Week 03: The World Wide Rumour, Urban Myths and Soft Journalism, Lecturer: Gavan McCarthy - Fact, Fiction and Fraud in the Digital Age Lecture Summary

Fact, Fiction and Fraud in the Digital Age
Essential Skills for the Information Age Worker, Semester 2 2004

Week 03: The World Wide Rumour, Urban Myths and Soft Journalism

Lecturer: Gavan McCarthy

Online Sources

Published Sources

Date: 11 Aug 2004 1pm

Location: Old Arts Theatre B

This will involve an introductory tour of World Wide Web exploring the means, methods and mechanisms by which unverifiable data and information is propagated.

Lecture Notes

Tutorial Exercises

Topics for the research papers will be discussed and finalised. Review questions and outcomes from lab exercise will be discussed.

Lab Exercise

Task - locate a Web "Urban Myth" site; choose a "likely" story; using Webraft post a discussion that describes the myth in about 100 words and (most important) cite the Web sources - not just in text but electronically; test some of the other students citations. What issues arise? Electronic citation is a critical skill for the digital worker but it is not as straightforward as it may seem.

Review Questions

Name and discuss three communication technologies from before 1900.
How would you start an urban myth on the Web?
What is the small world effect? What is the Barry Jones phenomenon?
What is the 'call to authority'? How can this be problematic? Can you think of a personal example?
What are the key 'gullibility' factors of web information?
What role does a URL play in establishing credibility?

Online Sources

Published Sources

Articles

Barabási, Albert-László, 'The Physics of the Web', PhysicsWeb, vol. 14, no. 7, PhysicsWorld, July 2001, http://physicsweb.org/article/world/14/7/9/1.

Berners-Lee, Tim, Hendler, James and Lassila, Ora, 'The Semantic Web', Scientific American, May 2001, Scientific American Inc, 2001, http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-84A9809EC588EF21.

Casimir, Jon, 'Myth Information', theage.com.au, 15 July 2002, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/11/1026185085632.html.

Resources

Small World Project, Columbia University, http://www.smallworld.columbia.edu/.

Brett Tjaden, Patrick Reynolds and The CS Web Team, The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia, Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering, University of Virginia, 1996, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/.

Computer Incident Advisory Capability, Hoaxbusters, US Department of Energy, 2000, http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/.

Ensor, Pat, Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher, with Top Technology Trends Committee, LITA, Library and Information Technology Association, 2000, http://www.lita.org/committe/toptech/toolkit.htm.

Heimbaugh, Jason R., The AFU and Urban Legends Archive, 1991 - 1998, http://www.urbanlegends.com/.

Hymes, Charles, Don't Spread That Hoax, 8 August 1997, http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/default.htm.

Mikkelson, Barbara and David, Urban Legends Reference Pages, 1995, http://www.snopes.com/.

Rosenberger, Rob, Vmyths.com - Truth About Computer Virus Myths & Hoaxes, Rhode Island Soft Systems, Inc., 2000, http://www.Vmyths.com/.

Spalding, David, Korova Multimedia e-v-mail, Korova Multimedia, 1999, http://www.korova.com/virus/index.htm.

Wells, Murray "Redman Lucas", Urban Legends Research Centre, 1999, http://www.ulrc.com.au/.

Prepared by: Gavan McCarthy
Created: 5 June 2000
Modified: 22 July 2004

Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre on AustehcWeb, 2000 - 2004
Comments, questions, corrections and additions: tfac@austehc.unimelb.edu.au
Updated: 22 July 2004
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/teaching/tfac/course/L000003b.htm

[ Top of page | Fact, Fiction and Fraud in the Digital Age Home | Browse ]