Universities Roll Out Courses to Combat Disinformation

A growing number of universities have started offering courses focused on disinformation and media manipulation. Many of these courses include lessons on how to recognize false news and social manipulation activities, including ways to combat disinformation efforts. Some of these include:

A course in Critical Disinformation Studies which is offered at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Among other topics, it focuses on the role of social media platforms in spreading and generating false content.
Harvard University’s course titled Media Manipulation and Disinformation Campaigns, which includes ways to spot when manipulation is likely to occur, and what types of wedge issues are most likely to be manipulated,
New York University’s School of Professional Studies has a course called Disinformation and Narrative Warfare. It focuses on deliberate information manipulation and how it impacts society.

Meanwhile, the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit that provides resources to help people of all ages become critical news consumers, released a new resource this year for teachers to help students understand the consequences of disinformation.

Clearly, recognition of the disinformation threat, and its potential consequences, is a growth area for educators. What’s not yet clear is whether these efforts will be able to stem the rising tide of false news propagation.