Critical Disinformation Studies - Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP)
▻https://citap.unc.edu/research/critical-disinfo
Many of the stories that pundits, journalists, and scholars tell about disinformation begin with the 2016 US presidential election and focus on the role of social media platforms in spreading and generating false content. At their worst, these narratives imply that in the past, everyone shared the same sense of what was true and what was false; that this collective understanding was reinforced by legacy media like newspapers and TV news; and that “fake news,” disinformation, and inauthentic online behavior are responsible for a global far-right shift to populism exemplified by Brexit and the Trump presidency. None of these assumptions hold up to scrutiny.
Other research decontextualizes or depoliticizes disinformation, attempting to measure its spread or impact without recognizing how successful disinformation campaigns leverage long-held myths about identity and inequality. The role of actors other than social platforms is often ignored, particularly the historical role of mass media in spreading state propaganda or suppressing political expression. And the concept of “disinformation,” coined during the Cold War and often operationalized in ways specific to the West generally and the United States in particular, does not take into account vast social, cultural, and political differences in how people distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate forms of persuasion.
Principles of Critical Disinformation Studies
At CITAP, we take a critical approach to research on platforms, politics, and information which incorporates history, inequality, power, and culture. We believe that effective analysis of disinformation requires us as researchers:
To take a holistic approach to disinformation that is grounded in history, society, culture, and politics;
To center analyses of how social stratification and differentiation—including race and ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual identity—shape dynamics of disinformation;
To foreground questions of power, institutions, and economic, social, cultural, and technological structures as they shape disinformation; and
To have clear normative commitments to equality and justice.