The NCPH Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct were adopted in 2007 to replace a version from 1986, this code sets forth guidelines of professional conduct expected of all members of the NCPH.
This Code of Ethics sets forth guidelines of professional conduct expected of all members of the National Council on Public History. Recognizing that public historians practice in a variety of specialized professional fields, this code incorporates reference to other codes and guidelines as appropriate. The purpose of this code is to articulate expectations of conscientious practice, not to set thresholds for certification, investigation, or adjudication. The National Council on Public History promotes ongoing discussion of ethics and professional conduct in classrooms, conferences, workshops, and professional literature as a best practice of the profession as a whole.
The Public Historians’ Responsibility to the Public
This code recognizes that the public may be defined in multiple and sometimes competing ways and that public interest is a fluid concept often formulated within the context of particular situations and subject to continuous debate. Nonetheless, ethical practice implies a responsibility to serve the public interest, as conscientiously determined in any given situation, and requires certain basic principles of professional conduct.
1. Public historians should serve as advocates for the preservation, care, and accessibility of historical records and resources of all kinds, including intangible cultural resources.
2. Public historians should carry out historical research and present historical evidence with integrity.
3. Public historians should strive to be culturally inclusive in the practice of history and in the presentation of history.
4. Public historians should be fully cognizant of the purpose or purposes for which their work is intended, recognizing that research-based decisions and actions may have long-term consequences.
5. Public historians should maintain a conscious regard for the interpersonal dynamics inherent in historical practice.
THE PUBLIC HISTORIANS’ RESPONSIBILITY TO CLIENTS AND EMPLOYERS
Public historians have a responsibility to perform work competently, diligently, creatively, and independently in pursuit of a client’s or employer’s interest, and a corollary responsibility to assure that such performance is consistent with their service to the public interest.
1. A public historian should respect the decisions of a client or employer concerning the objectives and nature of the professional services to be performed unless such performance involves conduct which is illegal, immoral, or unethical.
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9. A public historian should not use the power of any office or professional relationship to seek or obtain a special advantage that is not in the public interest.
THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE PROFESSION AND TO COLLEAGUES
Public historians should contribute to the development of the historical profession by advancing knowledge and improving methods, systems, procedures, and technical applications. More broadly, public historians should respect the professional views of their colleagues and peers in all professional fields. Public historians should strive to increase the diversity of the profession to reflect more closely the demographics of society. Equally important, public historians should strive to increase public understanding of the practice of public history.
1. A public historian should accurately represent the qualifications, views, and findings of colleagues.
2. A public historian should have a working knowledge of the methods, principles, and standards pertinent to specialized practice fields as appropriate to projects undertaken for clients or employers. A public historian also should be familiar with the broadly applicable Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct adopted by the American Historical Association.
3. A public historian should approach each research problem as unique, examine the applicability of research theories and methods to the facts and analysis of each particular situation, and use methods appropriate for each situation.
4. A public historian also should analyze each research problem within an appropriate body of scholarship drawn from all pertinent disciplines.
5. A public historian should share the results of experience and research that contribute to the body of public historical knowledge.
6. A public historian who reviews the work of other professionals should do so in a fair, considerate, and respectful manner.
7. A public historian should contribute time and information to the professional development of students, interns, beginning professionals, and other colleagues.
8. A public historian should welcome opportunities to represent cultural diversity in his or her work and to enfold members of underrepresented groups into the profession.
THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN’S SELF-RESPONSIBILITY
High standards of professional integrity, knowledge, and proficiency are the hallmarks of excellence in public history.
1. A public historian should represent professional qualifications and education accurately and fully.
2. A public historian should incorporate continuing education into his or her professional development.
3. A public historian should respect the rights of others.
4. A public historian should not discriminate against others.
5. A public historian should not deliberately commit a wrongful act which adversely affects his or her professional fitness.
6. A public historian should critically examine personal issues of social conscience as distinct from issues of ethical practice.
This article will introduce the American Public to some of the finer points of Left-Wing Social theory and will introduce the American Public to a political party that’s worked inside America without any fanfare for over a decade, the United Socialist Party of America, or PSUA for short.
The Movements of Movements thesis attests to its likely existence; while Invisibility Mapping helps proves it. Using Antifa, a group that the United States Congress has sought to unmask, as a case study in invisibility mapping I will illustrate the connection between them, the PSUA and Venezuela.
Building the Base, with a Regional Focus
The Multitude, the Movement of Movements, the Grassroots; the People; Mi Gente – archival research and data science proves these are not just random solidarity alliances converging. There are many traces over many places & troves of data showing a guiding order to American Socialism – Venezuela.
In future publications, which you can learn about by following me here, I will show how the PSUA developed in large part due to the material and symbolic assistance of Venezuela via Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro; the media company of which they are the President on Record – TeleSUR; TeleSURs state partners in Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran, and Russia; TeleSURs political party partners across the world; Venezuela’s official political and cultural attaches in the United States and elsewhere; media colectivos and encuentros organized via Bolivarian Circulo members abroad and Bolivarian Collectivos in Venezuela; Academic colectivos organized through the Cuba-based Red de Intellectuals; identity-based activism groups targeted by Bolivarian-supported Communist Entryists; the development of novel software and digital services; and more.
Five Fingers, One Fist: The Movement of Movement Thesis
To develop political action networks in the United States that would spread political unrest to use for its benefit, a variety of actors working on behalf Venezuelan Intelligence Services infiltrated a variety of U.S. and international organizations and institutions. Their goal? Set the conditions for Revolution.
Hugo Chavez never hid his intentions to help export revolution across the American continent. Proof of this is evident in the new name adopted by Venezuela, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; his interest in founding a new Socialist International; the behavior of TeleSUR – the face of Venezuela’s Intelligence Apparatus; as well as myriad Bolivarian Government documents.
Using Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci’s writing as a guide and the oil-income from the PSVSA (the state oil company of Venezuela) – which has now moved their offices to Russia – Hugo and later his successor Nicolas Maduro Moros flattered political and cultural actors while also paying for participation in their world-altering quest to gain control of Latin America. While unable to ever economically develop their own country in the manner promised by PSUV (the United Socialist Party of Venezuela – Nicolas Maduro’s party); the net effect of this concerted political influence effort in North America was the creation of a counter-hegemonic political force that operated within North America, but at the behest of Venezuela. The name for this movement of movements is called the PSUA, or United Socialist Party of America.
Invisibility Mapping: An Algorithmic-based Rationale for Evidence
Does Red Scare 3.0 mean Venezuela 6.0? Only time will tell…
Having learned from the Soviet Union’s attempt to influence American politics, the directors of Project PSUA – the name that I’ve given to Venezuela Intelligence’s influence campaign in America – decided not to limit their support to one or two parties, but instead gave material or symbolic support to many parties, movements and individuals. Akin to Chairman Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign, they drew together a motley-crew of grassroots activists to help form and direct the new movement for socialism in America.
Proving this is difficult, especially so as many of the people involved refuse to talk about it, but it’s not impossible. There are a variety of ways of doing this, which the University of Washington has done and that I have demonstrated elsewhere. One method, however, the is likely to be novel to many people is called Invisibility Mapping.
