Admission requirements
This course is exclusively for students of the Minor Disinformation and Strategic Communication in Global Media.
Description
Digital content creators use increasingly sophisticated techniques, including unintended uses of generative AI tools, to disseminate misinformation, the goal of which is to erode trust in institutions by making it harder for people to distinguish lies from truth. Bad actors weaponise algorithms to propagate misinformation, which spreads faster than the truth on social media (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Given the destabilising effects of misinformation on democratic systems, there is a need for policies that can disrupt its flow. However, governments have limited ability to accomplish this goal through regulatory policy alone, and effective solutions must target not only the manufacturing, production, and distribution of misinformation, but also its uptake by the public.
It follows that individuals and public institutions must play a more prominent role in addressing the spread of misinformation. One goal of this course, then, is to examine how education programmes can be designed to effectively cultivate students’ civic and information literacy at different levels of schooling, by analysing case studies and policy documents. In the first block of the course, students research educational programmes targeting misinformation and discuss policy implications for the role of educational institutions in addressing misinformation.
In the second block of the course, students learn journalistic theories and research techniques for identifying and combatting misinformation.
This part of the course is devoted to an evidence-based countermeasure, namely fact-checking: providing reliable, source-based, and well-argued assessments of claims by politicians, news media publications, and viral social media posts. Fact-checking originated as part of a journalist’s daily routine but has been reinvented during the past two decades as a profession of its own, both within and outside newsrooms. In addition to tried-and-tested means of verifying verbal information, fact-checkers have also developed tools and techniques for image verification.
In the culminating assessment for the course, students integrate their knowledge from the two blocks in a short paper in which they examine how journalistic techniques can be applied to education and policy responses to the problem of misinformation.
Course objectives
Analyse, evaluate, and propose educational responses to the problem of misinformation
Apply research techniques for evaluating sources that journalists use to identify and prevent the spread of misinformation
Work with peers to conduct small-scale research regarding misinformation
Work with peers to prepare an oral presentation
Write an academic research report in English CEFR C2
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
Mid-term oral presentation
End-of-term oral presentation
End-of-term paper
Weighing
Mid-term oral presentation: 40%
End-of-term oral presentation: 30%
End-of-term paper: 30%; a minimum of a 6 is required
The final mark for the course is established by determination of the weighted average with additional requirements. A minimum of a 6 is required for the end-of-term paper. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
Students must achieve an end-of-term paper mark of 6 to achieve credit for the course. Students who do not achieve this mark may resit the end-of-term paper.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Assigned eadings will be made available to students via Brightspace and will be accessible from Leiden University Library resources or open access.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.
Remarks
Not applicable.