Lies. Hoaxes. Folk tales. Conspiracies. Rumors. Propaganda. Clickbait. The so-called “fake news” phenomenon is not new. But these days, misinformation seems to be a heightened concern—and it’s transforming politics, public opinion, and most people’s experience of the internet. In this 6 week class, we will creatively engage with the weird state of politics circa 2017.
We will play with new media manipulation tools to explore the frontiers of political expression online. Participants will engage in ethical research and fabrication, learning new technical skills and critically exploring that which is real and unreal. We will experiment with command-line tools for hacking video, trusty apps for image manipulation, the dark underbelly of the ad economy, Twitter bots, and the insidious next-generation of hoax tech.

By Ben Moskowitz