Invisibility Mapping is the term of an algorithmic concept that I picked up from one of my favorite TV series, Star Trek: Discovery. When facing an invisible enemy, the crew decides to activate the ships spore drive hundreds of times around its enemy in order to gather small bits of information so that it may calculate a means of circumventing these “security culture” defenses. By getting small bits of information from a large sample size – new data emerges. Let’s see how this works in action.
Invisibility Mapping, Antifa and Venezuela
Refuse Fascism is one of many front groups for the Revolutionary Communist Party. They are aligned with Venezuela through ideological affinities as well as via institutional connections such as the Alliance for Global Justice Alliance – the new iteration of the Nicaragua Network, as well as Hands Off Venezuela. While they are open about their desire to help bring about violent socialist revolution in the United States, they are quiet about the nature of their relationship to other groups such as Redneck Revolt; John Brown Gun Club and the Hampton Insitute and The Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Communist Party and the Workers World Party. All defend and justify the acts of Antifa, and yet none of the claim open membership.
Venezuela’s Imperialist Designs for Latin America; Nicolas Maduro speaking at the first International Antifascist Meetings Ever, held in Caracas in 2013; the Software which PSUC activists aligned with the PCV use to ensure political compliance by the Venezuelan populace.
How to test this hypothesis? Well I decided to write Rose City Antifa in order to try to verify it.
I sent them an email stating who I am and what my interest was, but they were did not respond. Understandable. Answering my surveys it would quickly validate the movement of movements thesis – something that those involved don’t want.
Nevertheless, the communique and projected survey outlined below shows how it is that one is able to map the invisible.
I share it here now so that the concept is better understood by my readers.
The Below is a copy of an email that I sent the leader of Rose City Antifa.
RCA,
You’re welcome to state that this line of questioning is silly and dismissing this investigation as a conspiracy-minded, though to be honest I can’t locate the humor.
Also, I feel compelled to point out that not only is it counter-intuitive that people/groups with similar political affinities would AVOID working together, history is ripe with historical examples of international leftist organizations working together (a portion of my master’s thesis from NYU on American political economic development charted the fates of American leftist parties based on their international alliances/domestic orientation) and the data related to the matter at hand I’ve organized thus far from publicly available sources is crystal clear in it’s implications.
That said, I hope you won’t mind providing me with clarification on a point as it relates to your decision-making process to decline my request.
I understand that Antifa tries to operate according to a consensus model:
Did you convey my request to other members of the organization for discussion and a collective decision, or are you claiming to speak on their behalf without having consulted them? And if not, why?
I understand security is a concern of yours but I’m interested in pursuing the truth, not political points.
I would not be including questions about specific demos or activities as this is not some ruse to entrap anyone – hence my personal introduction from the beginning – and participants would be free to skip whatever questions they didn’t want to answer. I’m just interested in being able to visualize the relationships between movements and parties so if, as you say, there is no relation then data would show that.
If anything, I think that were your and your comrades to agree to my request the results would show that the people involved in Antifa have a variety of humanitarian concerns beyond just de-platforming Nazis.
I hope this gives you room to reconsider my request.
Hi, No that is not feasible. This is a very silly line of questioning. I am not going to waste of both of our time to go through and counter these weird points and flimsy “evidence”. The right-wing loves a conspiracy theory and this tendency is largely impervious to reason. /// RCA
On 2019-02-15 18:25, Ariel Sheen wrote:
RCA,
Thanks for your prompt and informative response!
Based on it, I think that I did a poor job of communicating what I was looking to learn by contacting you. My bad.
First, let me clarify that I haven’t encountered any evidence that would lead me to believe that you or your particular Antifa group is receiving money or instructions from Venezuela and that I believe you when you describe your fundraising and volunteer efforts.
The same can’t be said, however, for Latin American Antifacists; nor for PODEMOS in Spain; nor anarchist groups in Pais Vasco; nor for Philly Antifa; nor for a number of other American groups.
I’m glad I could make you laugh about being part of an “international communist conspiracy” but considering the above; the previous information I shared; that Maduro now claims that the Trump administration is the KKK and the Lima group are Nazis; and how in Mark Bray’s book Antifa he claims:
“The only long-term solution to the fascist menace is to undermine its pillars of strength in society grounded not only in white supremacy but also in ableism, heteronormativity, patriarchy, nationalism, transphobia, class rule, and many others. This long-term goal points to the tensions that exist in defining anti-fascism, because at a certain point destroying fascism is really about promoting a revolutionary socialist alternative (in my opinion one that is antiauthoritarian and nonhierarchical) to a world of crisis, poverty, famine, and war that breeds fascist reaction.”
I think it’s rational to make the connection between the Bolivarian Revolution’s goals for a new world order and an American group that wants a revolutionary socialist alternative which aligns with those goals. Right?
To repeat – I have no basis to make any claim that you or your group is anything other than an organic expression of activism emerging from your interpretation of the present – which is why I’m reaching out to you and not Philly Antifa.
That said, let me clarify what I’d really like to know:
I’d be interested to know, as a percent of total, which of your “members” are also members of? The Revolutionary Communist Party The Party for Socialism and Liberation Workers World Party Democratic Socialists of America Freedom Road Socialist Organization And other Leftist Factions, like Revolutionary Abolutionism Movement
I’d be interested to know, as a percent of total, which of your “members” have gone to: United States Social Forums Regional Social Forums World Social Forums People’s Movement Assemblies Left Forum Academic Marxist Conferences Etc.
I’d be interested to know, as a percent of total, which of your “members” are or were involved with: Bolivarian Circles Hands Off Venezuela Refuse Fascism The Poor People’s Campaign Occupy Wall Street (or regional iteration) Project South
South to South The Praxis Project Alliance for Global Justice Union Del Barrio Grassroots Global Justice Jobs with Justice Derechos para Todos The People’s Freedom Caravan Crimethinc Critical Resistance (There is a Portland Chapter) All of Us or None Rural Organizing Jobs with Justice Nicaragua Network Code Pink Black Lives Matters Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee And a few more along those lines I could throw it into a Google Survery, which allows for anonymous responses, provided you agreed to share such a line of questioning.
Is this something that seems more feasible?
The PSUA & Antifa: Venezuela’s Rear-Guard
As you can tell by the survey, which is based on research into Venezuela’s interaction with American political movements, parties, political actors and sympathizers – they’ve been able to help create and direct a vast network of American activists.
The evidence that they do this is in their literature – however those that participate refuse to share about their behavior as to do so would be to admit this networks’ existance as well as the existance of a political party – the PSUA – that they would rather keep secret.
A portion of the website for the website fara.gov, on the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
CC: John C. Demers
Assistant Attorney General for National Security
National Security Division
Greetings FARA Unit,
My name is Ariel Sheen and I am an American citizen from the State of Florida that is currently under consideration for an Atlantic Council Fellowship and a Social Science One research grant on the social media behavior of Venezuela’s state media company TeleSUR.
Following comments made by Senator Marco Rubio, my representative, as well as comments by Senator Cornyn, Senator Gardner and Congressman Joe Wilson – I began to investigate whether I could find evidence that indicated that the TeleSUR has been acting as a foreign agent of the Nicolás Maduro regime on American soil.
