Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was launched on February 24, 2022. Almost a year later, the war continues. This is a good time to teach students some tricks to navigate critically. These strategies are valid at all times, but even more so in these tragic times. Because propaganda is particularly present in times of war and critical thinking, more essential than ever.
Here are some ideas for devoting a course to this subject.
From Creel to the Internet
Historical prelude. I would begin by reminding students of the work done by the Creel Commission in the United States during the First World War. It succeeded in making public opinion, which opposed it, favorable to going to war. I would show them those famous posters that we saw almost everywhere and which contributed to this work. I would also talk to them about these formatted spokespersons, these famous “ Four Minute Men », responsible for intervening in public to say, by a speech learned by heart, why it was necessary to go to war.
I would then ask the students to say what has changed in all of this. What about propaganda images and speeches today? Internet and social networks will quickly be mentioned, with their powers of propagation of images and speeches so much greater than what the Creel commission had at its disposal.
Tips to know and put into practice
Let’s start with images and their current extension: videos.
You can use them out of context and imply that they mean something other than what they actually said; or use actors resembling the people you want to say things to. Call it all fakes. But with the help of artificial intelligence, we can go much further and manufacture what are called ” deep fakes “, “super fakes” in a way.
A few months ago, we could see and hear the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, asking his country to capitulate to the Russian army. It was on the social networks of a Ukrainian television channel. No reason to doubt, right? Well, that was just a “super fake.”
Learning to spot these is necessary, but not always easy. Having your poutine detector on is necessary. In case of suspicion, several resources exist, including Deepware or InVID. It would be a good idea to ask students to practice on a few cases…
I suggest explaining the distinction between misinformation and disinformation next. The first does not tell the truth; the second is knowingly lying. In times of war, it is commonly practiced. Giving examples at this point in the course would be a good idea.
Then recall what bots, trolls are and how misinformation and disinformation spread in worrying ways. And that the number of people who follow an influencer is not an index of the veracity of the words of this one.
To stay safe from lies — and this is crucial — we must remember that knowledge about the subject we are being told about is necessary. Let’s stay modest and seek to acquire some.
To do this, it is necessary to know what the endings of domain names found on the Internet mean: .com, .org, .info, .cc, .net and so on. It’s also often wise to check who owns or runs the site you’re viewing, using a registration data lookup tool like ICANN.
It is also necessary to know the different kinds of sites that exist. Those of newspapers, university blogs, discussions, sharing of information, etc. It’s not the same thing at all.
It will also be important to introduce students to all these strategies used to capture and keep their attention, which are well described by the model put forward by Nir Eyal.
Learn to verify
Even with all this knowledge, there is no magic recipe, even less so in times of war. But what professional fact checkers commonly do is still useful. For memory.
We do not click on the first links of a search made on Google, we examine a few pages before making a choice; we then do a search on the link we decided to consult before doing so — nice surprises sometimes await us — and we’ll take a look at the talk page (the link is at the very top right) of the Wikipedia page (if it exists, of course…) of the subject that interests us. Here too, we often learn valuable things about what is debated about the subject that interests us.
It is often very effective.
Then there are fact-checking sites to be aware of, such as Radio-Canada’s Décrypteurs, CheckNews of Release and others that I let you choose.
There would still be a lot to say: but it’s up to you to play, in class. Perhaps by recalling that so many indices show the harmful effects for the health of individuals and that of the democratic conversation of too much frequentation and without critical hindsight of the Web and social networks?
Good course !