The trouble with Twitter

Twitter’s former security chief, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, has accused the microblogging platform company of serious security failings.

Overshare

Social media are increasingly blurring the lines between our personal and professional lives, leaving us at risk of posting sensitive information that could have ramifications far beyond our “friends” list.

#EmptyOldTrafford

Sentiment analysis of Twitter posts can reveal social trends far more quickly than traditional methods, be they international issues, political spats or sporting controversies.

Fakes, facts and flame outs

Hostile governments, conspiracy theorists and politically motivated individuals use social media to spread lies for profit or to gain a strategic advantage, so what can we do to protect ourselves?

Generation meme

Research into media consumption shows that young people learn about politics through tweets, spoofs and memes today, rather than school, civic organisations and the traditional media.

Better politics requires better reporting

If politics really is to be done differently, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised, then the way politics is reported will need to be done differently too.

Cast iron facts about tin-foil hats

It may seem like more and more people are falling prey to increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories such as QAnon and flat Earth ‘theory’, but such beliefs may actually not have increased over time, according to US and UK researchers.

Post at your professional peril

What people post on social media in their private lives can affect their professional reputation and, rightly or not, even cost them their jobs.

TikTok Australia should come clean about its data

TikTok is a Chinese company and it remains very evasive about whether user data is handed over to the Chinese Communist Party – which means it probably is.

Who’s afraid of the big bad advert?

Advertising which plays to our fears is a favourite of public health agencies as well as politicians, but how effective are hard hitting campaigns in changing public behaviour?

Images and distorted facts

Social media has made it easier to spread information – and lies – than ever before, and understanding how we comprehend the world is the key to sifting facts from fiction.

How the media lost the election

While the Murdoch press campaigned stridently for Morrison, the rest of the media failed to cover the election properly, focusing on meaningless photo-ops with the leaders rather than the issues they didn’t want to talk about – such as climate change, integrity, local concerns and women’s issues.