The strategies you teach about search engine literacy might be out of date
In a recent paper for the Library Journal, Francesca Tripodi, joined by Jade Angelique Stevenson, Rachel Slama, and Justin Reich, built and tested search literacy interventions for librarians. Using ethnographic methods on libraries on Montana, Tripodi and her coathors explore the difficulties librarians face on the frontlines of the fight against disinformation. The librarians they spoke with argue that improving search engine literacy requires building trusting relationships with patrons. Additionally, Tripodi and her colleagues offer the following search literacy tips for librarians, teachers, and anyone else educating others to combat misinformation:
- Use Wikipedia as a starting point. People who use Wikipedia find better answers with greater accuracy in less time than people who don’t.
- Don’t judge a site based on its URL. Some .com sites are reliable and some .org sites are misleading! In addition, plenty of nonprofits produce untrustworthy information.
- Don’t trust website appearance. Attractive websites don’t always mean high quality information; plain websites are sometimes accurate and helpful
- Use lateral reading strategies. The best way to check the quality of a website is by leaving that website. Many people verify sources vertically, by reading About pages and checking the links provided by that website. In contrast, best practice is to distrust your own ability to verify quality of the source and see what others are saying about it across websites (i.e., “lateral reading”).
In addition, this paper provides the following insights for policy makers and technology professionals:
- Trust ethnographic research methods. People routinely misreport their search practices, so ethnographic methods provide insight to instructional designers and UX professionals on how the technological affordances and platform design shape information-gathering practices.
- Consider mobile first. In rural areas where broadband is limited, people increasingly rely on their phones for information. Mobile designs can shape search practices.
- Create a budget for training resources. Instructional resources for librarians will pay dividends in the fight against mis/disinformation
Facebook and Google are the central players in digital political advertising – and they’re hardly neutral content platforms
Previous research has found that digital advertising companies such as Facebook and Google function similarly to political consultants, influencing the messaging choices of political clients. This paper situates those insights in the theory of parties as extended networks and presents the first quantitative descriptive analysis of all companies that have provided federal political committees with digital advertising services in national elections. Network analysis measures of political groups registered with the Federal Election Committee in the United States (n = 2,064) and the types of companies they hired for digital political advertising services (political agencies, commercial agencies, digital advertising platforms, or other; n = 1,022) over three midterm and general elections (2006–2016) show that the number of political committees and companies have both dramatically increased since 2008 and that Facebook and Google have become the two most central members of the network. As influencers of the targeting and content of campaign messages, these companies should be considered consequential members of electoral party 0networks. This study contributes to research on political consulting and to the theory of parties as extended networks by demonstrating how opening the inclusion criteria for subject selection can uncover unexpected players, such as the private, previously considered nonpartisan, nonpolitical companies present here.
Media literacy can sometimes spread disinformation - with a little help from search engine algorithms
The Propagandists’ Playbook peels back the layers of the right-wing media manipulation machine to reveal why its strategies are so effective and pervasive, while also humanizing the people whose worldviews and media practices conservatism embodies. Based on interviews and ethnographic observations of two Republican groups over the course of the 2017 Virginia gubernatorial race—including the author’s firsthand experience of the 2017 Unite the Right rally—the book considers how Google algorithms, YouTube playlists, pundits, and politicians can manipulate audiences, reaffirm beliefs, and expose audiences to more extremist ideas, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Francesca Tripodi argues that conservatives who embody the Christian worldview give authoritative weight to original texts and interrogate the media using the same tools taught to them in Bible study—for example, using Google to “fact check” the news. The result of this practice, tied to conservative marketing tactics, is more than a reaffirmation of existing beliefs: it is a radicalization of content and a changing of narratives adopted by the media. Tripodi also demonstrates the pervasiveness of white supremacy in the conservative media ecosystem, as well as its mainstream appeal, scope, and spread.