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:
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.
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.
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]
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]
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
1.The new information paradigm and elections by Albertina Piterbarg - Lead Instructor UNESCO
Watch Video Presentation Transcripts
2.Presentation by Dan Malinovich, Electoral Policy Specialist and Focal Point for Electoral Assistance at UNDP Bureau for Policy
3. The Role of UNESCO in the Digital Era by Guilherme Canela, Chief of the section of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists at UNESCO
4. Presentation by Glen Mashinini, Commissioner - Electoral Commission of South Africa
Readings
1. UNESCO (2022): Elections in Digital Times: A guide for electoral practitioners [Prof. Dr. Dr. Robert Krimmer, Rast’o Kužel, Dr. Marta Achler, Nathan Licht. Chapter 2: International Human Rights Law Framework]
2. Information Integrity: Forging a Pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust, United Nations Development Programme [Section: Conceptual Framework |
Pages 4 and 5, undp.org ]
Optional Resources
1. United Nations (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 (A/76/266)]
2. UNESCO (2016) VIDEO: A world without information? Right to Information and SDGs
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
1. Disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech by Albertina Piterbarg, Lead Instructor UNESCO
Watch Video Presentation Transcripts
2. Looking at harmful practices on social media and their impact on democratic governance and on electoral processes by Niamh Hanafin, Senior Advisor, Information Integrity, Oslo Governance Center, UNDP
3. Presentation by Dr. Roselyn Akombe, Governance and Peacebuilding Regional Coordinator at UNDP's Regional Service Center for Africa
4. The role of the media in tackling disinformation and misinformation by Patrícia Campos Mello, journalis
Readings
1. Role of States in countering the negative impact of disinformation on the enjoyment and realization of human rights [UN GA resolution of 30 March 2022]
2. Journalism, Fake News' and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and TrainingA Guide to Greenwashing and How to Spot It [UNDP (2022): “Information Integrity: Forging a Pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust”, United Nations Development ProgrammeUNESCO (2018), Module 2 | Pages 45 to 52]
3. Information Integrity: Forging a Pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust [United Nations Development Programme (undp.org) | Pages 6 to 11]
4. The Rabat Plan of Action on the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred [VIDEO]
Optional Resources
1. Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, co-founded by UNESCO and ITU (2020)
2. UN Women (2021). Eliminating online hate speech to secure women’s political participation.
3. How to address online #HateSpeech with a human rights-based approach? [VIDEO]
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
1.The impact of online harmful practices on the electoral cycle and tools to tackle them by Albertina Piterbarg, Lead Instructor UNESCO
Watch Video Presentation Transcripts
2. The use of Artificial Intelligence to detect harmful practices during elections by Osama Aljaber, Digital Democracy Specialist for the UNDP Regional Hub for the Arabic States at Aman
3. Presentation by the President Councilor and the Communication Director of the National Electoral Institute of Mexico (INE) by Lorenzo Córdova Vianello and Carla Garduño (INE)
4. The use of Artificial Intelligence in electoral processes in Lebanon by Ghassen Selmi, Media and Digital Transformation Specialist at UNDP
Readings
1. Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation [Bradshaw, S. and P. Howard August ]
2. Elections and Media in Digital Times [UNESCO (2019) Tarlach McGonagle, Maciek Bednarski, Mariana Francese Coutinho and Arthur Zimin]
3. Case study Libya: Election Commission uses artificial intelligence to enhance women's participation in electoral [UNDP (2022)]
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
1. Focus on preventive measures to tackle harmful practices by Albertina Piterbarg, Lead Instructor UNESCO
2. The relevance of Fact Checking during Elections by Alphonce Shiundu, Representative of Africa Check
3. Political campaigning, electioneering, marketing and post-truth. Codes of conduct for political parties by Tatiana Monney, Electoral Expert, UNDP
4. Emerging regulatory trends for information integrity during elections and challenges of enforcement by Benoît Loutrel, Chair of the "Supervision of online platforms"
Readings
1. UNDP (2022): “Information Integrity: Forging a Pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust” [United Nations Development Programme ]
2. Addressing conspiracy theories: what teachers need to know [UNESCO (2022) | Pages 6 to 15 ]
3. Strengthening the role of the United Nations in enhancing periodic and genuine elections A/76/266 (undocs.org) (paragraphs 40 - 44) Best Practices [UN (2021) | Paragraphs 40 - 44) ]
4. UNESCO MIL CLICKS Social Media Innovation [VIDEO]
Optional Resources
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
2.Mitigating risk of violence during elections in an ecosystem with multi-stakeholder engagement
3.Regulatory frameworks for free and fair elections in the Digital era
4.Pre-bunking, de-bunking and counter-messaging to respond to harmful contents
Readings
1. Protecting Electoral Integrity in the Digital Age: The Report of the Kofi Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age [Kofi Annan Commission (2020) | Section VII: Summary of Recommendations | Pages 91 to 97]
2. Balancing Act: Countering Digital Disinformation while respecting Freedom of Expression [Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, co-founded by UNESCO and ITU (2020)]
3. Forging a Pathway to Truth, Resilience and Trust | United Nations Development Programme [UNDP (2022) Information Integrity | Section VI: Programme framework]
4. The Legitimate Limits to Freedom of Expression: the Three-Part Test [VIDEO]
Optional Resources