Trying a new episode format - single host minisodes! Let me know what you think!

What's even worse for carrying disinformation than social media? Messaging apps! In this episode, Dr. Sturg reviews a deceptive tactic with some new clips and goes over the research on how apps like WhatsApp and Telegram make it very hard to stop Fake News from spreading. Plus, newsmakers are at it again. Hear some new clips to review a thinking problem we've already talked about on UnSpun. 

Here's a link to the Last Week Tonight episode mentioned on the podcast. 

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Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

Google and other search engines are an essential part of digital life. There's so much information online that we need help finding what we need. But that search doesn't give you all the information or even necessarily the best information. In this week's UnSpun, Dr. Sturg runs down the research on internet search and she and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert Matt Diamanté from Ontario's Hey Tony Agency go through what businesses will do to be at the top of the page when you search. 

Also, Dr. Sturg talks about the Fallacy of Composition - where excellent NBA players working together became a disappointing Olympic team. 

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Dr. Sturg’s Books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

In this week's UnSpun, Dr. Sturg and author Mike Caulfield discuss how to keep yourself safer from the misinformation effect by being more aware of your own relationship to the facts you seek. Plus, Dr. Sturg goes over what a reporter means when she says "on the record" and gives some examples of false authority, which is when someone is put forward as an expert, but really doesn't have the expertise at hand. 

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Mike's book: Verified

CAIR Report on Oklahoma City

Video of Washington Post reporter telling Project Veritas rep. she is being recorded

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Dr. Sturg’s Books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

Someone's need to feel validated and important can affect how they view the news, politics and even their own family. In this episode, Dr. Sturg talks with psychotherapist Nick Carmody about the interplay between emotions, beliefs and actions. Plus, she talks about how features like impact and bizarreness shape the news you see. 

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Dr. Sturg’s Books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

One way newsmakers to get people to agree with them  is to limit their choices so they  look like the reasonable one. But they may not be reasonable at all. Learn about false choice this week, and then Dr. Sturg talks with author Teri Kanefield about her upcoming graphic novel "Firehose of Falsehood."

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Harvard Library Resources on Scientific Racism

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Dr. Sturg’s Books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

Every fact can matter, but you wouldn’t know it from the way some newsmakers act. It’s tempting to ignore facts that don’t support what you want to believe, but that’s a logic crime called cherry picking. Dr. Sturg goes through several examples. Then she and then she and American Oversight’s Katie Anthony talk about how FOIA and other records laws can help keep the government accountable. Your taxes pay for the data that the government keeps, and knowing what goes on can help everyone to save democracy. Finally, while a FOIA request about FDA information can take many months to get answered, an anonymous Twitter account can apparently get an answer straight from the top. AltFDA talks about a time when that happened related to concerns about inspections at a facility that makes a lot of a generic painkiller that’s probably in your medicine cabinet right now. 

Guests

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Dr. Sturg’s Books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

Do high-profile debates truly shift opinions or votes? On this episode, Dr. Sturg gets into the studies to see if debates produce real changes. From Kennedy-Nixon to Romney-Obama, she looks at famous debates and explores what the research says about impacts on voters.

She also looks the logical flaw of hasty generalization, using debate slip-ups as case studies. See how speakers and listeners both frequently overgeneralize from single examples.

Plus, she talks about polling with political scientist, Dr. Ken Fernandez. Can polls be trusted after 2016? We separate polling facts from fiction on topics like margin of error. Ken shares his insider take on how campaigns use polls and why solid polling matters for a functioning democracy.

Find out whether debates live up to the hype. Learn how to catch hasty generalizations. Get an expert take on improving polling for future elections. Get UnSpun.

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Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538141045/Detecting-Deception-Tools-to-Fight-Fake-News

We are #AltGov

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

It's the holidays, and that means visits with those challenging relatives and chance encounters when you travel. In this episode, Dr. Sturg reviews some ideas from communication studies about how to have productive conversations with people you disagree with. 

Why do grown adult politicians call other people mean names? Personal attacks are designed to make you trust the other person less, and they are deceptive. In this episode of UnSpun, learn about how those attacks work, and how a little laughter can make politics easier to take, as Dr. Sturg and Canadian comedy influencer Brittlestar talk about the power of comedy in news. 

Send us your questions and comments at [email protected] and don't forget to like and subscribe!

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The Book - We are #AltGov
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

Free speech is on the menu this week as guest Israel Balderas and Dr. Sturg talk about the First Amendment and the ways newsmakers misrepresent it. The first word is Congress, and that word matters a lot in what it does and doesn't mean.  Plus! Listener questions and the wild story of the time the ACLU and the New York Times defended the rights of American Nazi wannabes. 

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Check out my books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We Are #AltGov; Inside the Social Media Resistance

People rely on some bad cues for how to make choices, and sometimes newsmakers don't help. In this episode, learn why "we've always done it this way" can be a bad thing. Then, Dr. Sturg talks with Dr. Ben Rein, a neuroscientist and social media star who myth busts and explains science for everyone. 

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn3KN9-HZ0y_kgZWlkhOPtQ

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xjXaTY4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Follow Dr. Sturg

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Check out my books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We Are #AltGov; Inside the Social Media Resistance