After over a year of investigation, I can say definitively say that the answer is yes – TeleSUR is not a news outlet but the face of Venezuela’s intelligence services.
I’m emailing you now to share with you my findings and to offer you access to my research folder so that you can confirm anything that is claimed therein.
This report shows the various means that TeleSUR seeks to high-jack Facebook’s algorithm to have their information presented, an example of a shell account being used to communicate online, as well as an example of a “Hands Off Venezuela/Anti-Fascism” group member admitting on Facebook their attempts to shut down the debate of Steve Bannon and David Frum in Canada.
This work of journalism reviews the public, unethical behavior of TeleSUR operations and delineates which Facebook policies they violate.
This report shows how TeleSUR and their affiliates used coordinated messaging in order to amplify certain perspectives across a wide range of news outlets and blogs.
This report reviews operational documents published by the Venezuelan government and the PSUV; anonymous and public comments published by journalists that have previously worked for the company; as well as originally obtained data and research to illustrate that TeleSUR is directed by Nicolas Maduro and that it is a propaganda organization working on his direction and not a news company.
This report highlights the anti-Semitic aspects of TeleSUR’s coordinated inauthentic behavior network online.
If you have any questions, would like to be provided access to my research folder to confirm my claims, or would like to discuss my consulting for similar issues related to social media and democracy, please feel free to contact me.
This article reviews operational documents published by the Venezuelan government and the PSUV; news published by TeleSUR that has been shown to be fake; published investigations regarding the state of access to journalism in Venezuela and TeleSUR’s relation to current and former media partners; anonymous and public comments published by journalists that have previously worked for the organization; as well as originally obtained data and research.
I then present a case study which illustrates how TeleSUR and its journalistic associates violated the best practices for a standard of care in Journalism.
Based upon the above evidence, I then examine legal issues related to journalistic malpractice to determine whether TeleSUR aligns with the characteristics of a news organization or, as it’s many detractors say, it is better classified as a propaganda outlet for the Venezuelan government.
Operational Documents Indicate Motives for Unethical Practices
In December 2003, at a meeting of media professionals for brainstorming how a new propaganda machine — TeleSUR — would operate at the Cuartel de la Montana, Hugo Chaves spoke of his desire to “create a breach in the media wall” and via “social networks”. TeleSUR was started by people who wanted to have a means by which they could shape their audience’s perception to the same views as that held by those who funded it — the PSUV. Thus while TeleSUR may claim to be no different from other news organizations — the behavior of their correspondents, of their executives, and the people who provide it’s funding and oversight all show that this is not the case. Looking in Venezuela’s own public records allows one to see this clearly.
Former Telesur president Andres Izarra bluntly characterized the goal of the Venezuelan government’s media strategy as a form of “communication hegemony” (Pradas, 2007).
After stating that capitalism is reaching a potentially terminal crisis, Hugo Chavez states in his Program for the Homeland 2013–2019 that: “In the words of Antonio Gramsci, the old must finally end so that the birth of the new can be manifested to the full… it is difficult to know exactly when this great horizon will become visible, but we should deploy significant and well-aimed efforts in the interest of its advent”
The PSUV’s Redbook, the Bolivarian iteration of Mao’s Little Red Book, is another place where information on the nature of TeleSUR can be determined. After stating their resolve to create alliances with similar political and social movements worldwide with the aim of achieving a new international pluripolar order — they gives examples of such initiatives: “ALBA, Petrosur, Petro-Caribe, TeleSUR, Bank of the South, UNASUR and the creation project of the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Nations, are to fight and defeat imperialism (PSUV 35; underline and italics added). In other words,TeleSUR is viewed by the party who controls the company as an instrument of war.
What the terrain for this conflict looks like for the PSUV/TeleSUR can be found on page 89 of Hugo Chavez’s 2013–2019 Program for the Country. After stating that the main goal is to create a “new communication order” to be built, it states the need to:
“Strengthen the multi-State Telesur television and radio networks and Radio del Sur, together with their respective electronic platforms… in order to disseminate the truth of our peoples and break the information blockade and censorship to which the peoples of imperialist powers are subject to by the transnational communication corporations.”
Again, in Hugo Chavez’s own words TeleSUR is not a news station, but conceived of as an instrument of information warfare.
In a 2015 presentation given to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information, the following information appears: “TeleSUR is oriented to promote a strategy that deepens the new socialist values and ethics”.
Their goal, another words, is to proselytize — not inform about the truth.
Low Quality, Poorly Sourced News Reporting With Undisclosed Bias
In June 2003, the New York times saw their brand forever tarnished after “executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd resigned their posts amid a much-publicized scandal that not only rocked journalistic circles but also left the newspaper’s readers wondering just how severely they had been duped” (Calvert).
The reason? One of their journalists had been found guilty of significant fabrications, plagiarism and errors. Jayson Blair, now a case study of what not to do, “lacked journalistic integrity and violated cardinal tenets of journalistic practice.The Times found in its investigation at least a half-dozen instances in which Blair lifted sentences and quotations from other published sources such as Associated Press and Washington Post” (Calvert).
While such reporting at the New York Times causes a journalist to be fired and forever shamed; the managing and executive editors to resign in disgrace while also forcing the company to set up new processes to ensure it didn’t happen again — this is the normal form of news reporting for TeleSUR.
This is evident in the photo above and the article it comes from. You can see in the photo that there is no “real author” connect to it, no parent names their child “ms-RSF-rg” and the way the article is sourced is solely by stating the places where information was pulled from — not what was pulled from where — as is the traditional professional standard.
According to an interview with a former TeleSUR English employee their “news writers” — which operate on shifts from 7am to 3pm, 3pm to 11pm, and 11pm to 7am — are tasked each day with reviewing the current events of the days from news websites and then publishing 5 different stories. In the process of stitching the articles together they also go through an “ideological polishing”.
Another former TeleSUR employee I interviewed sent me the below meme that circulated around the Quito office to mock Cyril Mychalejko, the former assistant-director of TeleSUR English, for the frequency with which he requested changes to news coverage to better meet the current editorial line developed in at the head office in Caracas in coordination with Venezuela’s Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information.
Thus while the content is by definition news, given the poor citations for information sources; the lack of author attribution; and the political influence from Caracas on the story it is better classified as opinion rather than truth. Which makes sense, after all, as he who pays the piper calls the tune.
TeleSUR’s Anti-Science Fake News
The first sentence for this TeleSUR article that was re-posted by a number of major media outlets, is as follows.
“A mysterious, cigar-shaped, 400-meter-long object is speeding through our solar system at almost 200,000 miles per hour, and astronomers — including Professor Stephen Hawking — believe it might (or might not) be an alien spaceship.”
What’s interesting about TeleSUR’s take is that they explicitly give the belief that this object is an alien spaceship to Stephen Hawking- despite the fact that he never made such a comment.
Despite what TeleSUR says, America doesn’t have a base in Costa Rica and the International Criminal Court has not declared Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a political prisoner
As part of Telesur’s coverage of Costa Rica’s presidential elections, they once said that there was a U.S. Southern Command military based in Costa Rica.
