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Viral Networks Podcast

Viral Networks is a podcast examining online mis- and disinformation from every angle with the help of the academics who study it. Across six episodes, each about 30 minutes along we cover political disinformation campaigns led by state actors, the organic spread of health misinformation around COVID in America and Nigeria, and the production and dissemination of disinformation across apps from Facebook to WhatsApp to Gab, in countries from India to the Philippines to America.

All illustrations of our guests were drawn by Lorrie Lejeune.

1

What Are Mis- and Disinformation?

Viral Networks is a six-part series investigating the current state of mis- and disinformation online with the scholars studying it from the front lines. In our first episode, Camille François to tells us how researchers identify mis- and disinformation, and Joan Donovan from the Harvard Shorenstein Center explains how platform design lets misinformation go viral, sometimes with deadly outcomes.

Guests: 

Joan Donovan, Camille Francois

2

How Disease Conspiracy Theories Are Born

This week, we focus on COVID-19 misinformation, talking to Kolina Koltai, ethnographer of vaccine conspiracy theory communities; Jon Lee, a folklorist who studies the history of conspiracy theories about disease; and Ifeanyi Nsofor, a Nigerian public health expert reporting on religious leaders' role in COVID skepticism.

Guests: 

Kolina Koltai, Ifeanyi Nsofor, Jon Lee

3

Welcome to the Disinfo Industry

Are you contributing to a disinformation campaign without even knowing it? This week, we talk to Kate Starbird about unwillingly contributing to the spread of mis- and disinformation, Jonathan Corpus details the Filipino disinformation industry built on gig workers, and we hear from Young Mie Kim about Russian's intervention in Western politics.

Guests: 

Kate Starbird, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Young Mie Kim

4

How to Detect a Disinformation Campaign

Groups have been running disinformation campaigns on Facebook and Twitter for almost as long as those platforms have been popular. In this episode, we talk to Ray Serrato, Gianluca Stinghini, and Fabio Giglietto about how they find suspicious behavior they can tie to campaigns in places from Myanmar to Italy to the United States.

Guests: 

Ray Serrato, Gianluca Stringhini, Fabio Giglietto

5

Platform Forensics: How Misinformation Content Goes Viral

This week, we're putting all of the pieces together, looking at how influential groups from major politicla parties to well-coordinated extremists tailor mis- and disinformation content for specific platforms. We're joined by Scott Babwah Brennen who studies viral images, Kiran Garimella who studies Indian poltiics on WhatsApp, and Jeremy Blackburn who traces far-right American groups across shadowy platforms.

Guests: 

Scott Babwah Brennen, Kiran Garimella, Jeremy Blackburn

6

Solving the Internet's Misinformation Problem

To wrap up Viral Networks, we invited some experts to talk to us about inventions and solutions that can stop the spread of misinformation online. Those range from some user-level solutions from psychologist Gordon Pennycook, to community fact-checking in Africa with David Cheruiyot, to the demand for better platforms and data access from our colleague and digital public infrastructure scholar Ethan Zuckerman.

Guests: 

Gordon Pennycook, David Cheruiyot, Ethan Zuckerman

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