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Digital Citizenship
VOLUME
ONE
An instructional program to help students untangle the social complexities and ethical dilemmas of the digital world. The Digital Citizenship initiative will educate students on the economics of the Internet and the means by which political bad actors exploit its platforms to pervert the public discourse. Through classroom activities and reference to a wealth of print and audiovisual resources, participants will learn to recognize and counter disinformation and fake news, and take issue with how social media companies commodify their data.
Created by Medicine Hat College librarians, the cornerstone of this educational initiative is its Digital Citizenship eBook series, the first volume of which is available to read and download at no cost.
Digital Citizenship, Vol. 1:Misinformation & Data Commodification in the Twenty-First Century (2021) includes easily digestible chapters and interactive elements that reinforce knowledge acquisition. It is a major contribution to Open Educational Resources (OER) in the field of Public Interest Technology (PIT).
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Misinformation
THE FUTURE OF TRUTH & TRUST
Digital Citizenship, Vol. 1: Misinformation & Data Commodification in the Twenty-First Century introduces the concepts of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news, and considers the development of negative information practices throughout history. The text identifies the factors that have made disinformation so prevalent in contemporary politics and news media, and offers methods to identify and respond to dishonest discourse and phony headlines.
Of Canadians always checked the accuracy of online COVID-19 information, and thereby relied on potentially misleading, false, or inaccurate information (Garneau & Zossou, 2021).
Of Canadians shared COVID-19 information they found online without knowing whether it was accurate. Information sharing habits are influenced by the age group and education level among different Canadians (Garneau & Zossou, 2021).
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THE NEW
OIL?
Personal Data
In addition, the eBook explores the implications of the data economy, a new form of capitalism that “trades exclusively in human futures” (Zuboff, The Social Dilemma, 15:00). It considers the rise of online surveillance, the methods by which companies harvest data, and the means by which users can reassert control of their online selves. It aims to make readers informed and empowered online citizens.
Of Canadians spend at least 3-4 hours online every day, and 15 per cent are spending more than eight hours online per day (Canadian Internet Authority, 2020).
Of all internet traffic flows through either a Google or Facebook server. Thus, platform companies must be interrogated, better understood and, indeed, governed (Owen, 2019).
Watch the Watchers
"We can have democracy, or we can have a surveillance society, but we cannot have both."
Shoshana Zuboff
We Need Rights To Protect Us From Big Data Surveillance
15-minute video
SHOSHANA ZUBOFF,
PBS Interview
How Surveillance Capitalism Undermines Democracy
4-minute video
TAYLOR OWEN,
CIGI
Your phone is trying to control your life
9-minute video
TRISTAN HARRIS,
PBS
Misinformation & Disinformation
3-minute video
SARAH GIBBS
MHC library
George Orwell's 1984: Why it still matters
5-minutes
ORWELL,
BBC
The Story of a Headline
1-minute video
SARAH GIBBS
MHC Library
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Big Brother Is Listening
Suggested Podcasts
The goal of this podcast is to have longform conversations about tech, society and democracy from a combined journalist & academic perspective. For each episode, Taylor Owen is writing a column exploring the topic discussed. The podcast gathers a remarkable group of guests and it is published every two weeks.
In this podcast from the Center for Humane Technology, co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin expose how social media’s race for attention manipulates our choices, breaks down truth, and destabilizes our real-world communities.