The first module aims at making youngsters develop a critical stance towards information in the digital age. Therefore, they are given the possibility to discover the principles of modern communication, have their mechanisms presented and explained. They understand how those lay the foundation for modern forms of “fake news”.
The first module aims at making youngsters develop a critical stance towards information in the digital age. Therefore, they are given the possibility to discover the principles of modern communication, have their mechanisms presented and explained. They understand how those lay the foundation for modern forms of “fake news”.
The first objective of this module is to raise youngsters’ awareness about their own media consumption and how they are affected by this. They shall understand that their media consumption is governed by automatisms which can be exploited by actors who want to influence them in one form or the other and to even manipulate them. This does not only apply to online communication and social media interaction but to more traditional propaganda that has always been around.
The second objective is to confront youngsters with notions of privacy and data protection so that they can develop a critical stance on modern forms of online communication. Therefore, they shall learn about the principles of online marketing and social media business models. They shall understand the logic of “algorithmic based targeted messaging”, the functioning and usage of cookies, artificial intelligence and the effects that these technical developments have on their social and personal life.
The third objective is to show youngsters different forms of manipulation and explain how they work. After an introduction and a selection of manipulation methodologies youngsters are working with the previously learned content in this module: First, they are shown how the different psychological traits are exploited by different manipulation methods. Second, they get an insight into the business models of social media platforms and of data brokers and realise how personalised advertising and political campaigning is working.
They understand how these business models are amplifying the spread of “fake news” and what effect this has on the society and real-world politics. Third, they learn how orchestrated manipulation campaigns as well as traditional forms of propaganda are working. In this context, youngsters are presented an excellent real-world example for a successful political campaign via social media: The Cambridge Analytica scandal that crucially impacted on both the Brexit referendum in Great Britain and the US presidential elections in 2016.
