Fake News and Social Change
Response paper #3 – Fake News, Conspiracy Theories and/or Memes and Social Change (10%): Using the course materials and lectures, you will discuss how fake news, conspiracy theories and Internet memes affect possibilities for organizing and making social change. Submit this assignment by Tuesday, November 3 at 11:59 PM EST.
In this response, choose a focus: fake news, conspiracy theory or Internet memes. Now, there will be crossover and you can feel free to work within those intersections. Here are some questions that may help with your write up: How might conspiracy theories and/or fake news diminish the public sphere by obscuring facts and what are the consequences for making social change? Or, how might the designation of a story as conspiracy theory be used by establishment journalism to determine credibility and/or maintain control over the production of information? What role might memes play in expediting communication and/or forming relationships among people as political actors/agents of social change? What effects might these three phenomena have on organizing for social change?
