Chapter 7 Exercises: The Rise of Digital and Social...

Instructions

These exercises are designed to develop analytical, research, and technical skills related to digital misinformation. Exercises range from short reflections to extended research projects. Unless otherwise specified, written responses should be supported with specific evidence and examples.

Section A: Conceptual Understanding (Short Answer)

Exercise 7.1 — The Credibility of Personal Networks

Explain in your own words why information received from a trusted friend or family member through social media is psychologically more persuasive than the same information encountered from an anonymous source. Your answer should reference at least two of the following concepts: strong ties/weak ties, social proof, parasocial relationships, credibility transfer.

Exercise 7.2 — Platform Architecture Mapping

For each of the following platform features, (a) explain its stated purpose, (b) explain how it functions as a misinformation accelerant, and (c) propose one design modification that might reduce misinformation spread while preserving the core functionality:

The Facebook "Share" button
YouTube's autoplay feature
Twitter's real-time trending topics
WhatsApp's group forwarding
TikTok's "For You Page" endless scroll

Exercise 7.3 — The Verification Collapse

Define "verification collapse" and explain why it is a structural feature of real-time social media rather than a problem caused by individual bad actors. In your answer, address: (a) what the incentive structure of real-time platforms rewards, (b) why the "first mover advantage" in misinformation is so persistent, and (c) one specific intervention that could reduce verification collapse without eliminating the benefits of real-time information sharing.

Exercise 7.4 — Comparing Information Architectures

Compare and contrast the following three information architectures in terms of their misinformation implications:

A newspaper's website with a comments section
A Facebook News Feed (social graph)
A WhatsApp family group (private messaging)

Your comparison should address: who can see the content, who can correct it, how it spreads, and what kind of credibility it carries.

Exercise 7.5 — The Parasocial Relationship

The concept of the parasocial relationship was first theorized by Horton and Wohl in 1956 — long before social media existed. Why might parasocial relationships be more powerful and more consequential in the social media era than in the television era? Identify at least three structural features of social media that intensify parasocial bonds compared to traditional broadcast media.

Section B: Research and Analysis

Exercise 7.6 — Historical Case Analysis: Rathergate

Research the 2004 Rathergate controversy in detail. Write a 600-800 word analysis that addresses:

What were the specific typographical claims made by bloggers about the disputed documents?
How were these claims contested by typography experts at the time?
What role did political motivation play in the rapid spread of skepticism about the documents?
What does this case reveal about the "blogosphere as fact-checker" theory? Is it more supportive or more critical of that theory?
How would the Rathergate controversy likely unfold differently if it occurred today (with current social media architecture)?

Exercise 7.7 — Platform Comparison Study

Choose a significant current event (a natural disaster, a political development, or a public health issue that occurred in the past six months). Over 48 hours, track how information about this event is presented on: (a) a major newspaper website, (b) Twitter/X, (c) Facebook, and (d) a relevant YouTube channel. Document:

What claims are made on each platform
How quickly claims appear
Whether corrections are issued and how visible they are
What emotional framing each platform uses
Which platform you find most informative and why

Write a 500-700 word reflection on your findings.

Exercise 7.8 — Health Misinformation Audit

Search YouTube for a health topic of your choice (suggestions: "vaccine ingredients," "cancer diet cure," "intermittent fasting benefits," "essential oils therapy"). Watch the first three recommended videos on this topic. For each video, document:

The creator's claimed credentials or expertise
The specific health claims made
Whether claims are supported by referenced research
The engagement metrics (views, likes, comments)
What YouTube recommends next after this video

Write a 400-600 word analysis of what your audit reveals about YouTube's health information ecosystem.

Exercise 7.9 — WhatsApp Misinformation Research

Research the WhatsApp mob violence incidents in India between 2017 and 2019. Your research should answer:

What were the common themes of false messages that preceded mob violence?
Why were these particular types of messages (kidnapping rumors, organ harvesting) especially effective at triggering violent responses?
What specific interventions did WhatsApp implement in response?
Evaluate the effectiveness of WhatsApp's interventions. What evidence exists about whether they reduced the spread of harmful misinformation?
What alternative interventions might have been more effective?

Produce a 700-900 word research report with citations.

Exercise 7.10 — Creator Economy Monetization Analysis

Select a prominent wellness or health influencer on any platform (with at least 100,000 followers). Analyze their content and monetization:

What health claims does this influencer make?
Which of their claims are supported by peer-reviewed evidence?
How do they monetize their content? (Ad revenue, sponsorships, product sales, subscriptions?)
Is there a relationship between their monetization sources and the types of health claims they make?
How does the platform's architecture (recommendation algorithm, community features, notification system) support or constrain their influence?

