SYNOPSIS
Brandon Schauer from Rare, a conservation nonprofit, talks to Rachel and Dan about ways to modify behavior to help save the planet. Climate change and its solutions are often too big for an individual person to connect with, so Brandon has developed strategies to meet people where they are. These strategies short-circuit climate misinformation altogether.
STORIES
Banana propaganda
NPS, the continuing saga
INTERVIEW
LENSES
Social Awareness
Everyone can be part of a solution to large problems, and the ecosystem can help users understand how they may be connected to others.
Hyperobjects
Based on the concept from Timothy Morton, hyperobjects are concepts that are so big they are difficult for people to understand them fully. Information ecosystems may be connected to or related to hyperobjects, introducing specific challenges.
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
SYNOPSIS
Dr. Claire Wardle is a disinformation expert and communications professor at Cornell University. She joins Rachel and Dan to talk about the history of disinformation study, how new technology introduces new challenges, and about how the information ecosystem might change in the future. She offers insights into the psychology of disinformation. From the conversation, Rachel elaborates on the lens of Friction, and Dan talks about a lens he can only call “Middle of the night.”
STORIES OF DISINFORMATION
The Propaganda of Hearst and Pulitzer
Bedlam and Squalor and Worse, Oh My
INTERVIEW
LENSES
Friction
For designers, "friction" represents how much the experience intrudes on consuming information or completing tasks. Experiences increase the intrusion to discourage destructive actions (like deleting important information). Additionally, it is often said that lies are “low friction” and truth is “high friction”. That is, understanding and internalizing a lie is less cognitive demanding than doing so with the truth.
Middle of the night
Users are most susceptible to disinformation when they are at their most vulnerable, like in the middle of the night with a health scare.
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Personnel
Music
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
SYNOPSIS
David Dylan Thomas joins Rachel and Dan to talk about cognitive biases. David explains the fundamental attribution error, the framing effect, and the confirmation bias. All of these contribute to a skewed perception in which a person’s misconceptions about the world can be reinforced or exploited. The conversation leads Rachel to suggest the lens of manipulation and Dan the lens of belonging.
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STORIES OF DISINFORMATION
Mary Toft
AI Policy
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INTERVIEW WITH DAVID DYLAN THOMAS
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LENSES
Manipulation
Content can manipulate a person’s hope and joy, and anger and fear, triggering a physiological reaction. But the content of a system is not solely responsible for this effect on users.
Belonging
The intent of disinformation is often to make someone feel like they belong to a community.
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Personnel
Music
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
SYNOPSIS
Dana Chisnell joins Dan and Rachel to talk about information in civic tech. Dana discusses her experience with voting systems, immigration, and homeland security. New executive orders on communicating about people directly affected Dana’s job. She explains her rationale for stepping down from her executive position. Rachel coins the lens “#influencers” and Dan describes the lens “Messaging.”
STORIES OF DISINFORMATION
The AIDS crisis
Dan’s son was in a musical called Falsettos and it brought back many memories about growing up in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.
Salmon fishing in the Pacific Northwest
Rachel notes a mainstream use of the term “misinformation” in, of all places, a local controversy over salmon fishing.
INTERVIEW WITH DANA CHISNELL
LENSES
#Influencers
Information spaces rely on “elders” or authorities to give information merit. Designing a system needs to acknowledge that influencers have long been part of information spaces, even before they were digital.
Messaging
Microcontent in systems are meant to guide users and we’ve long focused on the the clarity and usability. In modern interconnected information environments even the smallest misunderstanding can snowball into full-fledged misinformation.
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
SYNOPSIS
Rachel and Dan talk to Dr. Adam Ratner, author of the new book Booster Shots, about the misinformation he encounters as a pediatric infectious disease specialist. We discuss the distinctions between vaccine hesitancy and being anti-vax, and how misinformation has an impact beyond individual healthcare. Dan uses the discussion to highlight a new “lens” called double-tagging, and Rachel is inspired to establish the lens “frenzy.”
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STORIES OF DISINFORMATION
The Fifth Column
Rachel describes how the US used the fictional threat of a “fifth column” to bolster their argument for Japanese internment camps.
Reciprocal Tariffs
Dan highlights some of the more subtle and insidious misinformation about Trump’s tariffs.
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INTERVIEW WITH DR ADAM RATNER
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LENSES
Double-tagging
Seemingly innocuous labels can be turned into misinformation by applying them in a way that is technically accurate, but twists the meaning of the label. Tagging anti-vax information with the label “vaccines” is misleading, and undermines the integrity of the system.
Frenzy
Information systems have a responsibility to help users understand what’s truly important and/or urgent. Systems must avoid contributing to the frenzy of information.
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Personnel
Music
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
SYNOPSIS
Dan and Rachel talk with Cyd Harrell about the challenges of providing information to citizens that is accurate and accessible, even when it needs to be official and formal. Rachel discusses the Accuracy as a lens for evaluating information ecosystems. Dan explains the lens Accountability.
EPISODE CONTENTS
Stories of Disinformation
Dan describes misinformation from the Bush administration that provided the impetus for the US invasion of Iraq
Rachel describes how the US National Park Rangers handle messaging guidelines from the Trump administration
Interview with Cyd Harrell
Lenses
Accuracy
It turns out accuracy is a spectrum, and sometimes information is "accurate enough" for the purposes of the people using it. At the same time, some domains require information that is precise, even when that isn't required by all users.
Accountable
When information is held accountable, it is subjected to outside critique and validation. Perfectly closed systems prevent information from being scrutinized. But also, systems that appear open can be compromised.
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Personnel
Music
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Personnel
Music
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
Stories of Disinformation
Rachel told the story of disinformation in ancient Rome: Octavian’s campaign against Mark Antony.
Dan recounted the story of how the Department of Homeland Security is manipulating search engine results… Or are they?
Interview with Susannah Fox
Lenses
Interrogable
Information ecosystems sometimes keep participants in the dark, preventing them from understanding more about the information conveyed. While opacity in a system can make it easier to understand, preventing users from becoming disoriented or overwhelmed, it also does not invite users to think critically about the information presented.
Self-Regulating
In peer-to-peer patient support communities, there are mechanisms that allow community members to indicate the reliability of posted information. If online spaces are like gardens, they should be community gardens, where any participant can contribute to the health of the information.
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Personnel
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Personnel
Music
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design
Introducing Unchecked, the podcast about the architecture of disinformation. Exaggerations, misinformation, and falsehoods seem to be everywhere these days. No domain, no online space, no information ecosystem is safe from this invasive species. Dan and Rachel, two professional information architects, turn their attention to this growing threat in the hopes of developing strategies and methods for building better systems.
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Personnel
Music
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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid
Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design