In todays lectorial, Rachel helped prepare us for our first group project. This isn’t my first group project, but I think all the points that Rachel made in her talk, have really prepared me better to take on this one. A lot of the points that she went through, were fairly self explanatory, but for me, a reminder of all these things did me good. As well as being a reminder to myself, it also gave me piece of mine, knowing that the people I would be working with, listened to the same talk. One thing that she mentioned, was with our group, since it’s likely that we don’t know each other well yet (yay for assigned groups), that we should go do something together to get to know one another. I think it’s a nice idea, but me being an, initially, pretty shy person, I can only hope one of my group members initiates the first get together…

We also had a brief discussion this week on the reading, based all around fake news, and what to trust, and what not to trust online.

This weeks reading was written by Danah Boyd, a researcher of technology & society. The general outline, that I gathered from the reading, was around what we do, and don’t trust online, and our perception of this. I really enjoyed this weeks reading, because things such as fake news, or even just simply, exadurated headlines and articles always make me laugh. The reading wasn’t exactly about fake news, but more so learning, and knowing what sources to trust. The prime example, or the one that stood out to me, was about how most of us have grown up with the mindset, to not trust sites, such as Wikipedia. When it comes to researching online, it comes down to more than just the website that the information comes from. It is about many other aspects, such as, when the article was published, and who it was published by. Being able to analyse and realise a trustworthy article, is a critical part of conducting strong, and concise, research.

What different people believe to be trustworthy can also be influenced. An example that is mentioned in the reading, is based around the dispute between democrat voters, and republican voters, during the US election. Republican voters (those voting for trump) were quick to believe information spread, against Clinton, despite the reliability of the source the information was found from. With lack of evidence, if individual people wanted to believe something, they would make an effort to share it, despite any claims.