The base, according to the report, “Presencia de milicia de EE.UU. en Costa Rica es evidente”, was located in the Guanacaste province. There is, however, no military base there. In a formal letter Patricia Villegas, TeleSUR’s second in command to Nicolas Maduro, the television station acknowledged it had made a “regrettable mistake”.
TeleSUR also falsely published patently false information about the
Interesting to note is that despite over a year having gone by since this fake news has been debunked, that Cuba’s news outlet — and TeleSUR partner — re RadioRebelde, still not taken down the fake news.
The American Council on Science and Health has an interesting take on this article in particular and those within this category in general as being a part of a general Russian campaign to influence Americans to have an anti-science. This isn’t just conjecture, but a part of research they’ve done to determine the sources of these articles.
As you can see from the above, after doing a Google search for other outlets that had published the “fake news” story, TeleSUR was first, with Russian media outlets coming in second. I blockquote the ACSH article below, which is
Truthfully, no respectable news outlet should have covered this. The head researcher is Konstantin Korotkov, a well-known crank who once claimed to have photographed a soul leaving a human body. He is a hoaxer, so this is a non-story, just like “Crazy Person on Street Keeps Yelling Crazy Things” is also a non-story. Korotkov should have been ignored. But he wasn’t. Why?
Fake Aliens and Fake News: It’s Always the Russians
The timeline seems to go like this:
The story began in Russia’s state-controlled media. On March 5th, Mir 24picked up the story, which was then followed by Sputnikon March 10th. Then, the mother of all Russian propaganda outlets, RT, ran the story early on March 13th. From there, the story went “mainstream” in the Western press.
Stop and think about that for a second. A complete hoax was circulated among Russian state-controlled media as legitimate news, and the Western media fell for it. Sure, some of them provided “caveats,” but the point is that Russian propaganda has so infiltrated the public discourse that it appears regularly in mainstream Western media outlets. That’s shocking.
Why is Russia doing this? It appears that the Kremlin is waging a war on truth. (There is a book that discusses this by Peter Pomerantsev called Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia.) By purposefully muddying the distinction between fact and fiction, the Kremlin can further its own agenda.
Before Western journalists, who seem only to care about boosting traffic, copy-and-paste these clickbait stories from their Russian counterparts, they might want to first ask, “Is it true?” and, “Whom does the story benefit?” You know… the sorts of questions journalists are supposed to ask.
Disclaimer: the initial headline of this story has been changed from “Ancient Mummies in Peru ‘Not Human, Possibly Alien’: Scientists” to the current headline identifying Russian researcher Konstantin Korotkov as the scientist who claimed such findings. We have also included refutals of the claims by these Russian researchers in bold.
and the fact that the rebuttals of the claims that they added clearly show that the entire story is bogus — and yet it remains published.
Unethical Journalistic Practices Claimed By Anonymous Current and Former Employees
TeleSUR employees express fear of sharing their experience out of fear of the organization’s reach.
Convincing several former and current TeleSUR employees to share their story under the condition of anonymity isn’t the only way to learn about the unethical journalistic practices at TeleSUR.
On the GlassDoor reviewsfor TeleSUR English, there are a number of comments left which further indicate that the organization is the very definition of “fake news”
The news room at TeleSUR is described by one former journalist as follows:
“No ethics
– Cheap propaganda.
– No team work
This TV station is a joke. It’s all based in propaganda and lacks totally of ethics or professionalism. A government elite from Cuba and Venezuela manages all the “news” that are broadcasted. Couldn’t make less sense. Opinion diversity is banned and most of people in the offices have no experience in journalism/media at all. Pay… depends on who you know, and how aligned are you with their ideology (kiss butt).”
Another anonymous former employee highlights the connection between the Venezuelan Government and the organization in a different posting:
Cons
“Leftist slant on everything skews the truth sometimes. The building in Quito is mostly empty-space hasn’t been utilized well. Some staff are too affiliated with the Venezuelan government.”
Advice to Management
“Hire more journalists with journalistic qualifications and experience in order to grow the website further. Schedules are also subject to change without much notice.”
These concerns about professionalism are echoed by another commentator on February 6th, 2018:
Cons
“HR is rude and unhelpful, no clear lines of authority, low expectations, low accommodation for foreign staff, most people there aren’t journalists”
A Videographer and Senior Editor in Washington, DC — physically removed from the Quito location — is still able to feel the political pressure despite the geographic divide”
Cons
“Hard Left Ideology which makes very difficult to make real news”
Another anonymous source came to me directly.
After publishing my first article on Medium about TeleSUR English, I received an email that contained the following message from someone on staff:
The email closes with a re-iteration the themes of unprofessionalism and influence by the Venezuelan government:
“The top-down culture from Caracas to Quito and heedlessness regarding content quality and web management (which came to a head when the English page was accidentally un-published) consistently hobbles the performance of TSE, causing waves of talent to flee before TSE folds…”
There are, however, more than just anonymous sources that state that the TeleSUR is not a news station.
Unethical Journalistic Practices Claimed Openly by Current and Former Employees
After three years of trying to get TeleSUR to a specific level of professionalism and failing Aram Ahorian, one of TeleSUR’s founders, distanced himself from the organization saying thatit had become nothing but a cheap propaganda shop. “It is supposed to be a Latin American multi-state company. But it is not yet. It is a Venezuelan company, controlled by people who are interested in managing budgets and not news projects. It has to do with the internal struggle that exists in the Government of Venezuela.”
In October of 2018, TeleSUR anchor Daniela Vielman resigned from the network and released a statement stating that staff employed by TeleSUR are “treated as if they were working in a political party” and frequently imposed upon her and other “their political convictions.”
Following a post on Twitter that was critical of TeleSUR’s editorial choice to post an article supporting Donald Trump be Cassanda Fairbanks, former reporter Charles Davis saw all articles that he had previously written for them have their name taken off, and then shortly thereafter were deleted.
Jon Jeter’s article Betraying the Bolivarian Revolution goes into extensive detail about this. Given the conversation that the article was generating on Mint Press News, I created a employee satisfaction survey and posted a in the comments. The results as a whole were as I expected, and I include an except below.
What are some ways that TeleSUR English could improve?
1. Hire a new director [this was then Pablo Vivanco]
2. Value workers, develop clear journalistic standards
3. teleSUR could live up to the principals it espouses. Its operation in Caracas exists simply as a propaganda outlet for Venezuela foreign policy. I overheard star Spanish language reporters speculate how they could best portray the government in their pieces. If it truly represented the voice of the most vulnerable and traditionally underrepresented, we would hear the voices of Venezuela’s poorest, who are suffering the effects of the country’s worst ever crisis. Whatever the cause of that crisis may be, we never hear those perspectives. While many TeleSUR journalists are well intentioned, all content, no matter how insignificant or where it’s from, must pass through the Cold War like propaganda lens in Caracas before making it to air or online.
What three words would you use to describe TeleSUR English’s work culture?
1. Bad bad bad
2. Nepotism, back-stabbing, toxic
3. Disorganized, Dictatorial, Directionless
Anonymous sources of GlassDoor, anonymous sources obtained from an email and a targeted survey, as well as the comments of former employees all indicate that unethical journalistic practices are the norm at TeleSUR.
