This self-directed course features course content from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas' massive open online course (MOOC) titled “Information and Elections in the Digital Era.” The five-week course took place from September 11 - October 23, 2022.

Thanks to the support of:

While the digital era has presented opportunities for enhancing freedom of expression, social media also poses new challenges.  The spread of disinformation and misinformation online, intimidation and harassment (particularly against women), hate speech, and micro-targeting can undermine electoral and governance processes. The MOOC explores the diverse malpractices, strategies and techniques, which electoral stakeholders face online. The MOOC provides examples of multi-stakeholders’ responses by civil society organizations, journalists, electoral management bodies, media regulatory authorities and electoral stakeholders to contribute to a transparent and inclusive online ecosystem.

 The course materials are broken into five modules, along with an introductory module:

• Intro Module: Introduction to the course
• Module 1: The new information paradigm and elections
• Module 2: Disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech
• Module 3: The impact of online harmful practices on the electoral cycle
  & an overview of responses and tools to tackle them
• Module 4: Focus on preventive measures to tackle harmful practices
• Module 5: Focus on preventive measures to tackle harmful practices

We encourage you to watch the videos, review the readings, and complete the exercises as time allows. The course materials build off each other, but the videos and readings also act as standalone resources that you can return to over time.

We hope you enjoy the materials. If you have any questions, please contact us at journalismcourses@austin.utexas.edu.

Meet the Instructor

Albertina Piterbarg is an Electoral Expert and journalist working at UNESCO Freedom of Expression and Security of Journalists section. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the areas of communications, elections and women’s political participation in the Organization of the American States (OAS), UN Peacekeeping Operations, UNDP, UN Women and most recently, UNESCO ranging from head of office, team leader, field officer, government advisor, independent consultant, and certified BRIDGE trainer. She has participated in several missions in Niger, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Libya, East-Timor, New Caledonia, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Venezuela among others. She studied Philosophy and Literature in the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and a master’s in Journalism in Saint Andrews University of Argentina, where she was bestowed with the Outstanding University Graduate award 2018.

Introduction Module: Welcome to the introduction module of our course! 

This module provides a video introduction to the course, outlining the topics covered in the four modules. After watching the video, please explore the rest of the introductory materials, including the syllabus, information about optional tools, and recommended readings. 

 Introduction

  Materials

1.UN (2021): “Strengthening the role of the United Nations in enhancing periodic and genuine elections and the promotion of democratization” [Report of the Secretary-General, 3 August 2021] 

2.UN General Assembly resolution of 30 March 2022 on the “Role of States in countering the negative impact of disinformation on the enjoyment and realization of human rights”

3. Information Integrity: Forging a Pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust [United Nations Development Programme (undp.org)]  

4. UNESCO: Social Media & Elections - 2019[Suggested reading: Pages 10 to 13 & 16 to 21]  

5. UNESCO – ITU: Balancing Act: Countering Digital Disinformation While Respecting Freedom of Expression Broadband Commission research report on ‘Freedom of Expression and Addressing Disinformation on the Internet’, 202  [Pages 123 to 1391]

Module 1: The new information paradigm and elections

Elections constitute a pivotal moment in democracies and provide citizens with an opportunity to choose their political representatives who will make critical decisions on the present and future of a given country. While the digital era has initially brought great opportunities for voters and candidates, social media poses new challenges for freedom of expression, safety of citizens, candidates and journalists as well as for the access to information. This module will provide you with a thorough overview of the new information paradigm and its impact on democratic elections when information sharing throughout the electoral cycle move online.

 Video Classes

 Readings

Module 2 - Disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech

The short answer to the question in the title of this module is: Just about everything is a climate story these days. We’ll also be talking about how climate coverage has changed over the years, from a “both-sides” narrative that quoted deniers along with the experts on the science, and how we have evolved beyond false balance in covering climate issues — but still covering the genuine conflicts that come up in such questions as the best way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll also talk about the importance of saying what climate change isn’t, and avoiding the impulse to attribute every extreme weather event to climate change.

 Video Classes

 Readings

Module 3 - The impact of online harmful practices on the electoral cycle
& an overview of responses and tools to tackle them

In this module we will review the diverse strategies and techniques used to spread dis-, mis- and malinformation. We will talk about the main targets of disinformation within the electoral cycle, and about the different responses to tackle disinformation – based on good practices and lessons learned on various continent, and in using tools such as artificial intelligence.

 Video Classes

 Readings

Module 4: Focus on preventive measures to tackle harmful practices

In this module we will start examining some of the preventive measures available to electoral stakeholders to tackle disinformation, misinformation and malinformation during electoral processes in relation to the electoral cycle: such as capacity building; promotion of dialogue and social cohesion; public information campaigns; and media information literacy. It will also cover emerging regulatory attempts to prevent harmful content from spreading online during elections.

 Video Classes

 Readings

Module 5: Multi-stakeholder engagement and corrective measures to contribute to a transparent and inclusive online ecosystem

In this module we will continue addressing the different ways to tackle harmful practices during elections through a multi-stakeholder engagement for the identification, fact-checking and monitoring measures; corrective measures; or containing corrective measures and regulatory and non-regulatory measures. Such measures help contribute to a transparent and inclusive online ecosystem.

 Video Classes

1.Multi-stakeholder engagement and corrective measures to contribute to a transparent and inclusive

Watch Video Transcripts

2.Mitigating risk of violence during elections in an ecosystem with multi-stakeholder engagement

Watch Video  Transcripts

3.Regulatory frameworks for free and fair elections in the Digital era

Watch Video  Transcripts

4.Pre-bunking, de-bunking and counter-messaging to respond to harmful contents

Watch Video Transcripts

 Readings