Machines of Knowledge – “You are fake news!”

This course dealt with the development of the web: from web 1.0 to web 2.0 and web 3.0 and profound changes coming along with it.

For me, tutorial 5 “who controls the narrative” was the most interesting session:

One development of web 2.0 is the shift from the “read-only” web to an internet of communication. On social media platforms, people can post their thoughts and opinions and share them with others. However, this openness of the web and the omission of traditional and qualified gatekeepers result in phenomena like fake news. Especially because many people use platforms like Facebook and Twitter as their only source of information, those fake news or misinformation is more likely to be believed and as a consequence be shared further. Another phenomenon that comes along with this is that of filter bubbles. Filter bubbles influence what users see and what they don’t see. As platforms like Twitter want to personalize the content shown to users as extensively as possible they also prevent people to broaden their horizons and be confronted with other types of information. Again, consequently, fake news and misinformation are more likely to be shared.

For my final thesis, I could imagine writing about the issue of fake news. This is because they are a crucial phenomenon of our time that needs research. In my final paper for the Machines of Knowledge course, I am going to write about the social media discourse surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on fake news. Maybe this is something I could expand in the master’s thesis.

Design Thinking and Maker Culture – the user matters!

In the Design Thinking and Maker Culture tutorial, we went through the whole Design Thinking process. So, we experienced different stages while working on our own project: The production of a podcast. The most interesting aspect of Design Thinking – which is also the topic of my group’s podcast – is that of User-Centred-Design. Its main principle is to think about the user when designing a product – but that is not where the user-centredness ends. In UCD users accompany the whole design process to make sure that the end product is a usable and user-friendly product. For me, UCD is a concept that is appliable in every area and will be helpful for every job in the future.