A conversation that occurred on March 21st, 2018 on Facebook in the comments section indicates that ethical violations went beyond the violation of professional standards, but also of labor law.
Unethical Business Practices with Journalists
In an exchange on Facebook former TeleSUR reporters Matt Sedillo and Irene Monica Sanchez, state that they were contracted for work and never paid.
In the comments section on the same post, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan stated “they made me feel like a sleazy bill collector because I asked where the money that they promised me was.”
Given TeleSURs relationship with Jacobin writers and staff, as well as Jacobin’s business ethics, one wonders as to the specifics of their relationship.
Another unethical business practice of TeleSUR’s explains why it is that so few of the journalists associated with TeleSUR don’t respond — non-disclosure agreements.
I’ve learned from multiple former personnel in telephone interviews that following the publication of material on the Caracas Chronicle website, all foreign personnel on the TeleSUR English staff signed non-disclosure agreement addendum to their contracts. They did so under duress as Pablo Vivanco implied that they would be fired if they did not sign. They did so without consideration — typical for new conditions being inserted into the contract. And they did not provide a certified true-copy in English of the new conditions for those that did not speak Spanish.
I also received reports of significant violations of Ecuador’s labor law, such as scheduling people to work 6 or 7 days in a row.
Unethical Behavior Towards Other Journalists
In the article Struggle, Appropriation and Attacks on Indigenous Journalismin the online magazine Intercontinental Cry we learn the story of Courtney Parker, a University of Georgia College of Public Health PhD candidate. Parker was investigating Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coast — where there are ongoing conflicts between Indigenous Miskitu people’s and colonialists. After publishing a series of sourced articles about the shooting of an Indigenous Miskitu leader by Sandanista youth and other issues in the area, a series of articles published online by a Sandinista-party associated “independent” media outlet. In what could be described as Orwellian irony,
“The politically motivated attack accused Parker and others of being part of some corporate imperialist power conglomerate trying to influence the upcoming November elections (where Daniel Ortega is set to run virtually unopposed with his wife as vice-president.) The byline claimed that “the reposting in various progressive outlets of biased report confirms the convergence in reporting international affairs between alternative and corporate media.”
Following the publication of these reports, TeleSUR then republished content contained there. Because of this and other examples of unethical behavior, The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas published an exposé about the Sandinista party and the Nicaraguan army intimidating and spying on journalists working for the magazine, Confidencial.
During their investigation the Knight Center documented multiple “campaigns to discredit journalists through official and unofficial media…” (i.e. the tag team efforts of Telesur and Tortilla Con Sal.)
It is not just reporters in countries that are aligned with Venezuela that face coordinated responses for coverage that contradicts the TeleSUR narrative. Within Venezuela a number of news stations that reported about corruption, electoral fraud, or systematic government problems have had their websites blocked. In The State of Internet Censorship in Venezuela, a group of digitalinvestigators analyzed the relationship between digital media access and censorship and was able to show how ISPs use DNS and HTTP means to prevent access to such material. In their summation the Venezuelan state — of which TeleSUR is an appendage of — is able to block the narratives that conflict with the one it wishes to promote.
“The censorship events identified as part of this study (particularly the blocking of news websites and blogs) contradict the rights outlined by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in its report on Standards for a Free, Open and Inclusive Internet. Media censorship and the blocking of blogs limit press freedom and the right to freedom of thought and expression. In examining each right outlined by IACHR, questions around the necessity and proportionality of these censorship events are inevitably raised, particularly in terms of how they relate to human rights.”
While difficult to determine whether or not Wikipedia contributor with DNS address 82.35.252.246 was a TeleSUR employee or not, given that this is the only article that they have ever worked on this is very likely the case.
It’s likely that in addition to the Venezuelan government’s attempts to silence journalists within their country; and coordinated attempts to delegitimize journalists that present a narrative contrasting to their own; that there also exists a need for TeleSUR to monitor public spaces like Wikipedia to ensure that content critical of its operation is not available.
Given that Chris Hedges, a regular TeleSUR and RT contributor, recently reported about how Wikipedia was a “tool of the elite” this is ironic in a special way.
Content and Imagery to Incite Violence
This set of pictures using Donald Trump’s campaign slogan is just one of many examples wherein internecine conflict is praised. By itself, there’s nothing innately problematic about this. Media, however, occurs within an symbolic ecosystem so a broader context to fully understand the images is required.
In my other case-study article on TeleSUR’s use of fake and alternative news sites and coordinated inauthentic journalism I illustrated how clustered use of a literary analogy in relation to a news event indicated that a number of showed there to be some kind of connection amongst the authors.
Given the journalists employment history; that Venezuelan media theorist and TeleSUR consultant Luis Britto frequently uses the term; as well as other TeleSUR-associated writers prior mobilization of the analogy I hypothesized that it was part of a concerted effort to attempt to influence Americans. This, however, is not the only manner in which their content seeks to shape their reader’s perceptions. Another way that they have sought to shape perceptions of America is by associating it with fascism through their own media and via the media channels of their partners.
Despite the fact that subject area specialists say that it is a “bad historical analogy,” since Donald Trump’s oath of office a veritable cottage industry of journalists and political commentator debating and editorializing as to whether or not he a fascist has formed (Riley 31). One political organization with extensive connections to Antifa — which is composed of members of various U.S. Communists groups such as the Revolutionary Communist Party and Workers World Party — is Refuse Fascism.
According to Influence Watch, Refuse Fascism is a project fiscally sponsored by Alliance for Global Justice, which is a front organization — like Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.); World Can’t Wait; Not In Our Name;and Stop Banking the Bomb – for the Revolutionary Communist Party. They desire the violent overthrow of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and justify this by asserting that the Trump administration functions is a “fascist regime.”
The group has been associated with “organizing demonstrations against President Trump’s inauguration as part of the “Disrupt J20” movement orchestrating demonstrations against right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous which devolved into rioting, and plann marches and occupations to last until President Trump and Vice President Pence leave office.
Via TeleSUR’s official media distribution channel — images reinforcing that it is imperative to kill fascists are shared, while through their coordinated inauthentic behavior network crasser propaganda images are shared. Not surprisingly, the suggestion that politicians should be killed by snipers occurred during the 2018 elections. If this seems just like a fortuitous juxtaposition, it’s important to know that the ANSWER Coalition has a long-standing association with the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee — Venezuelan and Cuban intelligence front groups.
This front group and it’s organizational core, the Revolutionary Communist Party, along with Venezuela’s other partners such as the Workers World Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation thus not only provide a ready audience to consume TeleSUR’s content but also act on the political philosophy informing it.
TeleSUR’s Connections with Radical Political Activity
It’s operationally difficult to determine the impact the above content has on its audience. There are, however, instances I was able to determine through investigation on Facebook.
One was a Hands Off Venezuela member and Toronto Against Fascism associate, Mubarik Adams, who attended the Steve Bannon v. David Frum debate with a large group of political activists with the express purpose of using violence to end the event.
