"Neste volume trabalhamos com Reflexividade, hermenêutica e Fake News adentrando em questões específicas do contexto social, político e cultural vivenciadas na contemporaneidade. Com um olhar atento para as teorias da comunicação, este volume adentra as peculiaridades das distintas regiões br
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asileiras e de países da América Latina problematizando a repercussão dos fatores nos meios de comunicação. Calcadas em aprofundamentos teóricos que instigam a reflexividade os capítulos apresentados caminham por discursos e lugares complexos mas carentes de investigação. Diante de trabalhos densos e de temáticas atuais, o vol. 4 sinaliza problemáticas evidenciadas em um cenário complexo de relações políticas, culturais e sociais extremamente vulnerável. Permite evidenciar situações que até pouco tempo mantiveram-se algemadas e incrustadas em uma sociedade conservadora e repressiva que vem dando sinais de inquietação. Instigamos aos leitores exercitarem uma leitura crítica e questionadora das teorias e dos fatos apresentados. Só assim conseguiremos adentrar em temáticas tão complexas empossados de compromisso." (Resumo)
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"Competencias mediáticas en medios digitales emergentes aborda los asuntos más importantes que atraviesan los campos de estudios de la Comunicación o la Educación y en específico de las competencias mediáticas y digitales de la ciudadanía como capacidad de los individuos de desenvolverse en e
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l actual ecosistema mediático. Organizada en torno a tres ejes temáticos claramente diferenciados, se analizan los aspectos generales de las Competencias Mediáticas y sus dimensiones estructuradas, entre ellas el lenguaje, la producción y difusión, las ideologías y los valores, las tecnologías y las estéticas y narrativas. Asimismo, se revisan las actuales problemáticas sociales de interacción con los medios digitales desde los resultados obtenidos por la red Alfamed (Red Interuniversitaria Euroamericana de Investigación en Competencias Mediáticas para la Ciudadanía), con el apoyo del Proyecto I+D+I Coordinado “Competencias mediáticas de la ciudadanía en medios digitales emergentes (smartphones y tablets): Prácticas innovadoras y estrategias educomunicativas en contextos múltiples”, y de la “Red de Educación Mediática” del Programa Estatal de Investigación Científica-Técnica de Excelencia, Subprograma Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento. Para terminar, sus autores proponen algunas prácticas educomunicativas dirigidas a usuarios, padres de familia, centros de formación e instituciones del Estado con el fin de paliar las consecuencias de los problemas que la ausencia de dichas competencias acarrean para la sociedad en su conjunto." (Resumen)
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"This article explores the dynamics of digital (dis)information in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. International Relations scholars have presented the online debate in terms of ‘information warfare’—that is, a number of strategic campaigns to win over local and global public opinion,
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largely orchestrated by the Kremlin and pro-western authorities. However, this way of describing the online debate reduces civil society to a mere target for manipulation. This article presents a different understanding of the debate. By examining the social media engagement generated by one of the conflict's most important events—the downing of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over Ukraine—we explore how competing claims about the cause of the plane crash are disseminated by the state, media and civil society. By analysing approximately 950,000 tweets, the article demonstrates how individual citizens are more than purveyors of government messages; they are the most active drivers of both disinformation and attempts to counter such information. These citizen curators actively shape competing narratives about why MH17 crashed and citizens, as a group, are four times more likely to be retweeted than any other type of user. Our findings challenge conceptualizations of a state-orchestrated information war over Ukraine, and point to the importance of citizen activity in the struggle over truths during international conflicts." (Abstract)
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"While the Internet and multimedia applications have made it easy to produce and spread media, they have also made it possible to distribute fake news to masses. With over 200 million active users in India and growing, WhatsApp's reach and features make it a top choice to spread fake news. This not
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only influences public opinion in India but has also sometimes created panic and incited to violence. This paper looks into how political propaganda is peddled through the WhatsApp in the form of 'news' (fake news). It also explores what makes the WhatsApp such a powerful application in Indian context, how do people use it and how existing laws in India make it difficult to trace the origin of the fake news." (Abstract)
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"In both authoritarian and democratic contexts, new forms of censorship online are carried out through distributed attacks on freedom of expression that are insidiously difficult to detect, and often just as effective, if not more, than the kinds of brute force techniques by state agents that came b
