Society, Law & Politics

Historian still making strong case for Black majority

Elizabeth Lock — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 17:54:04 +0000

Historian still making strong case for Black majority Elizabeth Lock Fri, 01/17/2025 - 10:54

CU Adjunct Professor Peter Wood’s seminal 1974 book on race, rice and rebellion in Colonial America recently celebrated its 50th anniversary with an updated version.

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Who lives in a pineapple and announces football games?

Megan Maneval — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 16:06:19 +0000

Who lives in a pineapple and announces football games? Megan Maneval Wed, 01/15/2025 - 09:06

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

The success of simulcasts means that fans can expect to see more creative takes on traditional sports, like SpongeBob SquarePants recently calling an NFL Wild Card game.

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Why Meta fired its fact-checkers and what you can do about it

Lisa Marshall — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:40:53 +0000

Why Meta fired its fact-checkers and what you can do about it Lisa Marshall Fri, 01/10/2025 - 10:40

Lisa Marshall

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company would fire its fact-checkers and instead rely on its users, with the help of AI, to police Facebook and Instagram for false or misleading posts. The company will also move its content moderation team from California to Texas, lift restrictions designed to protect immigrants and LGBTQ people from hate speech and “dial back” penalties for rule-breakers.

“What started as a move to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions,” Zuckerberg said in a video posted Tuesday. “It has gone too far.”

The announcement has drawn praise from those who see it as a win for free speech and ire from critics who worry it will unleash a torrent of misinformation and hateful slurs.

Nathan Schneider, assistant professor of media studies, sees it as a wake-up call to users that it may be time to take back some control over social media platforms.

Nathan Schneider Photo courtesy Courtney McQueeney

“This should, above all, be a reminder that we have entrusted a few companies that are way too powerful with the stewardship of our public discourse. And this is not an acceptable arrangement,” he said.

CU ��«��Ƶ Today sat down with Schneider to get his take on what happened and what could happen next.

What just happened?

We’re in a full-circle moment right now. In the wake of the first Trump election in 2016, lots of people were criticizing Facebook, now Meta, for spreading misinformation. So the company invested heavily in a complicated, bureaucratic operation to deal with it. Now, we are seeing a profound bow to political pressure to reverse those steps. At the same time, there’s also a piece of an old Silicon Valley dream alive in this decision – the idea that we don’t need to pay people and third-party organizations to check facts, that we can do it with technological systems and crowdsourcing.

What do you make of this?

On its surface, this idea of crowdsourcing fact-checking has a lot of appeal to it. It seems to be giving power back to the users. The basic idea that one company with one rule book should control the speech of the world has always been absurd. But the question is: Is the company really going to give up that power? I think the answer is almost certainly 'no'. I worry that what's happening at Meta is something very similar to what we've seen at X: Under the guise of free speech and community control, we will see a consolidation of power and a relinquishment of responsibility.

Meta is moving to a “community notes” system, similar to X’s. Doesn’t that give more control to the user?

Community Notes on X does allow users to add fact-checks to a post. But whether they actually appear and are prioritized depends on an algorithm that the company controls. Already, on X, we see a strong leaning toward partisan and often right-wing voices. It’s replacing a bureaucracy for regulating speech with an algorithm that does it. And algorithms can make the consolidation of power easier.

Will we see more misinformation?

If we look at the experience with Community Notes on X, I think it’s very likely that this move will lead to more widespread misinformation and disinformation. X has made its network very difficult for researchers to study. But so far, external researchers have found that the majority of notes on misinformation are never displayed to users and that the system has not reduced engagement with misleading posts. If that is the model that Meta is promising to follow, this is a troubling development.

Will we see more slurs against vulnerable populations here?

Rightly, many people are terrified. The company has been quite explicit that it is committed to tolerating and normalizing the discourse of the far right, which includes denying the dignity of people in many communities, particularly queer folks. This move reflects the kind of naked power that this company has always been able to exert over speech, and its ability to determine what the bounds of acceptable speech in society are. As the political winds shift, the company appears to be embracing that shift across its networks. We should be asking ourselves whether we can continue to place so much trust in a company that can abruptly remove protections in this way.

What opportunities do you see?

