The students gain fundamental knowledge about the phenomenon of fake news.The seminar introduces the topic of fake news, both in terms of defining the subject matter and in terms of identifying and dealing with it. During the course, the students will engage with exemplary scientific literature. In addition, small research projects on the respective topic will be carried out and reflected upon in small groups.

Reading texts, reflectingon texts, team and plenary discussions, creating and conducting a smallresearch project

In recent years, the term ‘fakenews’ has become a political buzzword. In this seminar, we will focus on thescientific contributions to this topic and conduct our own research projects onthe subject.

Forchtner, Bernhard (ed.) (2020). The Far Right and the Environment. Politics, Discourse and Communication. New York: Abingdon.Rivage-Seul et al. (2018). The Magic Glasses of Critical Thinking: Seeing through Alternative Fact & Fake News.Zimdars et al. (2020). Fake news: understanding media and misinformation in the digital age.

The research project is to be presented, justified and finally reflected upon inthe context of a term paper.

Course content

The term paper is assessed on thebasis of the following criteria. In addition to the formal requirements,particular attention is paid to the quality of the paper, with the followingaspects being taken into account: design of the project, justification, qualityof the argumentation and reflection.