Write a 600-800 word critical analysis. Do not name the influencer in ways that could expose them to harassment — use a pseudonym or category description.

Section C: Network Analysis and Data Exercises

Exercise 7.11 — Social Network Structure

Using the code in code/example-01-social-network-growth.py as a starting point:

a) Run the simulation with the following parameter variations: - Network size: 100, 500, and 1,000 nodes - Attachment parameter (m): 1, 2, and 5

b) For each run, record: - The degree of the top 5% most-connected nodes - The degree of the median node - The ratio between the two (a measure of network inequality)

c) Write a 200-300 word explanation of how power-law degree distributions in social networks relate to misinformation spread. Why does the existence of highly connected "super-spreader" nodes matter for understanding how false information reaches large audiences?

Exercise 7.12 — SIR Model Parameter Exploration

Using the viral spread simulation in code/example-02-viral-spread-simulation.py:

a) Run the simulation with the following parameter variations: - Sharing rate (β): 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 - Recovery rate (γ): 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 - Population size: 1,000, 10,000

b) Create a table showing peak "infected" (actively sharing) population and total eventual reach for each parameter combination.

c) Based on your results, write a 200-300 word explanation of the following: If a platform could reduce the average sharing rate by 20% (through friction interventions), what would be the expected effect on the total reach of a viral false claim? Does this match your simulation results?

Exercise 7.13 — Engagement and Emotional Content

Using the platform engagement analysis code in code/example-03-platform-engagement-analysis.py:

a) Extend the synthetic dataset by adding 50 additional headlines. Include a mix of: - High-accuracy, low-emotion headlines (e.g., "Federal Reserve Maintains Interest Rates") - Low-accuracy, high-emotion headlines (e.g., "Government Poisons Water Supply with Experimental Chemicals") - High-accuracy, high-emotion headlines (e.g., "School Shooting Leaves 12 Dead")

b) Run the engagement analysis on your extended dataset.

c) Write a 250-350 word reflection: Does your analysis support the claim that emotional arousal (not just emotional valence) drives engagement? What does this suggest about the relationship between accurate reporting on genuinely emotional events and misinformation that manufactures false emotional arousal?

Exercise 7.14 — Network Centrality and Influence

Research the concept of "centrality" in network analysis (degree centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality). Then:

a) Explain in plain language what each centrality measure captures and why it might be relevant to understanding misinformation spread.

b) If you had the social graph of a major social media platform and wanted to identify the accounts most likely to be "super-spreaders" of misinformation, which centrality measure would you prioritize and why?

c) Propose an intervention strategy based on targeting high-centrality nodes. What are the ethical implications of such a strategy?

Write 400-500 words.

Section D: Critical Thinking and Ethics

Exercise 7.15 — The Reddit Ethics Case

Consider the Reddit misidentification of Sunil Tripathi during the Boston Marathon bombing investigation.

a) Identify all the parties who contributed to the harm inflicted on Tripathi's family. For each party, describe their specific contribution and assess their degree of moral responsibility.

b) Reddit's community guidelines at the time did not explicitly prohibit what r/findbostonbombers users did. Does the absence of a specific rule reduce individual users' moral responsibility? Why or why not?

c) Propose a set of platform-level policies that Reddit could have implemented before 2013 that might have prevented or mitigated this harm. For each policy, identify its potential costs (to free expression, to legitimate community investigation activities, to platform usability).

Write 500-700 words.

Exercise 7.16 — Privacy vs. Safety in Encrypted Messaging

WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption protects user privacy but also facilitates the spread of harmful misinformation in private groups. This is a genuine ethical tension between two important values.

a) Articulate the strongest possible argument for prioritizing privacy (i.e., maintaining end-to-end encryption with no content scanning even in the face of documented harms).

b) Articulate the strongest possible argument for prioritizing safety (i.e., allowing some form of content monitoring to detect and remove harmful misinformation).

c) Evaluate proposals that attempt to navigate this tension, such as: metadata-only monitoring (knowing who is in groups but not what they say), client-side scanning (scanning on the device before encryption), and group size limits. What are the technical, legal, and ethical limitations of each?

Write 600-800 words.

Exercise 7.17 — Platform Designer Responsibility

Justin Rosenstein (Like button) and Aza Raskin (infinite scroll) have expressed public regret about the behavioral consequences of their design decisions.

a) To what extent should platform designers bear moral responsibility for foreseeable harms from features they design? Is this analogous to a pharmaceutical company's responsibility for addiction to a drug it develops? A car manufacturer's responsibility for road accidents?

b) At what point (if any) does the argument that "users are responsible for their own behavior" become inadequate as a defense of harmful platform design?

c) What institutional structures (regulatory, professional, or corporate) might better align the incentives of platform designers with the social consequences of their decisions?

