Algorithms influence our relationships, our consumption, our culture and especially the way we inform ourselves and perceive the world. But do we really know what they are, how they work, what economic or ideological logic underlies them and how to try to control them rather than suffer from them? Understanding algorithms, being able to analyze them critically, grasping them and learning how to protect oneself against them are the objectives of algo-literacy, the field explored by the Crossover project in its informational dimension.
The Crossover kit is an educational resource kit for educational mediators and training courses, built around podcasts on the links between algorithms and disinformation.
If we believed social media, they were to invade the Parliament of Brussels. In reality, as good “slacktivists” they only fought on the Internet. At the crossroads of algorithmic investigation and field reportage and through the story of the Freedom Convoy, our guests will tell us about the considerable gap between the virtual and the real worlds…
For this first crossing of algorithms, we are pleased to talk to Hind Fraihi, a reporter at Apache (Belgium), and Guillaume Kuster, an expert in algorithms and director of Check First (Finland). With them and Divina Frau-Meigs from the association Savoir Devenir (France), you will enter the incredible world of the production of information in the hands of artificial intelligence. By mixing data journalism and field investigation and using the monitoring tool of the popular search engines and social media developed within the European project Crossover, our speakers will try to unveil the mystery around the recommendation algorithms modifying media agendas and our vision of the news.
How do they work?
What are their objectives?
How can they be controlled? That’s what this podcast is all about
High school students or adults
By all, to better understand algorithms
As part of workshops or training in algo-literacy
Ranking and recommendation algorithms
How they work and their impact on social media and disinformation
Note : The kit is available in French on Savoir-Devenir website
In this episode, “Dangerous Liaisons” we look at how social media algorithms favor certain Russian and Chinese state-controlled media. A research conducted by Apache for the Crossover project shows that coverage of the war in Ukraine on YouTube in Belgium is dominated by Chinese and Turkish state controlled media. We seek to understand how these algorithms work and how they reinforce the influence of foreign propaganda on Belgian and European audiences.
CrossOver is a European project that explores and tries to dissect the amazing algorithms that this is all about.
With the participation of :
High school students or adults
By all, to better understand algorithms
As part of workshops or training in algo-literacy
Recommendation algorithms
How they work and their impact on social media and disinformation
Note : The kit is available in French on Savoir-Devenir website
This module focuses on new investigative techniques based on algorithms, which are increasingly used by journalists and the media. How do they change the way information is produced and do they contribute to the fight against disinformation? What secrets can they reveal?
The podcast brings the testimony of journalist Hind Fraihi, who explains concretely what algorithms have changed to her job by taking the example of the “making of” an article she wrote for the online media Apache. An article that explores the conspiracy that can be found massively on the Odysee platform, often qualified as “Youtube of all the drifts”.
Based on this conversation, our Media and Information Literacy expert, Zara Mommerency, explains why it is essential to understand these new ways of making information and to take them into account to improve our media consumption patterns.
High school students or adults
For everyone, to better understand algorithms
In the context of workshops or training in algo-literacy
Algo journalism
Recommendation algorithms
Conspiracy
This module focuses on how new information technology tools, such as CrossOver’s dashboard, are helping to shed light on the role and impact of algorithms on information and disinformation. The podcast gives the floor to those who work at CrossOver at the technical and pedagogical levels to shed light on the impact of algorithms on information and disinformation, in particular through its dashboard. This role is illustrated through an investigation of the role of predictive algorithms in Google’s “autocomplete” search.
How do developers work with journalists, fact-checkers and MIL experts? What are the benefits and challenges of this complex approach? How can technical tools such as the one developed in this project be useful to all citizens – information professionals as well as ordinary citizens – to avoid disinformation?
Podcast guests:
Amaury Lesplingart and Nelly Pailleux (Check First), Divina Frau-Meigs (Savoir Devenir)
Based on this conversation, our Media and Information Literacy expert, Zara Mommerency, explains why it is essential to understand these new ways of making information and to take them into account to improve our media consumption patterns.
High school students or adults
For everyone, to better understand algorithms
In the context of workshops or training in algo-literacy
Recommendation and prediction algorithms
Algorithmic monitoring tools