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efore. Their goal is not always to block users, content or themes, but to attack the democratic discourse, weaken trust in institutions like the media, other governments, the opposition, and civil society. These strategies increasingly polarize and diminish the networked public sphere, resulting in a more dangerous and confined space for media and civil society to operate." (Key findings)
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"Our study is the first to identify and analyse who is shaping African Twitter conversations during elections over the past year. The study found that 53 per cent of the leading voices on Twitter around ten elections on the continent during the past year came from outside the country in which the el
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ections were contested. Bots, and accounts displaying machine-like behaviour, were active across all elections, particularly in Kenya, where they accounted for a quarter of all influential accounts. One of the more surprising findings from the study was the limited influence politicians had on the conversation. Rwanda was the exception, where 1 in every 3 influential handles was a political account – the highest figure across all elections analysed. This doesn’t mean politicians weren’t being talked about. Many of the top hashtags included references to politicians or political parties, including #UmaAngolaParaTodos in Angola, #Weah in Liberia and #Kagame in Rwanda. This study demonstrates that people continue to seek out the voices they trust with established journalists and news outlets consistently ranked in the top three influencers across all elections. With fake news and bots influencing conversations on social media, people continue to search for traditional sources of verified, accurate information." (Introduction)
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"The purpose of this RISJ factsheet is to provide toplevel usage statistics for the most popular sites that independent fact-checkers and other observers have identified as publishers of false news and online disinformation in two European countries: France and Italy. We focus specifically on sites
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that independent fact-checkers have shown to publish demonstrably false news and information, whether for profit or for ideological/political purposes. This constitutes a more clearly defined subset of a wider range of issues sometimes discussed using the broad, vague, and politicized term “fake news”. We examine France and Italy as two particularly important cases, as both are widely seen as facing serious issues with forprofit and ideologically/politically motivated online disinformation. Based on a starting sample of around 300 websites in each country that independent fact-checkers have identified as publishers of false news (which, on this basis, we refer to as “false news sites”), we focus on measuring these sites’ reach, attention, and number of interactions on Facebook. We provide context by comparing these figures with equivalent data for a small selection of the most widely-used French and Italian news brands. We find that: • None of the false news websites we considered had an average monthly reach of over 3.5% in 2017, with most reaching less than 1% of the online population in both France and Italy. By comparison, the most popular news websites in France (Le Figaro) and Italy (La Repubblica) had an average monthly reach of 22.3% and 50.9%, respectively; • The total time spent with false news websites each month is lower than the time spent with news websites. The most popular false news websites in France were viewed for around 10 million minutes per month, and for 7.5 million minutes in Italy. People spent an average of 178 million minutes per month with Le Monde, and 443 million minutes with La Repubblica—more than the combined time spent with all 20 false news sites in each sample; • Despite clear differences in terms of website access, the level of Facebook interaction (defined as the total number of comments, shares, and reactions) generated by a small number of false news outlets matched or exceeded that produced by the most popular news brands. In France, one false news outlet generated an average of over 11 million interactions per month—five times greater than more established news brands. However, in most cases, in both France and Italy, false news outlets do not generate as many interactions as established news brands." (Pages 1-2)
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"This research is aimed at assessing national vulnerabilities and preparedness to counteract foreign-led disinformation in 14 countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The Visegrad states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), Eastern Partnership countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia
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, Moldova, Ukraine), the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Romania are covered. An integral part of the research is the Disinformation Resilience Index, which is quantitative assessment of exposure to Kremlin-led disinformation and the level of national resilience to disinformation campaigns." (Page 1)