What’s hopeful to me is a growing movement of people embracing other kinds of social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky. These networks rely less on any single company and more on open protocols, just like the web itself. This means that users can have more control over their data and develop their own interfaces and algorithms. None of these technologies is a panacea, but they open the door for us to shift the question away from what we should hope Mark Zuckerberg will do and toward what we could do ourselves to change our online lives for the better.

What can people do now?

Social media is not something anyone can change on their own. I think it's worth starting conversations with the people and organizations that you actually want to connect with and asking: Hey, where could we go that we would feel really at home in? And what kinds of steps can we take together to get there? Ultimately, these choices are social, and any moves we make to better spaces will have to happen collectively.

What would these new social networks look like?

This year, my lab is running what we call the Open Social Incubator. We are working with 10 communities from around the world to explore what it takes to move to emerging networks that are more decentralized and democratically-governed. In many respects, the future of a healthier social media could look more like the places we’ve relied upon for information in the past. You could look at an example like Wikipedia – a widely trusted utility on the internet that is mission-driven and organized as a nonprofit. Or maybe your local library could anchor a space on the internet for social conversations. Back in 2017, I co-founded Social.coop, a cooperatively-governed Mastodon server where the users can make their own decisions about moderation policies. Although it took a lot of time to develop, I now reap the rewards in having a really healthy, pleasurable home for my online life. I hope that in the future more people will have that experience.

CU ��«��Ƶ Today regularly publishes Q&As with our faculty members weighing in on news topics through the lens of their scholarly expertise and research/creative work. The responses here reflect the knowledge and interpretations of the expert and should not be considered the university position on the issue. All publication content is subject to edits for clarity, brevity and university style guidelines.

Nathan Schneider, who studies how social media platforms are governed, says it’s time for users themselves to take back some power.

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Rebuilding lives after the headlines fade

Megan Maneval — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 21:34:27 +0000

Rebuilding lives after the headlines fade Megan Maneval Thu, 01/09/2025 - 14:34

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

CU ��«��Ƶ researcher Lori Peek emphasizes that the impact of natural disasters can be multiplicative. Peek, the director of CU ��«��Ƶ’s Natural Hazards Center, has dedicated her career to understanding how disasters shape the lives of children and families.

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Understanding the legacy of Jimmy Carter

Ally Dever — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 21:10:58 +0000

Understanding the legacy of Jimmy Carter Ally Dever Thu, 01/02/2025 - 14:10

Ally Dever

Former President Jimmy Carter passed away on Dec. 29, 2024, at the age of 100. The 39th president of the United States, Carter was known not only as the longest-lived American president but also as a great humanitarian.

Thomas Zeiler, professor of history and director of the program in international affairs, shared more about Carter’s life and legacy with CU ��«��Ƶ Today.

Professor Thomas Zeiler

Why is Carter such a memorable president?

I think Carter had the most humane presidency because he himself was a very humane person. He genuinely cared about people. I think growing up liberal in a racist, rural town in Georgia, while also being a businessman, made him sensitive to the plight of all people. He was deeply religious but not dogmatic about it. He was a Navy man, which made him tough, but also realistic. But over all of those great qualities, Carter was humane. And you certainly see that reflected in his post-presidential years.

What were his biggest achievements in office?

There were many successes under the Carter administration, especially domestically. He signed legislation establishing both the Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Energy. He developed an energy plan during the 1979 oil crisis that spurred oil production by deregulating oil and natural gas prices, as well as airlines. He also designated over 50 million acres of Alaska wilderness as federally protected national monuments. In terms of racial equality, Carter’s administration was inclusive. The number of Hispanic, Black and Asian officials he appointed to high positions was unprecedented during that time and he was also the first president to have gay officials at the White House.

And if you look at foreign policy, Carter helped bring peace to the Middle East, to an extent, by establishing the framework for a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt known as the Camp David Accords.

What challenges did Carter face during his presidency?

Carter’s main challenge domestically was the economy. He took office shortly after the first oil crisis and the infamous Watergate scandal. He tried to face the economic problems by maintaining a free trade stance and producing more oil, but we were in the aftershocks of Vietnam war spending and in the midst of a national war on poverty. As a result, the nation experienced high inflation and high unemployment—a concept also known as ”stagflation,” which is something we’re facing today.

