Disinformation, Demagoguery, & Democracy

a Discovery Core Experience

This is a BCORE 118 (Social Sciences) course

About This Course

Are vaccines safe? Are our elections secure? How close are we to catastrophic global warming, or is it too late already? Or is global warming a hoax perpetrated by a cabal of scientists and socialists? To what extent do the legacies of Indigenous dispossession and genocide, chattel slavery, Jim Crow, Chinese exclusion, Japanese internment, and racial capitalism more generally, or what Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò calls “Global Racial Empire,” shape contemporary society and produce present day disadvantages, inequalities, economic exploitation, political repression, and social marginalization?

Who Tells the Truth?

Does asking these questions constitute evidence that I’m just another left-wing college instructor inclined toward indoctrinating you into ‘woke’ ideologies and socialism? Speaking of which, who can you trust to tell you the truth? Scientists? Medical and public health professionals? College professors? News media? Tiktok influencers? Politicians? Ha! Indeed, what is truth, and how do we know when we’ve found it, really got our hands on it? You know, the real Truth, not what the lame stream media says, but the hidden truth that people are trying to keep from you? Or should we just not trust anyone? Aren’t they all lying to you? Aren’t they all just trying to make a buck or swindle you somehow? Confused? Overwhelmed? Fed up? Exhausted? Should we just ignore it all, check out from society and escape into a virtual world of our choosing? That’s what they want you to do!

What is This Class About?

Our contemporary media and information ecosystem creates the conditions for widespread propaganda,  misinformation, disinformation, conspiracism, demagoguery, corporate BS, and ultimately the creation of what Renee DiResta calls “bespoke realities,” that is, a world with no broad consensus on what is real and true and thus a world where you can live in your own curated reality. Or, at least we just feel disoriented, because truth feels elusive and we don’t know who or what to trust. We need to understand this ecosystem and its problems if we’re going to address the harms it’s doing to us. That’s what this class is about.

Professor Ian Porter (he/him/his)

School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

About Professor Porter

Ian Porter is a teacher and librarian whose courses focus on the intersection of communication, information, culture, and democracy. In his free time, he loves hanging out with his wife and daughters, eating good food, and listening to good music on Seattle’s amazing local radio station KEXP.

Contact

Email: iporter@uw.edu