The COVID 19 Project tests the hypotheses that citizens, provided with information and tools can be trusted to address the complex problems in their community and nationally.
Get Involved
TAKE PART IN OUR EFFORT
Citizens and civil society organizations interested in supporting and joining the COVID 19 Project are welcome.
Join us for our online event at the occasion of the beginning of the Citizen Commission (Details to come)
Media Resources
Background Resources:
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The Century of the Self Adam Curtis
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Selling Outrage Yochai Benkler argues that the mainstream media is our best hope for tempering the radical right. Yochai Benkler, Deborah Chasman
Fox News
Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?
By Jane Mayer A Reporter at Large March 11, 2019
cyber.harvard.edu › story › making-fox-news-white-ho...
Mar 11, 2019 - “Fox's most important role since the election has been to keep Trump supporters in line,” says BKC faculty co-director Yochai Benkler in Jane ...
cyber.harvard.edu › story › blame-fox-news-facebook
Jun 5, 2019 - This week, we're joined by Yochai Benkler of the Berkman Klein Center to discuss why Fox News, not Facebook, might deserve the lion's share ...
www.washingtonpost.com › monkey-cage › 2018/11/06
Nov 6, 2018 - Yochai Benkler, Rob Faris and Hal Robert, three scholars affiliated with Harvard's Berkman Klein Center, have a new book, “Network …
www.washingtonpost.com › outlook › 2018/10/24 › russi...
Fox News' latest fringe theory: Robert Mueller is more dangerous than ... Yochai Benkler is a professor at ...
Oct 24, 2018
The three studies paint a picture of a media ecosystem that entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking steps to protect themselves and others
Received: March 19, 2020 Accepted: April 16, 2020 Published: April 20, 2020
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Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth
The book about Fox News written by CNN’s Brian Stelter by The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan and The New York Times’ David Enrich. CNN published an adaptation of an excerpt from the book in which Stelter revealed the symbiotic relationship between Trump and Fox News and just how much Fox News personalities influenced the president.
From the airways to the White House
Stelter writes, “Inside Fox, hosts one-upped one another to get, and stay, on Trump’s good side. Programming choices were customized for one viewer at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Stelter wrote that one Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, would check Twitter during commercial breaks to see if Trump was tweeting about the show.
Misinformation
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Disinformed to Death Jonathan Freedland The New York Review of Books
We are living, in case you haven’t noticed, in a world full of bullshit. It’s hard to say whether the amount is truly increasing, but it seems that everywhere you look someone is trying to convince you of something, regardless of whether that something is actually true. Where is this bullshit coming from, how is it disseminated, and what can we do about it? Carl Bergstrom studies information in the context of biology, which has led him to investigate the flow of information and disinformation in social networks, especially the use of data in misleading ways. In the time of Covid-19 he has become on of the best Twitter feeds for reliable information, and we discuss how the pandemic has been a bounteous new source of bullshit.
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Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data: Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West. University of Washington Spring 2017
Course: INFO 198 / BIOL 106B. University of Washington Instructors: Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West Synopsis: Our world is saturated with bullshit. Learn to detect and defuse it. The course will be offered as a 1-credit seminar this spring through the Information School at the University of Washington. We aim to expand it to a 3 or 4 credit course for 2017-2018. For those who cannot attend in person, we aim to videotape the lectures this spring and make video clips freely available on the web.
Coronavirus: Conspiracy Theories: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
With conspiracy theories about coronavirus proliferating, John Oliver discusses why we’re prone to believe, how to distinguish fact from fiction, and what you can do to help others.
By Mark Galeotti, OP-ED New York Times Dec. 14, 2016
Research
Trust in Science and COVID-19 Fund
June 26, 2020
The Data Science Initiative has awarded funding to the following researchers for the Trust in Science and COVID-19 Fund. You can read more about the awards as well as the full DSI Trust in Science program here.
Mapping Covid-19 Misinformation
Yochai Benkler (Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School)
How to Report on the COVID-19 Outbreak Responsibly
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Al Tompkins, “How newsrooms can tone down their coronavirus coverage while still reporting responsibly,” (2020), https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2020/how-newsrooms-can-tone-down-their-coronavirus-coverage-whilestill-reporting-responsibly/.
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First Draft, “Coronavirus: Responsible reporting and ethics,” (2020),
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First Draft News Covering coronavirus: An online course for journalists April 1, 2020
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Hannah Storm, “Media ethics, safety and mental health: reporting in the time of Covid-19,” (2020),
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Bill Hanage, “How to Report on the COVID-19 Outbreak Responsibly,” (2020), https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-report-on-the-covid-19-outbreak-responsibly/.