Probing Influences
NUI Galway
Tell Me No Lies: Podcasts and Misinformation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fiona McGarry
In podcasting, the intimacy of the listening experience has been long been one of its strengths. The connection between the host/creator and the listener can been deeply personal - and influential. The listener’s role in selecting the content and the listening environment, creates a relationship unlike that involved in conventional audio listening via media like radio. The relationship between the podcaster and the listener can also be fraught with potential for deception and misinformation. From a casual lack of fact-checking or a lazy reliance on dubious sources, to a systematic effort to push a particular ideology, podcasters have the power to seed misinformation, accidentally or deliberately, to a potential audience of millions. Gaps in social moderation currently mean that many podcasting platforms continue to provide a safe haven for problematic ideologies. This is in sharp contrast to the efforts of other platforms including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to clamp down on misinformation and fake news. It is all the more concerning when prestigious brands continue to offer a platform, and therefore credibility, to potentially dangerous content. This discussion examines the podcast eco-system and the many rabbit holes of misinformation that continue to exist for the propagation of conspiracy theories. It will focus in particular on how podcasts function as part of the wider social media campaigns of extreme political agents. It also examines the parallel rise of fact-checking and myth-busting podcasts from public service broadcasters and other media organisations, and their attempts to rid the audiosphere of misinformation.
Featured Media For Equitable Instruction in High-need Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Leila Kubesch
The presenter will share creative ways she used the media to engage the community to connect her students to a world of diverse views as they develop project-based learning. Participants will consider how she used various media to implement equitable teaching and learning for her students, the impact of community outreach, and engagement on the learning
Hindu Nationalism, Social Media, and Post-truth: A Consideration of the Liberal Twitter Response
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nissim Mannathukkaren
There has been a growing scholarship on the emergence of right-wing nationalism, populism, as well as social media in the global arena. The same is true, on a lesser scale, with regards to the phenomenon of post-truth, although this is largely restricted to the Western world. The present paper explores the dynamics of Hindu nationalism and post-truth in India, a novel area of research, but from the other end. It will, by relying on qualitative data from Twitter, examine the strategy adopted by liberal critics on social media to counter Hindu nationalism’s post-truth. It specifically looks at two themes: fact-checking of propaganda and fake news, and the counterposing of liberal values to Hindu nationalism. After a consideration of the prospects and the need for such an approach, the paper outlines why the liberal approach is unlikely to stop the juggernaut of Hindu nationalist populism. The paper seeks to make an original contribution to the scholarship on rightwing populism and post-truth and the liberal response to it.