But Carter’s biggest challenges were related to foreign affairs, most notably the revolution and hostage crisis in Iran. Many Americans believed Carter’s actions, or rather lack of action, made our country look weak. This perception was made worse by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Obviously the Soviets had their own reasons for invading Afghanistan, but many believed they took advantage of America’s preoccupation with the Iran hostage crisis, which lasted over a year.

So Carter was really hurt by foreign policy. It created an image of weakness late in his presidency which likely contributed to his not being reelected.

How did he continue his legacy after he left office?

Carter had the longest post-presidential career of any president. He went right to work after his time in office. He and his wife Rosalyn volunteered for Habitat for Humanity on a weekly basis and established the Carter Center—a not-for-profit organization focused on advancing human rights and improving life for people in more than 80 countries.

In addition to being a scholar and teacher in residence at Emory University, Carter won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center, as well as his time spent supervising elections and providing hurricane relief to countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

What should people always remember about Jimmy Carter?

I think many people would agree that Carter’s work post-presidency was more important for the health of the world. And I think the lesson there is that you don’t know what your impact is going to be until you follow through. Carter looked at the post-presidency as a great opportunity. Even after his most powerful moment was long gone, he changed the world—and that’s pretty remarkable.

The 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter was known not only as the longest-lived American president but also as a great humanitarian. Professor Tom Zeiler gives his take.

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Why did ABC News avoid the courtroom?

Megan Maneval — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:02:38 +0000

Why did ABC News avoid the courtroom? Megan Maneval Mon, 12/23/2024 - 08:02

College of Media, Communication and Information

Assistant Teaching Professor Angelica Kalika discusses flak ABC News got for quickly settling a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump.

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Musicology doctoral candidate explores new research in Japan thanks to CAAAS fellowship

Megan Maneval — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 15:16:22 +0000

Musicology doctoral candidate explores new research in Japan thanks to CAAAS fellowship Megan Maneval Fri, 12/13/2024 - 08:16

Ubochi Igbokwe used funding provided by the new Center for African & African American Studies Graduate Student Fellowship Program to study Igbo African masquerade music and the cultural impacts of the Igbo African émigrés—a previously unresearched area of African cultural expression.

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CAAAS fellow visits formerly segregated state parks

Megan Maneval — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:55:40 +0000

CAAAS fellow visits formerly segregated state parks Megan Maneval Thu, 12/12/2024 - 14:55

Trevor Egerton, a history doctoral candidate studying race and outdoor recreation in the 20th century American South, visited three formerly segregated state parks in Tennessee and South Carolina to interview local residents and workers and explore archival documents.

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Notre Dame cathedral rises from the ashes

Megan Maneval — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 19:51:43 +0000

Notre Dame cathedral rises from the ashes Megan Maneval Wed, 12/04/2024 - 12:51

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

Five years after a devastating fire at Notre Dame, Professor Kirk Ambrose reflects on the significance of the renowned cathedral’s Dec. 7 reopening.

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The world’s food system is broken—this group wants to help fix it

Megan Maneval — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 19:44:58 +0000

The world’s food system is broken—this group wants to help fix it Megan Maneval Wed, 12/04/2024 - 12:44

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

With FrontLine Farming, CU ��«��Ƶ scholars and community colleagues focus on food security, food justice and food liberation.

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Society, Law & Politics

Historian still making strong case for Black majority

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Who lives in a pineapple and announces football games?

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Why Meta fired its fact-checkers and what you can do about it

What just happened?

What do you make of this?

Meta is moving to a “community notes” system, similar to X’s. Doesn’t that give more control to the user?

Will we see more misinformation?

Will we see more slurs against vulnerable populations here?

What opportunities do you see?

What can people do now?

What would these new social networks look like?

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Rebuilding lives after the headlines fade

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Understanding the legacy of Jimmy Carter

Why is Carter such a memorable president?

What were his biggest achievements in office?

What challenges did Carter face during his presidency?

How did he continue his legacy after he left office?

What should people always remember about Jimmy Carter?

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Musicology doctoral candidate explores new research in Japan thanks to CAAAS fellowship

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