Here's what we know about Russia's disinformation campaigns

10/14/20 • 34 min

Our guest this week is Deen Freelon, an associate professor at the Hussman school of Journalism and Media at Univesrity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Our host spoke to Freelon about how foreign adversaries, and particularly the Internet Research Agency in Russia, are using social media platforms against us. We explore how foreign governments wage disinformation campaigns against us, who they target and why. Are they succeeding? And what can we do as news and information consumers to avoid falling for this nefarious form of misinformation?

Freelon is known for his coding and computational methods to extract, preprocess and analyze large sets of data. He has researched how misinformation is spread and what people can do to prevent the spread of false information. Freelon has published over 30 peer reviewed journal articles and contributed extensive research to the Knight Foundation. In the past few years, Freelon has done substantial analyses about the impact of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns on Twitter related to our elections and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Is that a fact? is a production of the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit building a national movement to create a more news-literate America. Our host is Darragh Worland, our producer is Mike Webb, our editor is Timothy Kramer, and our theme music is by Eryn Busch.

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Kara Swisher on why Facebook is a threat to democracy

Our guest is Kara Swisher, one of the premiere tech columnists in the country. Our host spoke to Swisher about how social media platforms have affected our ability to talk to one another. Have platforms like Facebook contributed to the rise of misinformation. Do social media platforms have a responsibility to police certain content? Swisher has been a long-time critic of the power of tech companies, their use of personal data and the industry’s lack of accountability. In our interview she said, “We are cheap dates to the data companies.”

Swisher has been chronicling the rise of Silicon Valley since the early ‘90s. In 2003, Swisher launched the D: All things Digital Conference with Walt Mossberg, and later co-founded the website Recode with him, which was acquired by Vox in 2015. Swisher has written for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, and she is currently an editor-at-large for New York Media and a contributor to the New York Times, where she recently launched a new podcast called “Sway: A Podcast about Power.” She is the author of two books, AOL.com (1999) and There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future (2003).

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Who are journalism's new gatekeepers?

Our guest this week is Rebecca Aguilar, a multiple Emmy award-winning reporter who recently became the first Latina president-elect of the Society of Professional Journalists. Our host spoke to Aguilar about how the gatekeeping role of journalists has been altered by the internet and social media, what’s been lost, but also what’s been gained. They also discussed the need for greater diversity in American newsrooms and what needs to be done to achieve it.

In her 39 years in journalism Aguilar has worked in Toledo, Chicago, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Dallas. Today she is a freelance reporter and consultant. She is also the social media columnist for Latina Style Magazine, a national publication. When Rebecca is not working on a story, she is leading two of the largest Latina groups on Facebook. “Latinas in Journalism” has close to 2,000 Latina journalists who have found a place online to network, share advice and find work. Rebecca also created “Wise Latinas Linked” in 2009 for Latinas of all backgrounds. Today, that networking group consists of more than 9,000 members.