Civil Society

#141: Rating News Credibility with Algorithms, with Arjun Moorthy

April 17, 2022 Civil Society

Arjun Moorthy, co-founder and CEO of The Factual, discusses how machine learning and natural language processing can rank news for credibility. Arjun breaks down the criteria underpinning The Factual’s rating system as well as how it tries to minimize bias. We talk about some of the pitfalls of optimizing news for engagement, as well as how anonymity in a different incentive structure affects discourse around discussing news. Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the current state of AI in the newsroom, and how automation might affect news consumption in the future.


Check out the Unbiased Podcast!

And test out The Factual’s engine at IsThisCredible.com

#130: Tech Advocacy for Children’s Rights and the Twisted Toys Campaign, with Baroness Beeban Kidron

July 4, 2021 Civil Society

Baroness Beeban Kidron, Chair of the 5Rights Foundation, guests to discuss the recently launched Twisted Toys campaign. We chat about the role of awareness campaigns for tech advocacy, how policymakers respond to children’s data protection issues, and the creative design process behind the Twisted Toys campaign.

 

Check out Twisted Toys here!

#124: Deliberation in Practice and Pandemics, with Ieva Česnulaitytė

April 18, 2021 Civil Society

Ieva Česnulaitytė, Policy Analyst at the OECD, discusses her and her colleagues’ research on representative deliberative processes. We break down some of the key models of deliberative processes, when they tend to be used, and how their success can be measured. 

We also discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has moved deliberative processes online. As social distancing limits the ability for citizens to attend in-person events, how are deliberative processes being carried out? 

Here’s the report we discuss in the episode – Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave. 

 

And the op-ed in Nature discussing online deliberation during the pandemic. 

#112: China’s Influence Operations, Propaganda, and Disinformation, with Vanessa Molter

August 23, 2020 Civil Society

Vanessa Molter, Graduate Research Assistant at the Stanford Internet Observatory, breaks down her new report: “Telling China’s Story: The Chinese Communist Party’s Campaign to Shape Global Narratives.” 

 

We discuss what researchers currently know about China’s influence operations on social media, how they compare with Russia’s disinformation strategies, and dive into the report’s three case studies: the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the 2020 Taiwanese presidential elections, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

#108: Black Lives Matter Social Media Narratives outside the US, with James MacGregor

June 22, 2020 Civil Society

James MacGregor, Managing Director at Bakamo Public, discusses the main narratives in social media conversations around Black Lives Matter in the UK, Turkey, and Hungary. We break down how key themes from the US protests are translated into these different national contexts, as well as how the online debate has evolved since the protests started. 

#106: Political Voiceovers for Democratic Campaigns, with Maria Pendolino and Ian Fishman

May 9, 2020 Civil Society

Maria Pendolino and Ian Fishman are co-founders of Blue Wave Voiceover, a collective of professional voiceover actors lending their voices to Democratic campaigns. We discuss the role of voices in political ads, the back-end of reading political copy, and some of the differences between commercial and political voiceovers. We also demo the script reading process with real political ads, and change their tone to showcase what voiceover actors can do!


Here’s the final version of the ads we discuss in the episode: 

#102: House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee, with Lord David Puttnam and Dr. Kate Dommett

March 15, 2020 Academics, Civil Society

Lord David Puttnam and Dr. Kate Dommett guest to discuss the work on the British House of Lords select committee “Democracy and Digital Technologies.”

The
committee seeks to investigate the pros and cons of digital
technologies around six key areas: transparency in political campaigns;
privacy and anonymity; misinformation; the effects of digital technology
on public discourse; how technology can facilitate democracy; and the
development of effective digital literacy. 

We discuss the
motivations behind forming the committee, the status of the inquiry so
far, as well as get into a broader discussion about policy
recommendations for the potential regulation of digital and social media
companies in the UK and elsewhere in the European Union. 

For links mentioned during the episode, check out: 

The website of the committee, and follow their latest updates on Twitter @HLDemoDigital. 

Dr. Dommett’s study “Data-driven Political Campaigns in Practice” in Internet Policy Review. 

#101: Video Search Engines and Petey Vid as an Alternative to Google Video Search, with Craig Stadler

March 1, 2020 Civil Society


Craig Stadler, Founder and CEO of Petey Vid, guests to discuss the video search engine landscape and his alternative to the dominance of Google and YouTube: Petey Vid. Petey Vid offers users video content from 60+ different sources while not tracking users’ search history or IP addresses. We break down Craig’s motivations behind starting Petey Vid, how it’s search architecture is structured, and what separates it from YouTube.

#96: Pro-Trump Social Networks: The Donald on Reddit and TheDonald.win

December 3, 2019 Civil Society


A moderator of Reddit’s The Donald guests to discuss the notorious subreddit community, and the new pro-Trump online forum: TheDonald.win.

We discuss the role of memes in these online forums, how memes are used for redpilling, and the steps Reddit has taken to limit the reach of pro-Trump social networks.

#94: Warren’s Meme Team, with Misha Leybovich

November 17, 2019 Civil Society


Misha Leybovich, Organizer for Warren’s Meme Team, guests to discuss how memetic templates can be used for grassroots political campaigning. We break down the plan for Warren’s Meme Team, its focus on augmented reality (AR) lenses, and what the response to the initiative has been like so far.


Read the full plan here.