and compatible for use with the Internet literacy handbook." (Back cover)
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"From September 2020 to January 2021, 253 trainers delivered the FactShala training program to 23,347 adults in communities across India. The FactShala media literacy training program launched by Internews […], is an effective mechanism for spreading media and information literacy and building res
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ilience to misinformation within communities experiencing exponential growth in access to and use of the internet. Internews commissioned the Centre for Media Studies to conduct a comprehensive impact evaluation of the FactShala training in July and August 2021. This report outlines the findings of that study. The key objectives of this study are to: 1. Assess how far FactShala improved trainees' awareness of and ability to identify online misinformation and disinformation; 2. Determine how far FactShala motivated trainees to share this knowledge with others; 3. Capture best practices in curbing misinformation and disinformation at the individual, organizational or community level; 4. Provide insights to help design or improve future training modules, curricula and capacity-building sessions." (Executive Summary, page 11-12)
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"Die zunehmende Digitalisierung der Alltagskommunikation hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine neue Form der Werbung hervorgebracht: Influencer präsentieren ihren Alltag visuell in Bild- oder Videoform auf sozialen Plattformen und geben ihren Followern Tipps zu Themen wie Kosmetik und Schönheit, Gesu
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ndheit und Fitness oder Reise und Mode. Dabei platzieren sie Produkthinweise, für die sie von Unternehmen bezahlt werden – je größer ihre Followerzahl, desto mehr verdienen sie dabei. Influencer sind dabei nicht einfach nur Werbetreibende, sondern häufig auch Vorbilder. Mit ihren Ratschlägen stehen sie für viele ihrer Follower für ein gutes, anzustrebendes Leben. Ole Nymoen und Wolfgang M. Schmitt unterziehen die Sozialfigur des Influencers einer kritischen Analyse. In ihr verkörpere sich der gegenwärtige Konsumkapitalismus in all seiner Widersprüchlichkeit. Die Modernität der Kommunikation kaschiere dabei häufig nur die Vermittlung tradierter Geschlechter-, Körper- und Schönheits- sowie Konsumnormen, die durch ihre Inszenierung auf den sozialen Plattformen als Ideale präsentiert und dadurch verfestigt würden." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Las páginas que siguen están estructuradas en tres partes. En la primera se exponen las bases teóricas y epistemológicas esenciales de la Alfabetización Mediática e Informacional (AMI), fundamentalmente en los capítulos de Divina Frau-Meigs y Tessa Jolls. La segunda, donde continúan las int
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ervenciones de carácter conceptual y se suman ejemplos de políticas y metodologías de AMI en diferentes países de Iberoamérica, pero sin perder contacto con las realidades específicas analizadas. Finalmente, en la última parte se muestran experiencias concretas de proyectos AMI de Argentina, pero con potencial de aplicación en otros contextos. Cada una de estas nos permite recuperar el saber que hoy encontramos en las practicas concretas que, de forma creativa y comprometida, dieron respuesta a la continuidad pedagógica en el contexto de aislamiento producido por la COVID-19." (Introducción, página 27-28)
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"This paper will discuss the challenges and opportunities of addressing both online and offline hate speech through education and recommend comprehensive approaches for effective educational strategies. Incorporating context-based teaching and learning practices that promote responsible global citiz
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enship are important first steps that must be accompanied by a whole school- and community-based approach to creating civic spaces that embrace different perspectives and opinions, respect difference and work towards a shared sense of belonging." (Introduction, page 3)
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"En este documento presentamos una secuencia didáctica para que las y los docentes trabajen en el aula sobre las desinformaciones en contextos electorales teniendo en cuenta que las y los adolescentes son parte fundamental de los debates públicos e incluso en varios países pueden ejercer el derec
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ho al voto. Si bien es de esperar que los contenidos específicos de las desinformaciones puedan variar a lo largo del tiempo y de país en país (y en niveles subnacionales), hay algunos elementos del fenómeno que son comunes en toda la región y en todos los períodos electorales. Proponemos abordar estos elementos en las aulas como una estrategia para mitigar la masiva circulación de estos contenidos y propiciar que jóvenes tomen decisiones informadas, un desafío que, por supuesto, tenemos también las personas adultas. En el Programa de Educación de Chequeado sabemos que la escuela en general y los docentes en particular pueden promover espacios de participación que fomenten la construcción de habilidades de pensamiento crítico para que, al momento de votar, las y los jóvenes lo hagan a partir de información verificada. Entendemos que enseñar en la escuela estas habilidades, especialmente aquellas vinculadas con la identificación de desinformación, como parte de la Alfabetización Mediática e Informacional (AMI) es prioritario para el fortalecimiento del sistema democrático." (Introducción)
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