Unmasking Manipulative Media – An 8 Week Exploration

* Restricted Attendance: For the best experience, all 8 sessions are recommended as the course builds on itself.

Unmasking Manipulative Media

You can see through distorted reporting from news sources you’ve learned not to trust. But what about the news reports your friends are forwarding from outlets you don’t recognize? And what about your go-to sources? Can you recognize when they are manipulating you?

This 8-week seminar will equip you to navigate the murky waters of modern media with clarity and confidence. It will teach how to recognize and account for bias (including your own), verify information, see through logical fallacies, check the “facts” you’re being fed, combat polarizing propaganda, and achieve nuanced understanding of the key issues of the day. It will deepen your understanding of what drives manipulative media and empower you to evaluate conspiracy theories with a clear head.

Before resolving to become a peace-builder and joining Braver Angels, instructor Rebecca Burnham used to fight in the culture wars. She learned that manipulative information tactics are used on both the left and the right while working as a journalist for what was the only conservative news conglomerate in Canada and then as national leader of two pro-family lobbies. She is now the founder of Summit Stages, an organization devoted to unleashing the power of musical theatre to lift and unite us across our divides, and is a co-lead of the Braver Angels Music Network.

Sept 23rd/Week 1: Bias is Human, Fairness Divine

• exploring the importance of truth
• identifying bias
• value of fairness
• Ad Hominem fallacies

Sept 30th/Week 2: Verify, Verify, Verify

• how confirmation bias makes us vulnerable
• importance of verifying inform
• fact-checking resources
• Bandwagon and Appeal to Authority fallacies

Oct 7th/Week 3: Propaganda & Polarization

• propaganda techniques
• polarization
• resources to heal the divide
• False Dichotomy fallacy

Oct 14th/Week 4: Nuance and a 3D Perspective

• resources for nuanced news
• oversimplified perspectives on vaccination
• nuanced perspectives on vaccination
• Straw Man, False Analogy, False Cause and Fallacy fallacies

Oct 21st/Week 5: What’s Driving This Bus? The Whys of Manipulative Media

• Poisoning the Well, Appeal to Emotion, Hasty Generalization fallacies
• Pranks as a motive for misinformation
• Overzealousness, Money, Power, and Malice motives for misinformation, especially as they showed up in “Russiagate”

Oct 28th/Week 6: Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory

• Nascar Noose incident: circumstantial evidence does not prove a conspiracy
• Circular Reasoning and Texas Sharpshooter fallacies
• King of Conspiracy, David Icke
• Elements of a damaging conspiracy theory
• How to avoid getting suck in

Nov 4th/Week 7: Dismantling Together a Piece of Fake News

• Practical application of skills learned in order to dismantle together a widely circulated conspiracy theory

Nov 11th/Week 8: Synthesis and a Path Forward

• Tying up loose ends
• Making connections between the things we’ve learned
• How will it change our relationship with media

Questions? Contact Rebecca Burnham at rebeccaburnham65@gmail.com

** This event is open to the media upon approval. Send requests to press@braverangels.org