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"55% of the interviewees have mixed feelings about how well informed they are regarding the general events from the Republic of Moldova. 43% of the respondents stated that they don’t feel informed at all or feel informed to a small extent regarding the events from the country. At the same time, 40
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% stated that they are satisfied with the Republic of Moldova mass media. A large percentage - 92% - of the respondents totally agree or somewhat agree that “it is important for Moldovans to be able to distinguish the news which intend to manipulate and misinform citizens”. At the same time, when asked what type of sources they use for information, almost half (45%) mentioned that they follow the news, but are not sure which sources are independent. 44% of the respondents believe that it would be “difficult” or “very difficult” to distinguish when mass media’s intention is to manipulate or change the opinion of the citizens. At the same time, 61% of the interviewees believe that the population of Moldova could hardly make a difference between fake and real news. 85% of the participants believe that news in the Republic of Moldova are influenced by politics 'a lot' or 'very much'." (Summary)
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"Auf Glaubwürdigkeit und Vertrauen, auch auf die Allgemeingültigkeit grundlegender und verbindlicher Wertvorstellungen, gründet sich allerdings das Zusammenleben in der menschlichen Gesellschaft. Wo verbreitet Misstrauen herrscht, ist ein konstruktives Miteinander kaum noch möglich. Wenn Misstra
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uen sogar absichtlich geschürt wird, um zu polarisieren, gefährdet dies unsere Demokratie. Öffentliche Debatten werden in vielen Fällen aggressiver, falsche Aussagen verbreiten sich schneller denn je. Den klugen Umgang mit Informationen muss man lernen, möglichst schon in der Schule. Insofern ist Glaubwürdigkeit auch bedeutsam für die politische Bildung. Über ein so kontroverses Thema muss man mit überzeugenden Argumenten auf der Grundlage nachprüfbarer Informationen sprechen und auch streiten, um sich eine Meinung zu bilden. Dazu will dieser Band beitragen. Die Schwierigkeit – oder eher Kunst – bei einem so breit angelegten Thema liegt in der Beschränkung. Nach reiflicher Überlegung haben wir uns entschieden, „Glaubwürdigkeit“ in den drei gesellschaftlichen Feldern „Politik“, „Medien“ und „Gesellschaft“ aus verschiedenen Perspektiven zu beleuchten." (Editorial, Seite 8)
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"The guide explores the notion that fake news is not just another type of content that circulates online, but that it is precisely the character of this online circulation and reception that makes something into fake news. In this sense fake news may be considered not just in terms of the form or co
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ntent of the message, but also in terms of the mediating infrastructures, platforms and participatory cultures which facilitate its circulation. In this sense, the significance of fake news cannot be fully understood apart from its circulation online. It is the register of this circulation that also enables us to trace how material that starts its life as niche satire can be repackaged as hyper-partisan clickbait to generate advertising money and then continue life as an illustration of dangerous political misinformation. As a consequence this field guide encourages a shift from focusing on the formal content of fabrications in isolation to understanding the contexts in which they circulate online. This shift points to the limits of a “deficit model” approach – which might imply that fabrications thrive only because of a deficit of factual information. In the guide we suggest new ways of mapping and responding to fake news beyond identifying and fact-checking suspect claims – including “thicker” accounts of circulation as a way to develop a richer understanding of how fake news moves and mobilises people, more nuanced accounts of “fakeness” and responses which are better attuned to the phenomenon." (Page 8)
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"Governments around the world have dramatically increased their efforts to manipulate information on social media over the past year. The Chinese and Russian regimes pioneered the use of surreptitious methods to distort online discussions and suppress dissent more than a decade ago, but the practice
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has since gone global. Such state-led interventions present a major threat to the notion of the internet as a liberating technology. Online content manipulation contributed to a seventh consecutive year of overall decline in internet freedom, along with a rise in disruptions to mobile internet service and increases in physical and technical attacks on human rights defenders and independent media. Nearly half of the 65 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net 2017 experienced declines during the coverage period, while just 13 made gains, most of them minor. Less than one-quarter of users reside in countries where the internet is designated Free, meaning there are no major obstacles to access, onerous restrictions on content, or serious violations of user rights in the form of unchecked surveillance or unjust repercussions for legitimate speech." (Page 1)
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"Alarmingly, the research reveals that fake news is a pervasive problem surrounding the Kenyan elections with 90% of respondents having seen false or inaccurate information and 87% viewing this information as being deliberately false. Why does this matter? An informed citizenry is vital to Kenya’s
