In the article, Associate Professor of Journalism Amanda Sturgill explains how social media is being used to spread claims against a candidate in one of the state's U.S. Senate race runoffs.
A new article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution examining misinformation in a U.S. Senate race in Georgia includes insights from Amanda Sturgill, associate professor of journalism.
The article looks at claims against candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock that while they contain factual information, that information is being misrepresented on social media to insinuate guilt.
“It’s sort of made to spread on social media,” Sturgill said about the information being distributed by conservative media outlets, Republican elected officials and GOP donors. “In the 240 characters (of a tweet), nothing is in there that’s not true. But stripped of nuance and context, she said, the claims become unfair. “It’s true, but it’s deconstructed from the rest of the story.”
Sturgill studied these types of misinformation tactics for her book, “Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News,” which was published earlier this year.
Read the entire Atlanta Journal-Constitution article here.