Online content and information quality analysts

Algorithmic content delivery systems rule social media and search engines in the internet. Our approach helps online social media platforms transition from relying only on an algorithmic engagement-based ranking of content. Our solution helps these platforms to supplement with an algorithmic ranking method that prioritizes information quality. This would present social media users with 'algorithmic choice': a user is empowered to choose how content encountered on the social media newsfeed is organized.

Information quality may well become one of the defining challenges of the first half of the twenty-first century. Emphasizing quality information by prioritizing fact-based content and evidence-based reality (while upholding freedom of speech) will be crucial to reduce misinformation online.

For more information about our services, research and for booking us to speak at public events, public lectures or short lectures at educational institutions (including libraries), contact us

Avram Turing is a non-partisan research-driven organization of analysts

We rate, label and summarize the information quality of trending/viral online content.

Through our research, in 2021, we coined two new concepts

“non-information” and “off-information”

and introduced them to the international research community and the information quality analysis body of knowledge

Our book is an Amazon bestseller (Library & Information Science category) available in Kindle, paperback and hardback versions

Book description:

"Impressive..."
NOAM CHOMSKY
Institute Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

"...the book, it will be an important one"
ZAINAB USMAN, PhD (Oxford)
Senior fellow and director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Online social media has brought together billions of people from around the world. The impact of diverse platforms such as Facebook, WeChat, Reddit, LinkedIn, Signal, WhatsApp, Gab, Instagram, Telegraph etc. has been transformational. The number of active users of the six most popular online social networks combined is estimated at about 10 billion. The internet is a place where online written content can be created, consumed and diffused without any real intermediary. This empowering aspect of the Web is generally a force for good: people, on the whole, are better informed and participation in online discussion is more inclusive (barriers to participation are reduced). As online activity has grown, however, research has revealed a darker side to online social media and its ability to influence behaviour negatively in the real world.

In this short monograph, information quantity theory, brilliantly espoused by Claude Shannon (father of the information age) is balanced by an approach to information quality inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein. The authors propose a framework for online misinformation analysis and provide a tentative online information quality theory. The concept of "algorithmic choice" for the ranking of content for social media users is endorsed as a way forward.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that our approach to online content rating and ranking is in line with the solution proposed in 2019 by Dr Stephen Wolfram to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Communication, Technology, Innovation and the Internet.

This expert testimony validates our approach to online content ranking

The above video is a compilation of some of Dr Stephen Wolfram's responses in the U.S. Senate Hearing "Optimizing for Engagement: Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology on Internet Platforms." The Hearing examined how algorithmic decision-making and machine learning on internet platforms might be influencing the public.

partner with us / collaborate with us / contact us: click here

ContentQual® our startup will deploy digital technology for online misinformation prevention

a consumer-facing/content-focused online platform/app/Web browser extension,

helps to amplify high quality content circulating online

and add friction to low quality/misinformation (slow down/reduce the sharing)

which helps to strengthen the credibility of authentic online content producers and online news media by this signal of trustworthiness

We also produce research reports, academic papers, opinion articles

and we conduct online misinformation prevention training

Blog

Opinion…belief…truth…facts and decisions: Information quality analysis online

by Avram Turing on 25 April, 2022 with No Comments

Aphorisms abound, for the internet age, to help guide us through the digital jungle that’s the World Wide Web. “Correlation is not causation” is one, another is “you are entitled to your opinions but not your own facts.” An ‘opinion’ can belong to anyone without any consideration to ‘belief’, ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ and it is Read More

Misinformation Prevention – Some Recommended Videos

by Avram Turing on 10 September, 2021 with No Comments

Presented here are educational videos recommended by Avram Turing. These videos are lectures/talks by prominent scholars and researchers. This list will be regularly updated. Each video looks at misinformation from a different point of view but complimentary with other perspectives. danah boyd is the founder/president of Data & Society Research Institute. She is also partner Read More

Our New Book! Online Misinformation Analysis & Information Quality Theory

by Avram Turing on 9 September, 2021 with 1 Comment

PREFACE: The study presented in this short monograph began in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The authors received an avalanche of misinformation through social media and personal messages from friends and relatives. The idea, initially, was to create a simple checklist for social media users to screen content received to help Read More

A Misinformation Prevention Reading List

by Avram Turing on 23 August, 2021 with No Comments

Presented here is a misinformation prevention reading list. This list is not exhaustive. The emphasis is on insights from foundational and background issues about misinformation online. The importance of critical thinking and analytical thinking skills is also highlighted as prerequisite for the prevention of online misinformation. Also highlighted is content from professionals who work at Read More

How We Categorize Online Content Based on Info Quality

by Avram Turing on 21 August, 2021 with 1 Comment

Here’s a rough diagram showing how Avram Turing categorizes different types of online content based on our theory of information quality. Through our research, in 2021 we coined two new concepts “non-information” and “off-information” then introduced them to the international research community and the information quality body of knowledge [1] Note [1] U.Omoregie (2021), Information Read More

‘Non-information’ and ‘Off-information’ – Strange Information Disorder Variants

by Avram Turing on 18 August, 2021 with No Comments

A quick search on Wikipedia for the entry on ‘Misinformation’ will produce a write up that begins with a definition: “Misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information that is communicated regardless of an intention to deceive. Examples of misinformation are false rumors, insults, and pranks. Disinformation is a subset of misinformation that is deliberately deceptive” Read More