In recent years, local news has all but disappeared from large parts of the United States and social media such as TikTok has become a vital source for news and information. However, social platforms have jettisoned their responsibility to fact-check and monitor the flow of mis/disinformation and propaganda. Innovations in the way of civic media and civic technologies are crucial for the fact-based exchange of ideas .In this course, we'll reverse engineer today's social platforms and then use design thinking to rapidly develop civic media and technologies that support the passage and sharing of fact-based news and information. Students will learn to rapidly develop, iterate, prototype and test the idesigns with feedback from industry professionals and scholars.

Through exercises in and out of class, students will learn how to leverage AI, open-source technologies and design practices to develop product ideas that support democracy. Students will be introduced to the available maker spaces across the College Park campus where they can continue to hone and craft ideas after taking this course.