Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change: Recent Episodes
Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change
The Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change is a non-profit organisation that aims to effect positive change using social media analytics and dialogue.
In this episode, Associate Professor Camaren Peter, Executive Director at the CABC sits down with Wellington Radu, who is the Regional Head of Programs for Southern Africa at Futurelect, to reflect on this year’s elections. Topics of conversation include encouraging democratic participation, particularly among the youth, and the role social media played in the elections. Radu shares his perspectives on the Government (GNU) and the opportunity it presents.
Listen to the new episode of the Pulse as we interview Chris Roper the deputy CEO for the continent’s largest federation of civic technology and data journalism labs, Code for Africa (CfA). Chris also serves as director for CfA’s forensic data initiative, the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR). From 2015 - 2019, Chris’ role at CfA was underwritten by a Knight International Fellowship, with the International Centre for Journalists. Prior to joining CfA, Chris was editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian, and editor-in-chief of 24.com The Center for Analytics and Behavioral Change
Camaren Peter, PhD, Executive Director of the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) and Ebrahim Fakir , Director of Programmes at the Auwal Socio Economic Research Institute (ASRI) delve into how social media was used during the South African Local Government Elections 2021 as well as engage in a broader discussion the role of social media in elections. This discussion also follows a series of research articles over the election period which can be found at www.cabc.org.za The Center for Analytics and Behavioral Change
A Prof Camaren Peter, Executive Director of the CABC interrogates traditional and social media's role in reporting, analysing and fueling the unrest with Heather Robertson, editor of Daily Maverick 168 and Herman Wasserman Senior Research Associate of the CABC.
A Prof Camaren Peter, Executive Director of the CABC interrogates traditional and social media's role in reporting, analysing and fueling the unrest with Heather Robertson, editor of Daily Maverick 168 and Herman Wasserman Senior Research Associate of the CABC.
The final conversation with Caolan is a conversation about solutions, and about the future. Caolan has a unique perspective on how the right-wing media operates and what has made it so successful, in this episode we discuss the complexity of working to address disinformation, ‘fake news’ and hate speech online. This episode looks at what Caolan is working on right now, and what he thinks may be effective in responding to and weakening right-wing narrative manipulation occurring in South Africa.
Caolan Robertson: Former Far-Right Movie Producer, Currently Director at ByLine Times Adam Armstrong: Project Head - Digital Narrative Manipulation, Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change
In this episode Coalan discusses his journey into the ‘far right’, as well as his decision to leave. Coalan worked with a number of the leading figures in the alt-right media space, including Lauren Southern, Alex Jones, Mike Cernovich, Milo Yiannopoulos, Roger Stone, Tommy Robinson and Stefan Molyneux. The content that he created resulted in hundreds of millions of views, and over time he became disillusioned with those in the far-right media space. In this interview Caolan discusses his reasons for entering the right, as well as his reasons for leaving.
Caolan Robertson (pronounced “kay-lin) was one of the central figures in making right-wing politics mainstream, he worked with people like Tommy Robinson and helped them move from ‘fringe’ to mainstream political commentators. Caolan has since distanced himself from right-wing politics and is now working for ByLine Times. He now works to undo the work he did before. Caolan is going to be interviewed in a feature piece in the New York Times in the next few months. This interview that Caolan did exclusively with the CABC is one of his first public appearances since leaving the right-wing political media space.
Lauren Southern’s 2018 documentary ‘Farmlands’ is the most-watched documentary on the white-genocide narrative in South Africa. Caolan Robertson, and his partner George Llewelyn-John, produced, wrote and filmed Farmlands (and Borderless) with Lauren Southern. In this episode Caolan explains how Farmlands was filmed, and the ideas behind the documentary. Caolan discusses his discomfort with the film and the fact that even though they knew during filming that there was no white genocide taking place in South Africa, that argument runs throughout the film.
This is the 3rd episode in the 3-part series recorded with Jean Le Roux, a Research Associate at the Digital Forensic Research Lab. In this episode Jean explains what misinformation and disinformation mean for us as South Africans, he explains how it is that ‘fake news’ affects us here in southern Africa and what we can do to address this and to keep ourselves safe from coordinated disinformation campaigns. Jean also explains the important work of the Digital Forensic Research Lab, and how they endeavour to make the internet safer and more honest.
This episode, the 2nd in a special three-part series with Jean Le Roux, Adam and Jean discuss Jean’s career trajectory, how he went from a qualified lawyer to forensic analyst to digital detective. Jean’s story starts with his seeing journalist being attacked online in November 2015, the journalist was being challenged online for exposing possible corruption involving then-President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family. Jean realised that he had found the coordinated disinformation being run by the ‘Guptabots’; his research became instrumental in exposing the White Monopoly Capital narrative – one of the first large-scale disinformation campaigns run on Twitter in South Africa.
In this episode Adam Armstrong speaks to Jean Le Roux, a Research Associate at Digital Forensic Research Lab, about Jean Le Roux’s recent article, in which Jean and the DFLR reveal the real-world identity of a Twitter user that has been driving the xenophobic #PutSouthAfricansFirst campaign in South Africa. Jean revealed that the Twitter user @uLerato_pillay is in actual fact a disgraced South African Soldier, Sifiso J. Gwala. In this episode, the first of three with Jean, the techniques Jean used to ‘unmask’ Sifiso Gwala are discussed, as is the nature of the #PutSouthAfricanFirst campaign.
In this episode, we track the recent history of narrative manipulation and its potential for sowing division on issues, national social cohesion and elections. It looks at how you become a target based on your online profile.