Lilian Jochmann:

A video documentary that educates the general public, especially teens who will soon be voting, in simple terms about the concept of false news, its role in the 2016 election, and what steps can be taken to avoid falling into its trap.

Weapons of Mass Deception is a video documentary that educates the general public, especially teens who will soon be voting, in simple terms about the concept of false news, its role in the 2016 election, and what steps can be taken to avoid falling into its trap. It gives viewers an inside look at the extremely controversial and timely, yet often misunderstood world of false media. The project combines interviews with expert researchers from Ohio State University and MIT with interviews with American teens and includes voiceovers, visual animations, images, and footage from around Boston to create a video that educates viewers about this complex issue. 

The video begins with a narration introducing the audience to the concept of false media, transitioning into interviews with four American teens addressing their perspectives on the issue. Teen viewers can relate or disagree with the views of the kids in the video and think about why. The film then highlights two researchers: Richard Gunther from Ohio State University and Soroush Vosoughi from MIT. Gunther conducted a study on how false media influenced the 2016 presidential election, while Vosoughi showed that false media on Twitter travels six times faster than real news. The interviews are supported by narrations, graphics, and animations. Getting the perspectives of three diverse groups: the average American teen, a professor at Ohio State University, and a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab gives viewers a look into the different aspects of false media.

Robert Paglione:

Weapons of Mass Deception project is a video evaluating the impacts of false media reporting and its effects on the American political system. Presenting research and expert interviewees, the project has compiled its collected information into an incredibly accessible medium that targets the average news-consuming American. The video includes a compilation of interviews as well as narrative commentary offering additional information and context. The softwares used to create this digital video are iMovie and Photoshop. The project exists in order to bring awareness and understanding to the issue of false media, for it is largely talked about, but often not well-understood. The project focuses on the epidemic of falsehoods in U.S. media and the American tendency to discredit real news by labeling it fake news. Weapons of Mass Deception helps the average news-consuming American as well as anyone who has unknowingly made a decision based on a fallacy they absorbed from the media.

This project has the potential to raise awareness about fallacies in the media and afford people the ability to observe and consume the news they are presented within a more skeptical and scrutinizing manner. The ability to propagate a digital product online raises questions as this topic deserves a large viewer assemblage. This project's audience is anyone with internet access and the motivation to learn more about the origins of their news as well as professional opinions concerning the topic. The political motivations of our audience are irrelevant, for anyone on the political spectrum has been the victim of false media, and therefore will most likely take interest in our product. The technology that we are going to implement in order to complete our video is iMovie and photoshop and we will film using cameras supplied by the school and myself. Our video is the first of its kind because an interview-based documentary film concerning false media has never been done with experts from the Boston area. Our decision to use an audio-visual medium was based on a conscious choice to include two senses. By stimulating more than one sense, our product will become more accessible and entertaining translating to greater outreach.