Confronting the Disinformation Age: A Conversation with Renée di Resta

Guest: Renée DiResta, Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observatory
Renée di Resta is a pioneer in the study of disinformation, and through her research at the Stanford Internet Observatory and regular contributions to The Atlantic Monthly she has made her voice heard on the harms of amplified propaganda and the role it has in shaping public opinion.
How do false narratives spread? “You have human nature, which has not really changed very much in many ways over time, either. A lot of the kind of psychological motivators have been consistent. What do people need, what do they want, what are they looking for?” Renée investigates the intersection of platform algorithms with user behavior and factional crowd dynamics to get to the root of the problem. “What really does change is the communication technology. And when we’re talking about propaganda, which really is referring to messaging, we’re talking about ways in which entities who are trying to achieve a particular objective, use communication to send messages to the public.”
In this installment of Think Bad, Do Good, Renée and Jonathan examine the role of “filter bubbles” in the dissemination of false narratives and individual agendas, the creation of polarization in public opinion, blurred lines between fact and bias, and the growth and spread of extremism. “Another thing that we see a lot in our work is looking at what makes things go viral,” Renée says. “People make crazy claims on the internet all the time but what starts to happen is that you’ll see incentivized influencers with very large followings who will pick up that claim, but they do it in a really interesting way.”
Tune in to learn more.
Renée’s most recent articles:
It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/disinformation-propaganda-amplification-ampliganda/620334/
The Ukraine Crisis Briefly Put America’s Culture War in Perspective: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/russia-ukraine-war-stopped-internet-culture-war/627122/
Elon Musk Is Fighting for Attention, Not Free Speech: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/elon-musk-buy-twitter-free-speech/629571/
The Digital Maginot Line: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/11/28/the-digital-maginot-line/
Click here to read the transcript: https://www.attackiq.com/podcasts/confronting-the-disinformation-age/#transcript