In the article Defend Antifa on the Workers World Party website the group states, “Communists and anarchists have proudly worn the mantle of antifa since the very beginning. Communists gave their lives in the tens of millions to fight Nazis in Europe, and armed multinational communist fighters have long battles the Klan’s fascist terror in the South.”
Considering Venezuelan political activist and former visiting professor to University of North Carolina and Consul General of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in New Orleans, Louisiana Jesus “Chuco” Garciahas frequently encouraged students to engage in radical political activism, it’s no surprise that for TeleSUR, violent, organized armed conflict between racial groups is its vision of American Greatness (Brown-Vincent 11).
Given that George Ciccariello-Maher has a specialization in Venezuela and has been an outspoken defender of Antifa and participant in it’s female recruitment program, it begs the question as to his involvement as well.
TeleSUR Partners Work with Yemeni Intelligence to Doxx US Troops
Showing that 30 day bans can be like whack-a-mole — once an account goes down, associated accounts post new links to the same information. For context, VK is a social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg.
While previously they seemed to be just a pair of journalists that benefitted from the fake-backlinking and coordinated inauthentic behavior networks — now they’ve moved to active and open collaboration with Yemeni intelligence services by publishing the personal information of active U.S. military personnel.
Terrorist Threats Made in Florida Come to Life in Colombia
The day before a car bomb targeting a police academy in Bogota, Colombia exploded and killed at least 21 people — Tyler Miller, a resident of Lake Worth, Florida was arrested for spraypainting “Kill A Cop, Save a Life” next to a hammer and sickle.
Back in 2013, Miller had another run in with law enforcement when they say he tried to buy an SKS Semi-Automatic Rifle online.
According to the report, a witness reported seeing him at a firearms store and filling out paperwork, wearing a Chinese military uniform.
Deputies then made a visit to his house and found two AK-47 style airsoft guns in his room, which was decorated with Russian and Chinese communist-type paraphernalia.
What specific connections exist between Tyler Miller and media operations directed by the Venezuelan intelligence services intending to radicalize Americans is now unclear.
What is apparent is the connection between TeleSUR’s glorification of politically motived violence and it’s perceived need to “teach the public a lesson”.
Following the bombing of the police station in Bogota, I started receiving a apologias for it in WhatApps group chats that I’ve been able to get added to since moving to Colombia.
One of the things that the rapid, targeted deployment of such content suggests is that these media artefacts were prepared in advance of the bombing.
TeleSUR’s Connections with Violent Latin American Organizations
TeleSUR has long been accused of having institutional ties to the FARC-EP.
Besides discovering a number of FARC-EP documents stored on TeleSUR’s website — which can be perused here– and that FARC-EP associated accounts like to share TeleSUR content I’ve not yet been able to ascertain any new information on the relationship between TeleSUR and FARC-EP.
I did, however, find something else interesting.
After I started friending a large number of the accounts associated with TeleSUR’s coordinated inauthenic behavior network, besides the FARC-EP accounts being suggested to me as People You May Know a number of ELN and EPL accounts started being suggested to me.
A curious person, I friended them and started to see the type of content that they were sharing and groups they were involved in.
Reviewing a number of the likes and shares on FARC-EP, ELN and EPL accounts was notable as many of them were also sharing TeleSUR content.
While the current state of my research means that there is little to be said about all these connections — other than they at some level they exist — there are other questions to be raised about the relationship between TeleSUR and the promotion of violence.
Specifically questions relates to TeleSUR’s hiring practices.
Former correspondents for TeleSUR — like Gerardo Torres Zelaya — have been identified as participating in violent street protests while others have been linked to FARC.
Taken from an Ecuadorian Facebook Group of Feminists, who investigated Orlando Perez following his assault on his girlfriend.
The current Vice-President of TeleSUR English, Orlando Perez, was arrested and sentenced for a politically-motivated kidnapping in his 20s; was arrested in connection with the death of two people making bombs and then let go; and refers to people who disagree with his political positions as mentally-retarded.
My research in this area is underdeveloped due to a paucity of sources willing to provide on-record accounts — but these cases combined with the former employee assessments does seem to reinforce that notion that rather than journalistic talent, skill or ability driving hiring-decisions an antagonism capitalism and the United States is instead what is sought in employees — and those that push back in the name of truth are then pushed out.
Being an instrument of Nicolas Maduro’s political will, the anti-systemic political activity which TeleSUR disseminates is not limited to the United States.
Numerous accounts in Spain — specifically Valencia, Barcelona and Euskadi — all post content discouraging people from voting. Instead of traditional political activity people are encouraged to attend lectures on topics such as the Greatness of Stalin or political assemblies hosted by local radical organizations affiliated with the PSUV.
Coordinated Unprofessional News Reportage via TeleSUR Associated Journalists
Carlos Ballasteros — a longtime friend of then former director of TeleSUR English Pablo Vivanco, a fact not disclosed in the Newsweek article — had a correction added to his article by the editorial staff of Newsweek as in the original article he mispresented the facts.
After I published Censorship or Community Standards, I decided to test a hypothesis I had — specifically that none of the other TeleSUR-associated journalists that I’d found engaged in false reporting would correct their errors if notified.
I sent notification to all the Journalists that had also covered TeleSUR’s unpublishing informing them that they were mistaken and sharing a link to my investigation.
· I sent notification to Abby Martin’s producers via Facebook.
· I sent an email, a Facebook Message and left a comment on Twitter to notify Branko Marcetic.
· I tweeted to Jacobininforming them that the article by Branko Marcetic they are hosting was factually incorrect.
· I sent a Facebook message to Adriano Contreras asking for comment. He responded that he was not allowed to speak without the authorization of TeleSUR, which given the context, makes such a response another example of Orwellian Irony.
· I left a comment on the Twitter account of Aaron Mate.
In fact, over two months after I notified them they had published unverified false reports, not a single one of these self-proclaimed journalists has responded to my contacts or updated their coverage.
The only person that did respond was Andre Damon, of World Socialist Website. However after explaining the reason for my contact — to let him know that his reportage was wrong and to ask to speak with whomever is directing their black hat back-linking and coordinate inauthentic behavior network on Facebook — all communication immediately ceased.
Based upon the guidelines described in The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, this means that all of these people are in violation of the Principles of Ethical Journalism.
How TeleSUR’s Defenders Violate the Professional Community’s Ethical Norms
Unlike other professional associations, such the American Bar Association or Medical Board, there is no formal professional body by which charges of violations of ethical journalism can either be brought up. To some extent the Society of Professional Journalists can enforce their Rules through their official statements about the behavior of journalists, but they are not an enforcement body.
The Society of Professional Journalists states that there are four foundational principles for the ethical journalist:
· Seek Truth and Report It
· Minimize Harm
· Act Independently
· Be Accountable and Transparent
The full document can be found here.
I excerpt sections here in order to reference specific behaviors.
Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Journalists should:
· Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work.
· Verify information before releasing it.
· Use original sources whenever possible.
· Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.
· Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.
· Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.
By refusing to make transparency, honesty and integrity their operational principles all of the above mentioned TeleSUR and the Journalists associated with them all violate the Society of Professional Journalist’s principle to Be Accountable and Transparent by “exposing unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.”
