The Extra Mile: Essential Media

In case you have an appetite for more.

LAST UPDATED: APRIL 24, 2023

In this master post, you will find essential media to learn more about data, disinformation, democracy and the digital media ecosystem.

• TV, film and podcasts about new media and emerging technologies

• Books, essays or reports by experts with insights on the above subjects

• Online games on science literacy and media literacy

• Courses and syllabi

---

TV, Films, Documentaries, and Podcasts

• AlphaGo (2017) by Greg Kohs about Google’s computer programme that plays the board game Go.

• Behind The Curve (2018) by Daniel J. Clark on the flat-Earth movement in the US.

• The Great Hack (2019) by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim about the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

• Merchant of Doubt (2014) by Robert Kenner featuring Naomi Oreskes, the author of the book of the same name (see below).

• After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News (2020) by Andrew Rossi and produced by CNN’s Brian Stelter, on how misinformation impacts the average citizen in the US.

• Coded Bias (2020) by Shalini Kantayya about how Joy Buolamwini discovered racial bias in facial recognition.

• Years and Years (2019), a BBC short series by Russell T. Davies about what the future would be like—with AI technologies, the climate crisis, and conspiracy theories.

• Citations Needed (2017-present), a podcast hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, about the intersection of media, PR, and power.

• CIGI’s Big Tech (2019-2022), a podcast by Taylor Owen about tech, society and democracy.

• Conspirituality (2020-present) by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker, and Mallory DeMille.

• MIT Tech Review’s In Machines We Trust (2020-2022), a podcast hosted by Jennifer Strong that explores developments in AI.

• Tech Won’t Save Us (2020-present) by Parix Marx.

• Programmers, Hackers and Hacks (2020), a podcast mini-series on the people and practices behind our machines by ethnographer of digital cultures, Paula Bialski.

• BFM’s Ring True (2019), a podcast mini-series hosted by Caroline Oh and produced by Tina Carmillia on misinformation in science news.

---

Books and Essays

• Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019) by Ruha Benjamin

• Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World (2018) by Meredith Broussard

• Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech (2017) by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

• The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age (2022) by Danielle Keats Citron

• Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (2010) by Naomi Oreskes.

• Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World (2020) by Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West.

• True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society (2008) by Farhad Manjoo.

• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (2013) by Nir Eyal.

• From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: Disruptive Innovation in the Age of the Internet (2011) by John Naughton.

• Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are (2017) by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.

• Re-Engineering Humanity (2018) by Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger.

• In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business (2018) by Charlan Nemeth.

• Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (2018) by Safiya Umoja Noble.

• Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms (2019) by Hannah Fry.

• Turned on: Science, Sex and Robots (2018) by Kate Devlin.

• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (2018) by Shoshana Zuboff.

• Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (2016) by Cathy O’Neil.

• The Fact Checker’s Bible (2004) by Sarah Harrison Smith.

• Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest (2015) by Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum.

• Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple (2018) by Martin Moore and Damian Tambini.

• Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (2019) by Caroline Criado-Perez.

• Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News (2015) by A. Brad Schwartz.

• The Disappeared: Beyond Winning and Losing (2018) by Lynn Conway.

• Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) by Edward Bernays.

• The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) by Simone de Beauvoir.

• A Mathematician’s Lament (2009) by Paul Lockhart.

• Politics and the English Language (1946) and Why I Write (1946) by George Orwell.

---

Online and Mobile Games

• Bad News by the University of Cambridge

• Troll Factory by Yle

• Go Viral! by the University of Cambridge

• How We View History by The Pudding

• Spot The Troll by Clemson University

• Choose Your Own Fake News by Pollicy

• Fake News Immunity Chatbot by Universities of Liverpool and Dundee

• Harmony Square by the University of Cambridge

• Detect Fakes by MIT

• Fake It To Make It by Amanda Warner

• Fakey by Indiana University

• Which Face Is Real by the University of Washington

• Fakes? No, thanks! by Demagog.pl

• Cranky Uncle by John Cook of George Mason University

• Moderator Mayhem by Techdirt

• Trust and Safety Tycoon by Techdirt

---

Courses and Syllabi

• Journalism, Fake News & Disinformation: Handbook for Journalism Education and Training (2018) by UNESCO

• The Verification Handbook: A Definitive Guide to Verifying Digital Content for Emergency Coverage (2014) by Craig Silverman

• Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World by Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West at the University of Washington

• Mediactive: How to Participate in Your Digital World by Arizona State University

• Fact-Check It: Digital Tools to Verify Everything Online by Poynter

• Hands-on Fact-checking: A Short Course by Poynter

• Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers by Michael A. Caulfield