Introduction
Keywords: Cyber vigilantism, Transmediation, Collective intelligence, Social networking, Crowd sourcing, Social justice, Online information seeking, Truth representations, Fake news, Digital culture
In spite of new technologies to help us in our information searches, the search for truth has never seemed more difficult. News stories, rumors, fake news, and propaganda spread rapidly across networked platforms. At the same time, varied ideas and events are edited or censored from widespread circulation.
Today, as societies debate about information seeking in a “post-truth” world, can truths be discovered online? How can citizens work together to construct and verify facts and beliefs in accordance with reality?
This module will focus on one critical yet often misunderstood aspect of truth searching online to advance social justice: the communication practices surrounding cybervigilantism, particularly in Asian contexts.
First, let us consider what vigilantism is in times of intense digital connectivities.
