No headedHighlighted in yellow is the assignments question.These are three different detached assignment. Each must be done separate.Each reference must included a permalink
1 page assignment Module 3: Impact of Social Media on Social Issues Locate a social media posts about a controversial social issue and discuss why you believe the posts is an example of fake news. Module 3: Introduction Welcome to Module 3! In week three, we examine how social media coverage, exchange of information and ideas influence perceptions of contemporary social issues that inform social policies. We will talk about how advocates and advocates are leveraging social media spark movements to provide awareness and encourage action for social justice. We critically analyze, and discuss supporting and opposing views on controversial social issues that currently significantly impact vulnerable populations in the U.S. We examine the proliferation of fake news, misinformation, disinformation and alternative facts on social media. We also explore how special interest groups and bipartisan politics are exploiting the social media to push biased viewpoints Fake news has become a common topic in recent years. Click on each section below to explore fake news, misinformation, disinformation campaigns, and alternative facts in more detail. Youtube reading: Module 3 impact of social media on social issues and social policy. In Module 3, we examine how social media coverage, exchange of information and ideas influence perceptions of contemporary social issues that inform social policies. We will talk about how advocates are leveraging social media to spark movements to provide awareness and encourage action for social justice. We will research, identify, critically analyze and discuss supporting and opposing views on controversial social issues, that currently significantly impact vulnerable populations in the US. We will also examine the proliferation of fake news, misinformation, disinformation and alternative facts on social media. We will discuss how special interest groups and bipartisan politics are exploiting the social media push bias viewpoints. The module 3 lesson concludes with a discussion on what citizens, special interest groups, and social media platform providers such as Facebook and Twitter are collectively doing to combat the proliferation of fake news. Please remember that your continued enthusiasm and participation to the discussions are paramount to the shared learning experience. Please complete the required readings and be prepared to engage in lively, mutually respectful discussions on how the course concepts apply to controversial social issues. Let's continue our collaboration and continue our MSW 513 path of success. Module Outcomes and Objectives Module Outcomes Module Objectives 1. Identify and assess social policy at the local, state, and federal level that impacts access to social services and service delivery for vulnerable populations. (PO#1, PO#2, PO#3) 1. Assess the integrity and authenticity of the information promoted by various social media outlets. (PO #1, PO # 2) 1. Examine the evolution of "Fake News," "Misinformation", "Disinformation Campaigns," and "Alternative Facts." 2. Examine the evolution of "Fake News," "Misinformation", "Disinformation Campaigns," and "Alternative Facts." 3. Examine the influence of social media on public perceptions about social issues and social policy. Module 3: Readings Garrett, R. K. (2019). Social media's contribution to political misperceptions in U.S. Presidential elections. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213500 (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.) Walters, R. M. (2018). How to Tell a Fake: Fighting Back against Fake News on the Front Lines of Social Media. Texas Review of Law & Politics, 23(1), 111-179. Additional Background Reading: Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-236. Bou-Karroum, L., El-Jardali, F., Hemadi, N. et al. Using media to impact health policy-making: an integrative systematic review. Implementation Science 12, 52 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0581-0 (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.) Exploiting Social Media Since the 1990s, there has been a rapid decline in the consumption of news from newspapers (Pew Research Center [PRC], 2018a). According to the Pew Research Center (2018b), approximately 93% percent of adults consume news digitally. The majority of Americans consume news digitally and more increasingly via social media, like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (PRC, 2019). Social media coverage of local, national, and global events has been revolutionized by social policy. With social media, we can see and hear the events in real time. We can listen to news anchors, government officials, or everyday people. With social media, we can see catastrophic events, such as natural disasters. We can see political activism in other countries from the vantage point of its citizens, who are often oppressed. Without social media, we would only see what that government officially wants us to see. We can see also local events, such as police shootings, where the police body cameras were intentionally or unintentionally disconnected. These images and audio impact how advocates and policymakers approach legislation. Recipients of the information can be inspired or repulsed to spring into action. There is no doubt that social media influence social work advocates. Who can forget the images from Charlottesville, VA where protesters marched in appreciation of diversity, while a group of White supremacists marched for their right for a non-inclusivity (Heim, 2017)? Controversial cases like the Trayvon Martin shooting, put Florida's Stand Your Ground self-defense immunity law under severe scrutiny, showing the discrepancies for Caucasian and people of color. Media coverage and social media coverage of the case and the sparks outrage for some groups that the gunman George Zimmerman would not be sentenced for shooting an unarmored youth, who did reside in his community and was not