In this episode of UnSpun, I look at the growing power of influencers in politics and public life. From streamers and commentators to legacy journalists turned creators, the media landscape has changed fast. Who gets trusted? Who gets heard? And what does it mean when more people get their news from personalities instead of institutions?

I explore how influencers shape political knowledge, why they are so effective, how platform incentives affect what gets said, and what YOU can do to evaluate information more carefully.

Topics include:

• Trump’s appearances on influencer platforms
• Pew Research on news influencers
• Parasocial relationships and authenticity
• Why legacy media trust keeps slipping
• How to make your feed more reliable

Stay sharp, truth seekers.

Here's the episode on Uses and Gratifications.

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Be smarter with Dr. Sturg's book that teaches you how to detect fake news.

Welcome to Journal Club 6, which is about how it's gotten easy and inexpensive to make seemingly limitless disinformation ready to go straight into your feeds.

Back in Roman times, it took control of the money mint to create and scale harmful propaganda. in this week's episode, Dr. Sturg looks at a paper that tested if it's possible to create convincing fake news without even having to pay for Chat GPT compute credits. The findings are not good news, but better to know.

Find this week's paper here.

And you can get better at finding fake news yourself with Dr. Sturg's book. Find it here or your favorite online bookseller.

Why do politicians swear—and why does it work?

In this episode of UnSpun, DrSturg examines how profanity functions as a political tool. From viral moments like Biden’s hot mic comment abotu Peter Doocy to the Trump Access Hollywood tape and John Fetterman’s “jagoff” controversy, explore how vulgar language captures attention and, for some, signals authenticity.

But there’s a trade-off.

Research shows that while profanity can help mobilize supporters, for others it can also erode trust, deepen polarization and even divert attention away from substantive issues.

Find out what happens when the system we're all a part of rewards what spreads instead of what informs?

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The episode starts with a logical fallacy, and DrSturg actually wrote a book about that where you can learn how to spot when newsmakers are using langauge to fool you with fun, real world examples. Find it here.

And join the conversation on Bluesky!

In this episode of UnSpun Journal Club, we break down new research on one of the biggest challenges in today’s information environment: misinformation.

Most conversations focus on fact-checkers or national media. But this paper argues something different—that local journalism may be one of the most effective tools we have for stopping misinformation where it starts.

We explore why misinformation spreads so effectively, why traditional responses often fall short, and what role local news might play moving forward.

The question is not just whether local journalism works.

It’s whether it will still exist when we need it.

Original paper here:

A new hope: Local journalism as a mitigation hub for misinformation by Gregory Perreault and Phoebe Maares.

In this episode of UnSpun, we examine how governments shape wartime narratives and how journalists have challenged them across modern history. From Baghdad Bob’s surreal press conferences during the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the Pentagon Papers, the My Lai massacre, and the Abu Ghraib scandal, the episode explores how independent reporting has exposed truths that official accounts initially concealed.

We also examine how war reporting has evolved since World War II, including the rise of embedded journalism, the role of social media in modern conflicts, and the risks journalists face when reporting from the ground.

As new conflicts unfold and accusations of misinformation intensify, understanding how war narratives are constructed has never been more important.

Stay sharp.

Can we stop misinformation before it spreads?

In this episode of UnSpun Journal Club, I break down a real-world Instagram field study on “prebunking” — a strategy that teaches people to recognize manipulation tactics before they encounter viral misinformation.

Instead of fact-checking after the damage is done, researchers tested whether a short 19-second video about emotional manipulation could strengthen people’s ability to detect misleading content in their feeds.

The results? It did -- and the effect lasted five months.

We explore:

• How prebunking differs from debunking
• Why misinformation spreads faster than fact checks
• How this can help even with free speech concerns
• How the audience can help each other

It's not censorship. It’s ognitive defense.

If you care about media literacy, journalism research, and practical strategies for navigating misinformation, this episode is for you.

Find the full paper here: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/prebunking-misinformation-techniques-in-social-media-feeds-results-from-an-instagram-field-study/

Some scandals flare up, peak, and vanish. Others come back for years.

In this episode of UnSpun, I trace the difference.

Why was the Access Hollywood episode a brief burst, while h the Jeffrey Epstein case a story keeps returning in cycles, fed by court filings, testimony, and periodic document releases.

Join me as I break down the structural forces that determine whether a scandal sticks.

Deepfakes don’t just tell you lies. They show you “proof.”

In this episode of UnSpun Journal Club, I break downresearch from by Hwang, Ryu ad Jeong Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking examining whether deepfake videos make misinformation more believable than text alone.

The findings are concerning:

But there’s good news. A short media literacy lesson—just seven minutes—helped a lot.

I'll unpack:

• Why video feels more like evidence
• Whether media literacy education actually works
• What this means for journalism, democracy, and everyday media consumers

If you care about misinformation, media literacy, and how public perception is shaped, this episode is for you.

Source:

Hwang, Y., Ryu, J. Y., & Jeong, S.-H. (2021). Effects of Disinformation Using Deepfake: The Protective Effect of Media Literacy Education. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2020.0174