The Cultural Record in the Information War Era

We are seeing several developments that are rapidly destabilizing the cultural record. These include the ability to fabricate very persuasive audio and visual material (sometimes called “deep fakes”), the exploitation of various mechanisms that include online news media and social media platforms to target attention, and the ability to exploit security breeches to corrupt rather than simply steal information. This discussion will summarize a number of these developments, and then focus on processes and infrastructure that the cultural memory sector might emphasize to help to manage and contextualize these materials. The discussion will be based in part on a brief EDUCAUSE review article that should appear early this fall.