What did the UK Undercover Voters project tell us?
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain why the UK Undercover Voters project was carried out and what its conclusions were.
Key learning points
- The UK Undercover Voters project explored how algorithms target political content based on online profiles.
- Targeted content may influence voting by reinforcing existing beliefs, spreading misinformation & shaping opinion.
- Algorithms can create echo chambers, limiting exposure to diverse viewpoints & making critical thinking challenging.
- Misinformation and disinformation tailored to personal beliefs could affect voting behavior.
Keywords
Investigate - to look into something carefully to learn more about it and find out the facts
Targeted - directed at a specific person or group
Algorithms - set of instructions or steps that a computer follows to solve a problem or make decisions
Common misconception
Algorithms only show people what they want to see, they don’t really affect how people vote.
Algorithms can reinforce existing beliefs and limit exposure to different views. The UK Undercover Voters project showed that targeted content could influence opinions and spread misinformation, which could affect voting behaviour.
Teacher tip
Encourage pupils to think critically about how algorithms shape their online experiences. Use real-life examples, like social media ads, to help them connect the concepts to their own lives and understand their impact on voting behavior.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Technology that makes machines think and act like humans is referred to as what?
Q2.Which is a potential positive in using AI in future elections?
Q3.Looking at people's social media to gather information about their political beliefs is known as what?
Q4.What feature of AI technology can support multilingual citizens in receiving political information?
Q5.Match the AI feature to its description.
manipulating a video clip or image to create new deceptive content
stimulates and mimic human conversation with internet users
phone call using an autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message
Q6.What is the collective term used to describe the people within a given country who are eligible to vote in elections?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.The UK Undercover Voters project aimed to investigate how social media personalised content to different voter types during the 2024 General Election.
Q2.Which of the following best describes how algorithms influence voter experiences?
Q3.Match the voter type from the UK Undercover Voters project to the kind of content they were most likely to see.
strong messages about leaving the EU
mixed political messages, some fact-based and some opinion based
climate-focused policies and sustainable promises
Q4.How might targeted political content impact voting behaviour?
Q5.What does targeted content often focus on instead of facts?
Q6.The UK Undercover Voters project concluded that targeted content manipulates opinions by focusing on people’s what?
To help you plan your 10 citizenship lesson on: What did the UK Undercover Voters project tell us?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 citizenship lesson on: What did the UK Undercover Voters project tell us?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 citizenship lessons from the How is social media changing our view of democracy? unit, dive into the full secondary citizenship curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.