Unplugging Hitler’s Radio: Could History Help End the Disinformation Crisis?
Does history hold the key to solving the disinformation crisis in the AI Age? Social media-fuelled disinformation and polarization are often imagined as new problems, but they actually have deep historical roots. In the 1930s and 40s, the Third Reich also blanketed North America with secret pro-German propaganda, hidden in the social media equivalents of their time (movies, radio, etc.) By cultivating a pro-German media landscape, German officials hoped to stop Canadians and Americans from joining in a war against Hitler. Fortunately, these large-scale campaigns of influence were detected and a small group of North American officials developed an innovative system to fight back. They embraced new media, collaborated with community leadership, and built some of the first large-scale anti-racism media campaigns in North American history. Often missed in mainstream histories of the war, this crucial anti-polarization strategy also helped pave the way for major human rights victories in the following decades.
Proceeding from work as the anonymous creator of a larger-scale online history class (55m views), Dr. L.K. Bertram discusses how we can jumpstart this old historical solution today, using algorithmic platforms and tools to accelerate public media literacy and access to engaging, higher-quality online content.
*Please note: this is on online event. Zoom details will be sent out closer to the session*
About the speaker
Dr. L.K. Bertram is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto and teaches courses on history, capital, and algorithmic technologies.