trespassing. However, on the opposing side, many believed that Zimmerman feared for his life and did feel threatened and therefore had to defend himself. Regardless of which side you are on, this case generated severe buzz on social media leading to a social movement (Grigsby-Bates, 2018). The issue of police brutality and school shootings also continue to be social issues of significant importance. Women's reproductive rights have always been an issue, but the social awareness campaign on social media connects more women to share information and perhaps, more importantly, share their stories. The opportunities to connect sparked the #MeToo movement awareness on sexual assault and the women's march. The same women who participate in these acts of activism are also connected when it comes to social policies that impact women, such as the renewed interest from some politicians, special interest and religious groups to eliminate the rights of Roe vs. Wade which makes abortion legal. More recently, in 2019 who can forget the images of immigrant children in cages (Graham, 2018), an immigrant father and 23-month old daughter, who drowned trying to get to America to seek Asylum (James, 2019). The trump Administration's Zero Tolerance immigration family policy is blamed for these tragedies, while some blame the Obama Administration policies. The social media perception of these social issues impacts how policy is structured in a way to help or harm vulnerable populations. As social workers, we want to use any information we can to create policies that advance human rights, social, economic, and environmental justice for all the world's citizens. Fighting Back Against Fake News Ideally, it would be great if Congress could pass laws that could regulate the proliferation of fake news. However, because it benefits the politicians themselves, when it comes to bipartisan issues, such policy will be a long-time company. Therefore, it is left up to individuals, special interest groups, and the social media platforms to combat the propagation of fake news. According to Walters (2018) two major problems with exist related to fake news: (a) the lack of a consistent definition for "fake news" and (b) the absence of a workable standard to reliably identify fake news (p 158). Platforms like Facebook and Google have been accused as the source and purveyors of fake news. However, because of policy such as the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996, these platforms cannot be held legally liable for what individuals post on the sites (Walters, 2018). These platforms have argued in the past, and the government has agreed that they cannot impose the first amendment freedom of speech. Unless it is deemed child pornography or human trafficking, under these legal stipulations misinformation and disinformation campaigns can thrive unchecked and unregulated. These platforms were happy to continue its existence under these policies, until Russia's interference in the 207 elections where these platforms were used as the weapons of tools to impact the election. According to Walters (2018), "Twitter recently informed almost 700,000 users that they interacted with Russia-linked trolls. Twitter executives reported to Congress that the company had identified 36,000 Russia-linked bot accounts that produced roughly 1.4 million election-related tweets between September and November 2016." (p.152). Specifically, trolls and bots targeted individuals with personal and private information legally obtained through these social media platforms. Today Facebook and google are taking significant steps to protect the information of its users. Facebook, who has also taken the most criticism for its unwitting compliance with Russia's cyber warfare on America, has launched several initiatives to combat fake news. The social media platforms have invested in several initiatives, including literacy campaigns of how to identify fake news. They have also invested in coders to build new algorithms to detect bogus accounts and the suspicious proliferation of disinformation campaigns. These platforms have also invested in heavily in human researchers brought in to detect content that algorithms and artificial intelligence cannot. While the platforms are still hesitant to impose on the first amendment and therefore hesitant to delete accounts or content, they are openly labeling content as suspicious. When possible if the information satisfies the platform's definition of egregious the bogus accounts and sites are shut down quickly. Fact Check Sites Non-bipartisan organizations and special interest groups committed to facts and truth have become fact checkers. These fact checkers monitor social media and news outlets to verify or debunk fake news. These organizations set up websites to publish facts that corroborate or refute information of politicians, bloggers, social media influencers, special interest groups, and media outlets. Examples of fact checkers include PolitiFact and Factcheck.org websites. These sites provide detailed information, including gauges and meters indicating how truthful or inaccurate information being presented by individuals or organizations are. These websites keep complete archives to help track historical disinformation campaigns. These websites also compile a list of misinformation directory, such as the one listed on the fact-check.org site. References Collins Online Dictionary. (n.d). Misinformation. In dictionary.com dictionary. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/misinformation (Links to an external site.) Collins Online Dictionary. (n.d). Disinformation. In dictionary.com dictionary. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/disinformation?s=t (Links to an external site.) Dictionary.com. (n.d). Misinformation. In dictionary.com dictionary. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/misinformation (Links to an external site.) Factcheck.org. (2019). Misinformation directory. https://www.factcheck.org/2017/07/websites-post-fake-satirical-stories/ (Links to an external site.) Factcheck.org. (2019). https://www.factcheck.org (Links to