TeleSUR’s Rejection by Former Partners
Besides the journalists which have gone to work for TeleSUR only to leave because of an unprofessional work environment, a number of TeleSUR’s media partners in Latin America have also decided to part ways with the company.
The overarching narrative for why this is so is that the company’s issues described above are seen as part of systemic ethical issues rather than isolated incidences.
In 2016 Argentina decided that they were not going to renew the digital signal of TeleSUR.
The interview that Patricia Villegas, the President of TeleSUR, had with Alejandro Alfie is informative as to why the government chose not to renew.
Despite the fact that TeleSUR’s founders — Hugo Chavez, Andres Izarra, Aram Aharoiam and others — avow that their goal for this network to be a means of spreading Bolivarian Propaganda; that TeleSUR’s corporate documents states this as well; that workers for TeleSUR view themselves as spreading leftist content; that the PSUV views TeleSUR as an instrument for spreading its message — when faced with a question about political pluralism, Patricia Villegas states with conviction that they have “a plurality of perspectives”.
When then asked about TeleSUR’s Twitter Account promoting a protest march by Chavistas; about reporting done TeleSUR which disseminated false information that made a geo-political enemy look bad; and her own political activity online — Villegas evades any and all responsibility or accountability by stating that other people were responsible for the first two and then avoids answering the question as to whether or not she believes Argentina is a dictatorship.
In 2017 Ecuador similarly broke ties with TeleSUR.
Considering that Venezuelan political groups associated with the government hold events intended to encourage people to break the law, and that TeleSUR associated accounts promote it within Peru, one can only wonder how long they will stay on air in that country.
Penalties Given to TeleSUR’s Partners
CCTV from China, RT and Sputnik from Russian and HispanTV from Iran are some of the media partners that TeleSUR has made. While this may seem like normal coordination amongst upstarts media organization seeking to obtain market shares in regions seen as key for future success, since the state governments are paying for their operation instead of corporate sponsors or subscriptions, this isn’t a valid rationale.
In his article for the Center for International Media Assistance entitled “Foreign Media and Misinformation: How TeleSUR and RT Coordinate Programs and Messages” Patricio Provitina provides another explanation
“These news outlets claim that their content offers an alternative, developing world perspective that counters the interests and agendas pushed in Western media coverage of domestic and international events. However, in reality, these state- sponsored media outlets are only designed to convey the Chinese, Russian, or Venezuelan government’s perspective to the rest of the world. Since these governments are authoritarian regimes that often impede freedom of the press at home, their foreign-language media outlets reflect domestic habits of selective issue coverage, omitting or distorting important facts in news stories, and making up information to reshape public opinion regarding specific issues or events. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that when state interests align, these outlets coordinate news story coverage, messaging, and programming.”
Analyzing En La Mira, one of the examples of Russian and Venezuelan state media collaboration, Provitina describes it as follows:
“The shows create simplistic, conspiracy-driven explanations that tie a country’s internal problems to an external source of power meddling in the affairs of the country. The evidence presented as proof of a foreign plot tends to mix-up un-related facts, half-truths, or highly edited video interviews with policy makers, intellectuals, and academics who echo or truly believe the conspiracy narratives of each show.”
Argentina sought to cancel RT’s television contracts, but used economic pressure to stay on the air after Macri’s election (Cardenal).
Further Research TeleSUR’s Unethical Journalism
While many unethical journalist practices engaged in by TeleSUR employees and associates are covered here, this is only a small fraction of a full analysis. Venezuela’s PSUV has invested millions of dollars over many years into developing a company that at face is a news organization, but underneath is a propaganda organ for helping Nicolas Maduro achieve his geopolitical interests.
I am currently awaiting word from Social Science One as to the status of my research proposal: The Social Media Behavior of Venezuelan State Media: A Case Study in TeleSUR English. I look forward to sharing this research on Medium, which will focus less on the qualitative issues discussed above — like the widespread evidence of TeleSUR journalists nor following professional norms — and will instead focus on depicting their efforts quantiatively.
Sources
Barajas, Héctor. TeleSUR after the End of Chavismo.
Baerga, Vanesa Media Imperialism in Latin America and the Emergence of Telesur.University of Nottingham.
Brown-Vincent, Layla Dalal Zanele Sekou. We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for:Pan-African Consciousness Raising and Organizing in the United States and Venezuela
Canizalez, Andres. Framing Revolution and Re-Framing Counter-Revolution:
History, Context and Journalism in the new Left-wing Latin American Paradigm.
Cardenal, Juan Pablo. Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence Chapter 2: Navigating Political Change in Argentina. International Forum for Democratic Studies. National Endowment for Democracy.
Chirinos, Mariengracia; Azpúrua, Andrés; Evdokimov, Leonid; Xynou, Maria. The State of Internet Censorship in Venezuela: A study by IPYS Venezuela, Venezuela Inteligente and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI). 16 August 2018
Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards, Journalistic Malpractice: Suing Jayson Blair and the New York Times for Fraud and Negligence, 14 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 1 (2003). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol14/iss1/1
Contreras, Adriano. Facebook.
Di Rocco, Massimo. The Arab Spring is a Latin American Winter: TeleSUR’s “Ideological Approach” and the Breakaway from the Al-Jazeera Network. Global Media Journal, Spring/Summer 2012 issue.
Hugh J. O’Halloran. Journalistic Malpractice: The Need for a Professional Standard of Care in Defamation Cases. Marquette Law Review
International Media Support (IMS). Threats, Lies and Censorship: Media in Venezuela. 2016.
Jairo Lugo-Ocando , Olga Guedes & Andrs Caizlez (2011) Framing Revolution and Re-Framing Counter-Revolution: History, Context and Journalism in the new Left-wing Latin American Paradigm, Journalism Practice, 5:5, 599–612, DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2011.601912
Provitina, Patricio. “Foreign Media and Misinformation: How TeleSUR and RT Coordinate Programs and Messages”. The Center for International Media Assistance.
Riley, Dylan. What Is Trump, New Left Review 114, November-December 2018
Tell your story. What makes you who you are?
For generations my father’s family were rabbis in Ukraine and my mother’s family were prosperous pig farmers in Denmark. This convergence of poles apart cultural backgrounds informs my personality in such a way that I have a great appreciation for the humorous circumstances of life; an understanding of the importance of initiative, integrity, education and the need to be intrepid in the face of daunting circumstances.
These qualities have allowed me to live a unique life. I’ve made my home in Florida, Czech Republic, New York City, Spain and Colombia and my experiences there developed my professional capabilities; helped me be able to relate to people of all types – from barely literate campesinos to CEOs of high tech software companies; and inculcated a great appreciation for cultural diversity. Improvement of the public and private spheres by applying my skills and capabilities is how I currently direct my life activity.
What tipping or inflection points do you anticipate in your area of expertise over the next 5-10 years? How well-positioned are you to take advantage of this or to be on the cutting-edge of driving these transformations?
As more developed countries transition to whole-of-government software platforms with unprecedented analytical and planning capacity and as medium to large companies within those countries similarly become better able to understand and capitalize on business intelligence trends their collective enhancements will result in an epistemic shift within the people that populate these classes that manage people and capital. While significantly more technical, it will also lead to levelling s each country in some way or other adopts the optimum models. Thus technical innovations and information technologies will continue to cause vast social, economic and political disruptions over the next ten years in ways that can most accurately only be anticipated as intense process for all involved.
