The Anatomy of Disinformation

This module builds the vocabulary and the analytical kit the whole course runs on, retiring "fake news" in favour of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation as the EU, CDC, and RAND define them, plus propaganda drawn from Bernays. You then trace deception through history, from defaced Roman coins and Octavian's forged will to the printing press, radio, television, and the micro-targeted feed, applying SWOT, the white-grey-black psyops spectrum, Facebook's actor-versus-content quadrant, and RAND's Truth Decay along the way. It closes on the mechanics that make it work: information asymmetry, McLuhan's "the medium is the message", the Trump case study as the most documented disinformation operator of the modern era, and the collision between subjective and objective reality.

• You will define misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, and separate them by intent and harm using the EU, CDC, and RAND frameworks
• You will apply SWOT, the psyops colour spectrum, and Facebook's quadrant model to diagnose a false claim's spread and origin
• You will trace how each medium, from Roman coins to hashtags, reshapes the same lie, and read McLuhan's "the medium is the message" against real propaganda
• You will use information asymmetry to explain cases like the staged Iraqi Walmart action figure and the AI-generated downed-helicopter image
• You will stress-test your own objectivity against the Washington Post's documented record of Trump's claims and the January 6th aftermath

This module defines what a conspiracy theory actually is, separating real conspiracies from false ones and introducing synthetic folklore, the blend of something real with something fabricated that makes disinformation go down like sugar. It shows why conspiracy beliefs interlink into self-reinforcing systems, working through David Icke, a Spike Lee quote from the course's core conspiracy textbook, and the slide from flat earth into antisemitism. It also treats the psychology honestly, explaining pareidolia and the pattern-finding mind while arguing this is not mental illness, and ends on salad-bar extremism and modern folklore.

• You will distinguish a genuine conspiracy from a conspiracy theory using a clear structural checklist
• You will spot synthetic folklore and use the cocktail model's diagnostic questions to separate the factual kernel from the false framing
• You will explain why beliefs cluster into self-reinforcing systems rather than standing alone
• You will recognise pareidolia and the appeal of comfortable explanations without pathologising the believer
• You will trace how a seemingly harmless theory like flat earth can carry extremist ideas beneath it

This module hands you four criteria for separating science from pseudoscience and then puts them to work on health, science, and political claims, from the suggestion of injecting bleach to the QAnon Shaman's online university and Samuel Rowbotham's flat-earth legacy. It builds the disinformer's toolkit so you can name the tactics on sight: tech speak as a weapon, "do your research", appeals to volume, cognitive jumps, and over-represented fringe voices. It closes on reasoning traps, possibility versus probability, correlation versus causation via ice cream and shark attacks, and the platform infrastructure that keeps this content circulating off the mainstream.

• You will apply four criteria, in order, to judge whether a claim is science or pseudoscience
• You will spot tech speak, "do your research", volume, cognitive jumps, and fringe over-representation as recurring tactics
• You will separate possibility from probability and correlation from causation using the course's worked examples
• You will understand why a legitimate question, such as a possible lab leak, does not automatically qualify as pseudoscience
• You will identify the platforms and infrastructure that carry pseudoscientific content once it leaves mainstream sites

This module uses Stanley Cohen's four-stage model to show how a moral panic forms and where it can be caught early. Through the Satanic Panic, the McMartin case and Michelle Remembers, and Patricia Pulling's crusade against Dungeons & Dragons, it examines the questionable role of the "expert" and how the blurring of fantasy and reality manufactures folk devils. It then bridges to extremism, tracing how synthetic folklore and community anxiety can convert into real-world harm.

• You will recognise the early stages of a moral panic using Cohen's four-stage model
• You will see how self-appointed experts lend false authority, drawing on Laycock's work on the Satanic Panic
• You will analyse how the Dungeons & Dragons scare turned fantasy into a folk devil
• You will trace how a blurred fantasy-reality line converts anxiety into targeting of real people
• You will connect the mechanics of panic to the pathway toward political violence

This module draws the lines between protest, direct action, violent protest, violent extremism, and terrorism, then uses the Moghaddam staircase to explain radicalisation across its levels. Through the Blood Tribe and its leader Christopher Pohlhaus, it examines chilling effects, escalation, and the matchsticks model, and explains why modern extremist groups organise as loose networks rather than hierarchies, symbolised by the Boogaloo movement's Hawaiian shirts. It closes on stochastic terrorism and parasocial relationships, showing how kernels of disinformation are scattered across a receptive audience so violence becomes probable while the speaker stays deniable.

• You will distinguish protest, direct action, violent extremism, and terrorism using clear criteria
• You will describe the Moghaddam staircase and how disinformation feeds people onto its lower levels
• You will explain stochastic terrorism and how rhetoric incites random violence while shielding the instigator
• You will understand why hierarchies gave way to loose networks, using the Blood Tribe and Boogaloo cases
• You will see how parasocial relationships turn audiences into potential actors