Write 500-650 words.

Exercise 7.18 — The Democratization Paradox

Social media is often described as "democratizing" information — giving voice to previously excluded perspectives and enabling direct communication without institutional gatekeepers. But this chapter has documented numerous harms that emerge from the same democratization.

Write a 500-700 word essay evaluating the following claim: "The democratization of publishing has produced a net harm to the quality of public information, despite its genuine benefits to political participation and cultural diversity."

Your essay should take a clear position and defend it with specific evidence from this chapter and your own research.

Exercise 7.19 — Comparative Media History

Each new communication technology has generated both utopian predictions and moral panics. Research one of the following historical cases: - The printing press and the spread of religious pamphlets in the Reformation - Yellow journalism and its role in the Spanish-American War - Radio and the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast panic - The introduction of television and concerns about its effects on children

Compare the information dynamics of your chosen historical case with a contemporary social media misinformation case from this chapter. What patterns recur? What is genuinely new about digital misinformation?

Write 600-800 words with citations.

Exercise 7.20 — Designing a Counter-Misinformation Intervention

You have been hired as a product manager at a major social media platform. Your mandate is to reduce the spread of health misinformation without significantly reducing overall user engagement.

Design an intervention strategy that includes: 1. Three specific product features you would implement (with rationale grounded in the research discussed in this chapter) 2. How you would measure the intervention's effectiveness 3. What unintended consequences you would monitor for 4. How you would respond if the intervention reduced misinformation but also reduced engagement by more than 5%

Write 600-800 words.

Section E: Extended Research Projects

Exercise 7.21 — Longitudinal Platform Study (2-week project)

Over a two-week period, maintain a research journal tracking your own social media use and information encounters. Daily entries should record:

How many minutes you spent on each platform
How many pieces of content you shared or forwarded
How many times you actively verified a claim before sharing
The emotional state you were in when you made sharing decisions
Any cases where you later discovered shared content was false or misleading

At the end of two weeks, write a 1,000-1,500 word reflective analysis of your own information behavior. What patterns emerge? What platform features most affected your behavior? What surprised you?

Exercise 7.22 — Community Case Study

Identify a community that relies heavily on a specific digital communication channel (a local Facebook group, a Nextdoor community, a WhatsApp neighborhood group, a Discord server). With appropriate ethical considerations for privacy:

a) Observe the community's information sharing patterns for one week (if you are a member) or research publicly available accounts of similar communities.

b) Document specific instances of unverified claims being shared.

c) Observe how (or whether) corrections occur when false claims are identified.

d) Analyze the community's information ecosystem: What types of content circulate most? Who are the most influential members? How does the platform architecture shape the community's information dynamics?

Write a 1,000-1,200 word ethnographic analysis.

Exercise 7.23 — Comparative Platform Policy Analysis

Research and compare the misinformation policies of three major platforms (choose from: Facebook/Meta, Twitter/X, YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp, Telegram, Reddit). For each platform:

What is their stated policy on health misinformation?
What enforcement mechanisms do they use?
What evidence exists about whether their policies have been effective?
What criticisms have been leveled at their policies (both for being too restrictive and too permissive)?

Write a 1,200-1,500 word comparative analysis with recommendations.

Exercise 7.24 — Original Social Network Analysis

Using NetworkX (Python) and the code provided in code/example-01-social-network-growth.py as a starting point, create an original analysis that explores one of the following questions:

a) How does the clustering coefficient of a network affect the speed and reach of information spread? (Compare random networks, small-world networks, and scale-free networks.)

b) What is the effect of removing high-degree nodes (e.g., deplatforming influencers) on the spread of information in a simulated network?

c) How does the introduction of "bridge" nodes between otherwise separate communities affect information spread across community boundaries?

Your analysis should include: a research question, methodology description, code with comments, results visualizations, and a 500-700 word interpretation of your findings.

Exercise 7.25 — Policy Brief

Write a 1,500-2,000 word policy brief addressed to a legislative committee considering regulation of social media platforms to reduce misinformation harms. Your brief should:

Summarize the key mechanisms through which platform design enables misinformation spread (drawn from this chapter)
Evaluate at least three specific regulatory approaches (e.g., algorithmic transparency requirements, liability for amplification of false health information, mandatory friction interventions)
Address potential free speech concerns with each approach
Make clear, specific recommendations with realistic implementation plans
Acknowledge the limitations of your recommendations and areas of genuine uncertainty

Your brief should be written in professional policy language, cited appropriately, and structured with clear headings.

End of Chapter 7 Exercises

Chapter 7 Exercises: The Rise of Digital and Social Media