My doctoral studies in Innovation and Technology Management helps me to position myself as someone that can work as a consultant and advisor to public and private organizations so that they can more rapidly adopt, exploit and further develop the potential inherent in these revolutionary technologies. Outside of this program, I am also engaged in several long-term initiatives – my Social Science One project being one; the application to this Fellowship another – in order to situate myself as a thought leader in this field.
#MillenniumFellowshipApp: The 21st century will see the end of…
many of the knowledge gaps causing unwitting sub-optimal decision-making at the individual, social, economic & political levels. Increased information access, planning and communication technologies will continue to change the world in profound ways.
#MillenniumFellowshipApp: I’m impacting my community by…
Prototyping an e-government software development project that would accelerate the quality, efficiency and capabilities of public service provision to citizens and assist businesses.
#MillenniumFellowshipApp: This isn’t on my resume, but ask me about… My TeleSUR project. I verified 3 Senators’ concerns, published, publicized, then became one of the first people to develop social scientific methods for interpreting Facebook data.
Short Bibliography
Ariel Sheen is a Colombian National Scholarship award winner engaged in Doctoral training in Innovation and Technology Management at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin. His research is on technology transfer, public/private software development partnerships and the relationship between information management and political institutions.
He earned his Master’s degree from New York University in Experimental Humanities on 2011 and is also a Social Science One research grant-recipient for the Facebook sponsored investigation into Social Media and Democracy.
Formerly a creative director at a Fortune 500 digital marketing company and a professor of political science, he aims to use his expertise to assist governments and businesses understand and adapt to the technological possibilities inherent within the 4th industrial revolution.
Applicant Information
Ariel V. Sheen
Innovation and Technology Management Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana Colombia
Project Details
The Social Media Behavior of Venezuelan State Media: A Case Study on TeleSUR English
Priority Topics
Disinformation, Polarization and Election Integrity, Civic Engagement
Dataset(s)
Facebook URL Shares Dataset
Keywords
Political Polarization, Disinformation, Social Media, Democracy, Influence
Countries of Research
United States
Disciplinary Focus
Communications, Political science and government
Project Length
6 Months
Amount Requested
$49999.00
Project Abstract
TeleSUR English is a media project of the Venezuelan and Cuban governments to promote their desire for a multi-polar world order. Their main news outlet has over 600,000 people listed as following it on Facebook, while their other properties, consisting of cultural, historical and current-event commentary, raises the numbers of followers they have to nearly a million. Their combined content on YouTube has been viewed in excess of 20 million times.
Over the four year course of their operations, TeleSUR English has partnered with other state-owned foreign language news media outlets such as Russia’s RT, Iran’s HispanTV, Qatar’s AJ+ and China’s CCTV.
This project will use quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Venezuela’s government’s English language media operations to answer specific questions such as:
To what extent were specific demographics and geographic areas targeted by TeleSUR?
What were the defining attributes of the political content and areas targeted by TeleSUR English?
What connections can be made between Russian and Venezuelan state media operations to influence the American electorate?
How can Venezuela’s social media actions affect the way Americans build common sense, and how does the spread of strategic political content lead to political fragmentation?
It is expected that the final results of the investigation will show that Venezuela sought to increase political polarization through the targeted promotion of information aligned with specific political sector interests and thus demobilizing its readers from the political process rather than categorically promoting the public interest. Other data set will
Practical Importance of Project
Charting the efforts of Venezuela’s social and news media projects to influence the political values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of groups and individuals within the United States electorate is of practical importance for consideration by a wide variet of public and private policy makers.
Showing the connection of Russia’s state media to Venezuela’s activities is also important for illustrating the manner in which it is is possible for small groups of skilled people to accelerate actual or perceived political polarization; spread disinformation or propaganda; facilitate political actions that range from legal to illegal and, overall, impact American elections.
Visualizing the scope and shape of this particular iteration of coordinated inauthentic behavior and it’s relation to In Real Life (IRL) action will help readers of the project better understand how to exercise media literacy skills and help shape future conversations about the relationship between social media and democracy. Furthermore, it will provide coders new means of adapting existent algorithms so as to be able to more effectively identify coordinated inauthentic behavior on the Facebook.
Expected Outcome of Project
This project will produce a minimum of 30 graphic visualizations based on Facebook data, data compiled from public records, subscription based data sets, of APIs as needed.
These graphics will be packaged together with historical/technical context and analytical writing to promote media literacy and showcase new knowledge as to how TeleSUR English/Venezuela seeks to influence American politics as well as their links to Russian media on Medium. This will then be promoted via outreach to media outlets that have previously published on similar themes as well as via influencer outreach.
Ethical and Privacy Considerations
The ethical and privacy considerations evidenced in the research in this vein thus far produced by the Digital Media Research Labs, the Atlantic Council and the Kings Centre for Strategic Communication will be the guide for our our work. With the exception of TeleSUR English, RT, Sputnik and other employees or associated accounts engaging in public behavior, all individual users privacy will be maintained by illustrating only general, numerical patterns of event behavior. Absolutely no private individual Facebook, Twitter or other social media users will be named in order to prevent another @Ian56789 incident.
Kultural Marxism and Reflections on Venezuela’s Gramscian Fantasy of Exporting Revolution via a Long March Through United States Institutions
For over a decade Venezuela’s Intelligence Agency has operated a network in America to disseminate political values, beliefs, strategies, tactics, and knowledge from the Bolivarian Revolution to American audiences in hopes it would lead to political radicalization and domestic unrest such that a “multipolar” world would emerge.
This multi-faceted, multi-million dollar project inspired by Antonio Gramsci included funding and other forms of assistance to found or further develop: outreach programs which sought to unite poor Americans for economic and environmental justice; movements which seek to educate, agitate and mobilize African American and Latino communities for direct actions; support of alternative news outlets and messaging coordination with foreign state media; a large inauthentic coordinated behavior army of trolls to amplify their messaging; etc. in order to feed into the creation of a counter-hegemonic movement within America.
As participants were averse to sharing their funding, partnerships and end political goals to outsiders, prior to new technological methods involving data science on sources of public and private origin, documenting and charting these behaviors was difficult. Now, however, the unveiling of this information is on the immediate horizon.
This presentation will be an excerpt of an ongoing investigation into Social Media and Democracy by the author, a doctoral student in Innovation and Technology Management, former Marxist Reading Group presenter and applicant for a research grant in partnership with Social Science One and the Social Science Research Council. It will cover why Venezuela’s state media and their many U.S. partners will soon be removed from Social Media; why this isn’t censorship; and what this means for American democracy.
Keywords:
Political discourse in Popular Culture; Digital rhetoric and cultures; Data Science; Activism and commodification; Venezuela; Media Studies
One of my favorite songs by System of a Down is Aerials.
It’s a great song on it’s own, but of course I think it’s super special cause it kind of sounds like Serj Tankianis is singing my name.
Now, Ariel will be in the sky, of my friends mural, way up high!
