This blog post contains a reflection of two topics that I found most interesting from the course Machines of Knowledge and Design Thinking and Maker Culture. I will be reflecting on why they fascinated me, and additionally discussing why they could be useful to possibly investigate further in future research.
Machines of Knowledge
A topic that we discussed in the course Machines of Knowledge that I found really fascinating was that of Fake News. In my bachelors I already wrote one paper on this topic as I was intrigued by it. For this paper, I analyzed the Propaganda Model by Herman and Chomsky, which was also discussed in the text by Fuchs that we read. In this course however, I gained knowledge on the workings of Fake News in digital media in particular. This brings me to the concepts of Filter Bubbles and Echo Chambers. I was fascinated by the fact that the algorithms in place cause these effects. Yet I was especially fascinated by the potential effects fake news has on our society.
The phenomenon of filter bubbles works in a way that filters out all the information that is opposed to the users political view, making sure that the user keeps using the platform. This causes an echo chamber of only views and arguments that affirm the users own views. This can lead to polarization of our society and makes that people find it harder to deal with opposing views, as they are confronted with them less. At the same time, this makes people believe in Fake News that affirms their believes of the opposing side more easily. The dangerous effects of Fake News are getting more and more important as the spread of Fake News on social media is growing rapidly. I think this problem will get more and more important in our digital society, which will make it a relevant topic to research further.
Design Thinking and Maker Culture
In the last tutorial session, we discussed the Design Lifecycle. This, for me, really tied together the whole course and gave me an overview of the design thinking and maker culture theory in practice. As we went through different factors of this theory every week, it was sometimes hard to see the bigger picture. This Design Lifecycle, illustrated through the double diamond model, provided a clear and structured “bigger picture” for the design process. The double diamond consists of four phases: discover, define, develop and deliver. Yet, it is important that this process is not linear. One of the most important aspects of the design process is going back and forth between phases. I think this design process, which we went through and learned about throughout the whole course, could be very helpful to structure my future research. It could possibly provide some sort of guidance within the process of doing research, for example for my Master thesis.
Dear Julia,
the possible topic questions for your thesis that you raise sounds very interesting. Especially the effect Fake News have nowadays is not to underestimate. For that topic I could see you analyzing some corpus on social media related to a certain hashtag, which is part of a Fake news problem, like let’s say #stopthesteal. It would be very interesting to see what findings you could come up with.
Maybe the Double Diamond of the Design Life Cycle will come of use for you, when writing your thesis as it helps to define different stages and milestones of you project.
Best of luck with your thesis!
Mark