The Reclaim Project weaves together creative media production with scholarly research on misinformation and develops strategies and templates for the circulation of this content. We connect with a variety of partners and are dedicated to fostering democratic dialogue and presenting an alternative to hateful spaces online that promote mis- and dis-information.
Far-right hate speech and misinformation continues to spread like wildfire on social media, growing exponentially with each election cycle. The goal is to counter misinformation by creating an alternative, an online space and community that resonates with young and vulnerable men who may be on the cusp of radicalization. We seek to prevent them- and anyone else- from falling down the rabbit hole.
Students in this Collaboratory are focused on research, media-making ,and social media strategy to foster the goal of the Reclaim project, countering right-wing misinformation and hate speech online. They began with research and analysis of the problem-space, providing critical insight into existing studies on how and why hate speech spreads so successfully on social media. Building on that, they aggregated past examples of successful social media campaigns that shared a similar mission with Reclaim, and created a catalog of potential collaborators who could amplify and spread the work of Reclaim even further. The next step involved students creating a website and presentation materials that could be used to foster such partnerships. Over the course of the 2023-24 school year, the team conceptualized and produced original media, honing on the issue of masculinity. This content is what students in the 2024-25 cohort are taking over. Our focus for the upcoming academic year will be building on this media production and initiating a rollout. A social media manager will work with media producers and editors to continually output and upload content on our TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube channels. Students will also create special projects, including a shortform documentary profile of a de-radicalized youth, and a Toolkit that will synthesize our research to-date about masculinity and misinformation networks.