Mike Caulfield's latest web incarnation. Networked Learning, Open Education, and Online Digital Literacy
For a while when I worked in the misinformation studies field I had a saying that was only half-joking about the instant internet experts on vaccines, water policy, and 5g towers: These people need better hobbies. I was only half joking because I feel like one of the joys in life is to work towards [ ]
I came across this today: Ok, so yeah, as they say there s a lot going on here. We re going to diagram it in a minute. But let s start with the basics. How open arguments work In order to analyze this, you first have to realize it does not stand alone. It is part of [ ]
When everything is evidence, discourse can get a bit stupid In case you didn’t hear, smoke was bad in NYC a couple of weeks ago. A thick blanket of the stuff, the result of distant wildfires, cloaked the city. The AQI was over 400 in places, which to health departments is “please don’t go outside” [ ]
There are two primary accounts of the relation between evidence and belief in misinformation research, and neither is adequate. The first model is simple and direct. The idea here is you see misinformation and it shifts your belief. It is not identical to the old hypodermic model of media impact, but bears some relation to [ ]
With that as your narrative, what evidence can you bring to bear? Repeatedly since at least 2020, the riot bricks trope has been popular. The idea, of course, is some secret conspiracy is making sure bricks are ready-to-hand for some riot that will appear spontaneous but is really a coordinated operation. It s a silly trope, [ ]
Polling locations are, by necessity, formed out of locations that do other things the rest of the year. Schools, churches, community centers, and the like. They sometimes have cameras installed. Because voting is private, there are restrictions on filming in polling places. This applies not only to ballot selfies, but to video surveillance. In addition [ ]
From the book Ballot Battles: In Texas the institution currently empowered to adjudicate a disputed election is its legislature, far from the ideal institution for the dispute. If Texas experiences a ballot-counting dispute in a close gubernatorial election it is hard enough to imagine the state s legislature resolving that dispute fairly, according to the merits [ ]
Terraforming is a process found in science fiction novels of deliberately modifying the atmosphere and ecology of a planet to make it more habitable for a given life-form. In early sci-fi, that life form was human drop a few machines on a planet, watch them spin up an atmosphere and ecology, have the humans [ ]
If you want to study something, a first step might be to go out and collect it. If I was looking for themes in 16th century poetry about food, I d go out and get 16th century poems about food. If I wanted to look at personal narratives of medical tragedy, I d either solicit such information [ ]
There is a well-known saying it s not the crime, it s the coverup that gets you. This is true in the obvious way it is usually meant: many administrative crimes are difficult to prove. They happen at a particular moment, are witnessed by few, and intent is notoriously difficult to get at. Cover-ups, on the [ ]