“That’s Fake News!” TikTok, Twitter, and Social Media Lies in the Digital Age

Course Description

We’ve all heard the term fake news - with so much information online it’s harder than ever to know what’s true and what’s not. Back in the day, it used to take effort to set up a hoax. But now, people can use AI and TikTok to spread a video of giants building the pyramids to millions of people around the world. This is one of the more ridiculous examples of so-called “fake news” out there, but every day we are confronted with an endless barrage of news, videos, memes and posts that may or may not be true. Often, it’s even more difficult to know what to do when you do spot lies being spread. Join Fionnuala Braun and Alan Jones as we explore how politicians, influencers, and others use memes, TikTok, social media, and even video games to create fake information and spread lies on the Internet. We’ll also talk about how to spot fake news, and how we can fight back against these falsehoods.

Over the week, we will study some real-life examples from history to understand how fake news became such a big problem. Scams and hoaxes aren’t new, and there have always been people trying to lie and trick others for their own gain. Next, we’ll move on to modern day examples of false information, looking at memes, social media posts, movies, games, and TikToks that deliberately lie and spread fake news, and how they try to distort the truth. Different media can lie in different ways, and while some hoaxes, like “they’re eating the cats!” can seem ridiculous, we’ll see how a misleading headline can become a dangerous conspiracy. Not only can we learn how to spot fake news, but by looking at some modern examples we can see how and why they are used to target specific groups, and how they find their audience through online algorithms. Finally, we’ll see how that history of scams and lies is still relevant today, as we learn how techniques used in the past are repurposed for the age of social media. History is often used as a gotcha, and fake history often reinforce fake news and modern lies. By the end of the week, you will be able to understand how social media deceives you, and as a result, learn how to navigate an increasingly uncertain world.

Every day we expose ourselves to a constant stream of lies, half-truths, or disinformation on social media. Knowing what’s just a trend or meme and what’s real and potentially harmful has become more difficult to understand, especially with the advent of AI generated photos and videos. Join us as we uncover the history of how influencers, politicians, or even anonymous people on Reddit distort the truth and spread lies to enrich themselves or harm others, and gain the confidence to think differently and combat fake news on the internet and into the future.