Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many have expressed concern about the effects of false stories (“fake news”), circulated largely through social media. We discuss the economics of fake news and present new data on its consumption prior to the election. Drawing on web browsing data, archives of fact-checking websites, and results from a new online survey, we find: (i) social media was an important but not dominant source of election news, with 14 percent of Americans calling social media their “most important” source; (ii) of the known false news stories that appeared in the three months before the election, those favoring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook, while those favoring Clinton were shared 8 million times; (iii) the average American adult saw on the order of one or perhaps several fake news stories in the months around the election, with just over half of those who recalled seeing them believing them; and (iv) people are much more likely to believe stories that favor their preferred candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social media networks.

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Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election

Established in 2006, TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited operates as the nodal point for Tata businesses in West Africa. TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited has a strong presence in Nigeria with investments exceeding USD 10 million. The company was established in Lagos, Nigeria as a subsidiary of TATA Africa Holdings (SA) (Pty) Limited, South Africa and serves as the hub of Tata’s operations in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa.

What About Us

Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data

By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Experimental Psychology Its Scope and Method. IV. Learning and Memory. By Jean-Francois Le Ny, G. De Montpellier, G. Oleron and Cesar Flores. Translated by Louise Elkington. Edited by P. Fraisse and Jean Piaget. Pp. viii + 376. (Routledge and Kegan Paul: London, April 1970.) 80s.

Learning and Memory

Informed commentators both in the UK and internationally increasingly reference the remarkable improvement journey of London’s schools since the turn of the century. If the claims made for educational improvement in London are true they represent an important case study in urban school reform. There is a need, therefore, for an investigation of the nature and possible causes of the changes in London’s schools.
AIMS:
This research seeks to investigate the claim that London schools have improved
dramatically since 2000. We have reviewed the evidence of transformational
change and explored possible reasons for the development in London’s schools.
The project was guided by three questions: (1) Is the success of London’s schools as real as has been suggested? (2) If the success is real, in what ways have schools improved and for what reasons? (3) What can we learn for the future of school improvement, for London and beyond?

The resulting report provides readers – such as teachers, school leaders and policymakers – with a detailed review of what has happened across London. It provides a comprehensive synthesis of previous evaluations of the London schools’ journey and of the distinctive elements which are perceived as contributing to improvement. Most importantly, it draws conclusions intended to inform current debates on educational policy reform in a very practical sense, providing an agenda for action.

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Lessons from London Schools: Investigating the Success.

The UK has emerged as an influential global player in developing policy to counter violent extremism, and therefore it is important to consider the emerging evidence about the impact of this policy in education. The Prevent Duty came into force in the UK in 2015, placing a legal responsibility on schools and teachers to implement anti-terrorist legislation and prevent young people from being drawn into extremism or radicalisation. This article reviews all of the material based on empirical studies in England involving school teachers and students published between 2015 (when the Duty was introduced) and the beginning of 2019 (27 articles and reports in total) to consider the impact of the policy on schools. The key themes emerging from our analysis of this evidence base are related (1) to the ways the policy is interpreted within Islamophobic discourses, (2) the emergence of Britishness as a key feature of fundamental British values, and (3) the implications of framing Prevent as a safeguarding issue. We argue that the evidence gives support to those who have been critical of the Prevent Duty in schools, and that it seems to be generating a number of unintended and negative side effects. However, the evidence also illustrates how teachers have agency in relation to the policy, and may thus be able to enact the policy in ways which reduce some of the most harmful effects.

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The impact of the Prevent duty on schools: A review of the evidence

This paper investigates the higher education literature surrounding happiness and related notions: satisfaction, despair, flourishing and well-being. It finds that there is a real dearth of literature relating to profound happiness in higher education: much of the literature using the terms happiness and satisfaction interchangeably as if one were tantamount to the other, such conflation being due to the move towards consumerism within higher education and the marketisation of the sector. What literature there exists that actually deals with the profound happiness of students in higher education, generally argues that in the United Kingdom institutions do not currently do enough to promote happiness in higher education. These findings imply that flourishing, contentment and well-being should be regarded as legitimate goals of higher education, alongside satisfaction and related economic outcomes that are currently promoted across academic and policy literature, university rankings and the National Student Survey.

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Happiness in higher education

School responses to the Prevent agenda have tended to focus primarily on ‘safeguarding’ approaches, which essentially perceive some young people as being ‘at risk’ and potentially as presenting a r...

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Identifying an Educational Response to the Prevent Policy: Student Perspectives on Learning about Terrorism, Extremism and Radicalisation

Government advice in relation to ‘countering violent extremism’ (CVE) in English schools requires teachers to identify students ‘at risk’ of radicalisation whilst also encouraging them to f...

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Alex Elwick

Papers

Lessons from London Schools: Investigating the Success.

The impact of the Prevent duty on schools: A review of the evidence

Happiness in higher education

Identifying an Educational Response to the Prevent Policy: Student Perspectives on Learning about Terrorism, Extremism and Radicalisation

Teaching about terrorism, extremism and radicalisation: some implications for controversial issues pedagogy