Category «Social Media»

Deep state phobia: Narrative convergence in coronavirus conspiracism on Instagram

Tuters, M., & Willaert, T. (2022). Deep state phobia: Narrative convergence in coronavirus conspiracism on Instagram. Convergence, 28(4), 1214–1238. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221118751 “Recent scholarship has established that conspiracist narratives proliferated in mainstream online discourse during the coronavirus pandemic. This proliferation has been provocatively characterized as a ‘conspiracy singularity’ in which previously divergent conspiracy narratives converged into a …

Read more

Subjects: Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

Is This the Beginning of the End of the Internet?

The Atlantic: “Occasionally, something happens that is so blatantly and obviously misguided that trying to explain it rationally makes you sound ridiculous. Such is the case with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’s recent ruling in NetChoice v. Paxton. Earlier this month, the court upheld a preposterous Texas law stating that online platforms with more …

Read more

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, Free Speech, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

AI can now create any image in seconds, bringing wonder and danger

Washington Post: “Since the research lab OpenAI debuted the latest version of DALL-E in April, the AI has dazzled the public, attracting digital artists, graphic designers, early adopters, and anyone in search of online distraction. The ability to create original, sometimes accurate, and occasionally inspired images from any spur-of-the-moment phrase, like a conversational Photoshop, has …

Read more

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forums

Engadget: “Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forum sites. The search engine is adding a new module that will surface discussions happening on forums across the web for queries that may benefit from crowd-sourced answers. The “discussions and forums” module will surface relevant posts from sites like Reddit …

Read more

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines, Social Media

US politicians tweet far more misinformation than those in the UK and Germany

The Conversation: “Politicians from mainstream parties in the UK and Germany post far fewer links to untrustworthy websites on Twitter and this has remained constant since 2016, according to our new research. By contrast, US politicians posted a much higher percentage of untrustworthy content in their tweets, and that share has been increasing steeply since …

Read more

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Controversial Artist Matches Influencer Photos With Surveillance Footage

Smithsonian Magazine: “It’s an increasingly common sight on vacation, particularly in tourist destinations: An influencer sets up in front of a popular local landmark, sometimes even using props (coffee, beer, pets) or changing outfits, as a photographer or self-timed camera snaps away. Others are milling around, sometimes watching. But often, unbeknownst to everyone involved, another …

Read more

Subjects: AI, Social Media

How Social Media Sites Have Amplified False Claims of U.S. Election Fraud

NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights: “As the 2022 midterms approach, falsehoods about election fraud continue to spread via social media. The Big Lie that Joseph Biden did not legitimately win the presidency in 2020 has mutated into a forward-looking belief among many Republicans that American democracy more generally no longer functions fairly. …

Read more

Subjects: Congress, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Massive LinkedIn Study Reveals Who Actually Helps You Get That Job

Scientific American: “If you want a new job, don’t just rely on friends or family. According to one of the most influential theories in social science, you’re more likely to nab a new position through your “weak ties,” loose acquaintances with whom you have few mutual connections. Sociologist Mark Granovetter first laid out this idea …

Read more

Subjects: Economy, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

This site tells you if photos of you were used to train the AI

Tech Crunch: “Deepfakes, AI-generated porn and a thousand more innocent uses — there’s been a lot of news about neural network-generated images. It makes sense that people started getting curious; were my photos used to train the robots? Are photos of me in the image-generating training sets? A brand new site tries to give you …

Read more

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Health Care, Internet, Privacy, Social Media

Where Online Hate Speech Can Bring the Police to Your Door

The New York Times: “Battling far-right extremism, Germany goes further than other Western democracies in policing online behavior, testing the limits of free speech on the internet…Hate speech, extremism, misogyny and misinformation are well-known byproducts of the internet. But the people behind the most toxic online behavior typically avoid any personal major real-world consequences. Most …

Read more

Subjects: Censorship, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

News Platform and Social Media and News Fact Sheet

Pew Research Center: “The transition of the news industry away from print, television and radio into digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. Today, an overwhelming majority of Americans get news …

Read more

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media
➤