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The Disinformation Games

Your safe space for games and challenges related to misinformation and disinformation!

Case study: Chemtrails - just a sci-fi stuff or a real danger?

This case study aims to make the learner aware of the different issues related the construction and spreading of disinformation. The learner has to make up their mind if one of the most famous conspiracy theories -- chemtrails -- is true or not. While searching for materials and opinions -- in favour or against the claim that chemtrails are a real aerial danger for people -- the learner will face with both the history and the scientific foundations of the chemtrails theory, its diffusion trough social media, the ways in which it is possible to debunk the theory itself, and the business opportunities of spreading false theories.

Chemtrails:

sci-fi or

real danger?

Recommended for: university students (especially in science/technology courses) highschool students

Available building blocks: 3

Tags: environment, pollution, conspiracy theories

Here are a few helpful tips and advice from the people on the De Facto team who developed and worked on the case studies:

Difficulty level
All case studies were designed for learners in upper-secondary education, higher education and adult education.

Resources
As each building block of any case study comes with a different mix of resources, the difficulty level can be adjusted by:

  • controlling the mix of resources and taking out more difficult texts (e.g. scientific papers) and replacing them with more easily accessible language in videos or popular blogs;
  • controlling the number of resources to work with in a given training session;
  • allowing learners to search and come up with a selection of resources themselves.

Group size
Feel free to adjust the group size and/or the learning methods to make a case study more relevant to the specific needs of your learners.

Language versions
De Facto’s case studies are a product of multinational cooperation. You will notice that resources vary, sometimes significantly, across the different language versions. Being the common working language of the team, it is the English version of the case studies which is most complete, actual and elaborate. See this for yourself when you are choosing a topic to work on, and compare your own language version with the lead version in English. Feel free to combine resources and methods!

Tools
Check the De Facto’s page dedicated to digital tools which can help an educator to work with the case studies more effectively. Use of ICT tools can make a training session on disinformation more practical and engaging for learners.

Tips for educators

Developed by:

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Building block 1. What are the chemtrails - conspiracy and facts

Chemtrails -- rephrased from condensation trails (or contrails) -- according to the conspiracy theory of the same name, are not part of the natural aerial trails left by aircraft or cloud formations, but have apparently anomalous characteristics, as if they were trails of chemicals that poison the air which we breathe. This building block provides scientific information about how they form. Further, we also llok into when the chemtrails claim was born and who supported this conspiracy theory over time. Finally, we note that the theory relies much on people confusing chemtrails with a method called 'cloud seeding', which consists of spreading silver iodide (AgI) on clouds to stimulate rainfall or snowfall, or to suppress hail or fog.

Building block 2. Chemtrails and disinformation

There are many Facebook pages and groups with a single common denominator -- their objective is to convey the common ideas shared by any typical conspiracy, to convey false information or unverified news, and end up with creating a really large network of disinformation inside the social media. This building block presents not only both Facebook and Twitter accounts related to chemtrails, but also some web pages on how the hoax of chemical trails is created, maintained and debunked.

Building block 3. Marketing and e-commerce of chemtrails' products

Chemical trails as a marketing stunt for conspirators: some comments and examples from the Internet-marketplace.

Warning

You have selected a topic from the Disinformation Games area. Please be advised that this area hosts, or links to, resources that contain misinformation or disinformation. The presence of such materials is to assist in developing and sustaining skills for navigating and detecting disinformation. To achieve this goal – and with clear intent – none of the materials are explicitly marked as true or not true.