Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents: Worker Resilience - From South Africa's Mines to Iowa's Farms, Fields and Meatpack
Recorded: April 16, 2026
Runtime: 01:25:43
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Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents: Propaganda and Disinformation -- Social Media, Podcasts, AI, and Cable News
Listen to an audio podcast of this program.
As we navigate the high-stakes 2026 election cycle, the tools of political persuasion have become more sophisticated and harder to detect. Alex Scott explores the front lines of modern electoral influence, focusing on how AI-generated deepfakes are blurring the reality of candidate messaging and how social media algorithms can supercharge partisan division through emotional engagement. David Dowling examines the role of podcasts in creating fragmented "realities" that often leave voters isolated in information silos. Together, they provide a critical overview of how audio and visual communication can be leveraged for manipulative content and voter profiling. Designed to empower citizens, this program provides strategies to verify digital content by recognizing manipulative AI-generated images and video as well as the rhetorical tactics of extremist podcasts. The aim is to ensure your vote is based on facts rather than fabricated narratives.
David Dowling, PhD, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa, is the author of 13 books in addition to over 70 articles and book chapters on media, communication, and culture with an emphasis on narrative journalism from print to the digital age.
Alex Scott, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. His research investigates the meaning potential of images and the construction of social difference in non-fiction visual practices. He is a co-founder of the Visual Media Lab at Iowa, which explores the issues and opportunities produced by artificial intelligence technology and synthetic media.
For more information about the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, visit icfrc.org. To watch other ICFRC programs, please view our extensive collection at icgov.org/video.
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