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democracy and the findings have serious implications for the media and society at large. With a third of Kenyans unable to access accurate information about the election, fake news is limiting the public’s ability to make informed decisions. This is of course extremely relevant to the business and political communities alike. For the mainstream media, the survey findings will come as good news, with most Kenyans trusting traditional media sources such as TV, which has a trust level of 76%. With 67% of Kenyans actively wanting comprehensive and detailed information and 78% wanting factual and accurate information, Kenya’s media establishment should be encouraged to invest in better journalism." (In conclusion, page 14)
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"The term “fake news” became increasingly common during the past year. While this concept has many synonyms—disinformation campaigns, cyber propaganda, cognitive hacking, and information warfare—it’s just one facet of the bigger problem: the manipulation of public opinion to affect the rea
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l world. Thanks to the connectivity and digital platforms that make it possible to share and spread information, traditional challenges such as physical borders and the constraints of time and distance do not exist anymore. Unfortunately, it also makes it easier to manipulate the public’s perception of reality and thought processes, resulting in the proliferation of fake news that affects our real, non-digital environment. Each new incident shows how much impact the technological manipulation of public opinion can have on people’s daily lives. This paper studies and explores the techniques and methods used by actors to spread fake news and manipulate public opinion to serve various motives ranging from personal and financial to political. It also discusses the three legs of the fake news triangle: the services that enable them, their appearance on social media sites, and the motivations behind these activities. We demonstrate several techniques used to identify such campaigns by processing social media data and show how it is possible to trace those campaigns to the original perpetrators. Finally, we discuss how social media platforms and the general public can counter fake news." (Page 3)
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"The share of interviewed persons who said that mass media in the Republic of Moldova behaves to a great extent responsibly to its audience remains at a very low level—8% (7% in September 2016, 8% in January 2016). However, as we can see in the chart below, there are also some good signs, despite
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the majority of persons being dissatisfied with the lack of responsibility of the national media—48% (54% in September 2016, 57% in January 2016)—we can see a significant progress of the perception of media’s increased responsibility to their audience against the answer ’to a great extent’, i.e. a consistent evolution from 30% to 43% during 2 years." (Main conclusions, page 4)
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"Cyber troops are government, military or political party teams committed to manipulating public opinion over social media. In this working paper, we report on specific organizations created, often with public money, to help define and manage what is in the best interest of the public. We compare su
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ch organizations across 28 countries, and inventory them according to the kinds of messages, valences and communication strategies used. We catalogue their organizationalforms and evaluate their capacities in terms of budgets and staffing. This working paper summarizes the findings of the first comprehensive inventory of the major organizations behind social media manipulation. We find that cyber troops are a pervasive and global phenomenon. Many different countries employ significant numbers of people and resources to manage and manipulate public opinion online, sometimes targeting domestic audiences and sometimes targeting foreign publics. The earliest reports of organized social media manipulation emerged in 2010, and by 2017 there are details on such organizations in 28 countries. Looking across the 28 countries, every authoritarian regime has social media campaigns targeting their own populations, while only a few of them target foreign publics. In contrast, almost every democracy in this sample has organized social media campaigns that target foreign publics, while political-party-supported campaigns target domestic voters. Authoritarian regimes are not the only or even the best at organized social media manipulation. The earliest reports of government involvement in nudging public opinion involve democracies, and new innovations in political communication technologies often come from political parties and arise during high-profile elections. Over time, the primary mode for organizing cyber troops has gone from involving military units that experiment with manipulating public opinion over social media networks to strategic communication firms that take contracts from governments for social media campaigns." (Executive summary)
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