During this election season, we have seen the power and danger of social media.
We have also seen that social media gives voice to the powerless who can’t afford to flood the airwaves with propaganda. Parents in Massachusetts, for example, deftly used social media to build a statewide organization to counter the multi-million dollar blitz by out-of-state billionaires who were pushing charter schools.
The flip side is the way that social media has been used to spread falsehoods. We have seen the rumor mill at work on Twitter and other sites.
The fact that this coincides with the decline in print media, where there are (sometimes) fact checkers, is cause for concern.
Are we in the post-truth era? How will we sort fact from fiction?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Peter Greene had an interesting musing related to this: http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/11/digital-natives-are-lost.html
But the fact is the medium doesn’t really matter. Whether it’s print, online, Twitter, Facebook, whatever, kids need to be taught never to accept anything at face value and need to be taught the skills for how to evaluate information (or “information”) based on the motivations, knowledge and credibility of the source.
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Sadly, our policymakers need a critical lens too.
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They have one, it’s called ‘who’s buttering my bread?’. To correct policy-makers’ lenses: campaign reform, overturn Cit-United decision, reform 501(c)-3 & -4 laws, reform lobbying laws.
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How will Americans sort fact from fiction? By giving up their short attention spans, texting, video games, TV, etc., and spending hours sifting through primary fact gathering sources to sort fact from fiction.
I’m not talking about fact check sites, although that is an option too as long as people don’t rely on one fact check site, but actually doing the work that reporters once did by going to primary fact gathering sources to look at the actual data that the media is allegedly reporting on – something the media doesn’t have enough staff to do well anymore.
With the media being bought up by billionaire oligarchs with political, profit/power motivated, and/or religious agendas and having reporters and editors cut from the staff, the media American once relied on no longer as the ability to do the job it once allegedly did.
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I see my twenty-something sons doing this routinely (checking around to get multiple viewpoints from multiple reporting sources).
Perhaps they have ‘short attention spans’, as they are long-accustomed to re-adjusting schedules/ plans on the fly via texts from bosses, friends etc. But they left uninterrupted hrs of TV-watching behind yrs ago, released from mainstream network schedules by hulu & its successors. They learn via social media what might be interesting to watch, & do it on their own time. Video games were always ‘on demand’; rounds of uninterrupted play for them are in the same category as going to a bar or party: scheduled in advance.
Hourly-updated digital communications (perhaps especially social media) have taught my sons that everyone has an opinion which colors their understanding of ‘the facts’: peer groups are not monolithic but fractioned into interest groups w/varying degrees of experience & expertise; best to check around to get a bigger picture.
They apply the same process to ‘news’, always aware that outlets presenting facts will be slanting presentation according to an agenda. Skeptical, they peruse other presentations, trying to glean the actual facts. The huge difference I see between these millenials & my/ earlier generations: they understand it is up to them, not some institution, to delve for the truth before drawing conclusions.
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I’m glad to hear someone is checking the facts. Thanks for sharing.
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The good side is that, embedded in the situation Diane portrays is the “call” (need, requirement, necessity, whatever) to be involved, thoughtful, discerning, even critical, where we are always on the alert for expressions of “group-think,” reactionary diatribes, pied pipers and con artists.
And if there’s “too much out there,” where we become overwhelmed and spiritually frozen, then we need to be critical enough to know whom and what, commonly, we can trust–but only until we can understand for ourselves, especially when our and others’ lives are in the balance, and when we need to act.
Today, that “act” is exemplified in the vote.
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TIME magazine lost its right to readers, when it turned to the political right, to serve its advertisers, instead of featuring the voices of discernment, thought, and concepts of humanity. Vanity Fair lost its right to subscribers, when it chose to give space to a Melinda Gates, puff piece, interview, and allowed her to claim inclusion, in the company of those, who make others “breathe easier” , without an interviewer present for objectivity. AARP loses its right to members, when it funds ALEC and mails out a puff piece page, about Melinda Gates, in the same magazine issue, with the organization’s call for both, an increase in minimum wage and a defense of public pensions (Bill Gates opposes both, as does ALEC).
Every time media presents content for the rich, with the reader inferring it is presented as objective, that media deserves to go bankrupt.
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I don’t know if I buy that. Time lost its gloss for me as a teen in the ’60’s. Even then I could see its rigid editorial voice, & began supplementing, then replacing w/Newsweek. (Which of course I abandoned ages ago, as its editorial tone became dominated by 1-note neoliberals like Jonathan Alter). Vanity Fair continues to have a cogent cultural voice with lengthy, thoughty articles on arts & literature; it is hardly a political outlet. None of the above has ‘lost its rights to readers’.
On AARP we agree. This is an organ for seniors, & its weak protests about paying a fee to ALEC in 2016 to ‘have a seat at the table’ do not pass the smell test, & call into question whether it may have been colluding w/ the anti-Soc Sec, anti-public-good ALEC in previous years. Until they cut their ties w/ALEC, I say they are working against their own readership.
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And freedom of speech?
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The U.S. is, at present, an oligarchy. The principle of freedom of speech, was identified and defined for the U.S., at the time of the nation’s inception as a democracy.
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And so we follow by diminishing freedom of speech for oligarchs and for the press whom they pay, not to mention bought-and-paid-for legislators? Shame of them, of course.
But to me, that’s a bit like bending to extortion, and like treating the symptom rather than going to the heart of the disease.
And “the heart” of it, though it seems so, is not even the “disease” of capitalism where the cure is socialism. The problem lies, as comes clear in these comments (to me), in the states of mind in “the people,” and the age-old brief attention spans coupled with downright carelessness of the polity. I doubt anyone would embrace being manipulated by an oligarch, or fascism, if they recognized either.
In my view, the remedy is not the lessening of anyone’s freedoms in response to oligarchic power grabs; but polity-knowledge and a new carefulness about the democracy we still presently live in.
But I do understand and share your frustration.
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Because of political influence, the Federal Communications Commission stopped doing the job it was designed to do.
Princeton Prof. Gilens’ research provides the evidence that the safeguard of a free press, coupled with other factors, has failed to preserve American democracy.
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Sadly we are entering an era of CURATED news. Sites are cherry picking what information they think we need and how it should be presented. It is getting more difficult to find facts. This election cycle it was difficult to find historic information. You basically only got current curated responses, rather than historic documents.
I always liked the internet because of the access to historical documents, but search engines no longer make it easy. My search has to fit in someone else’s box which is very limiting. I read a German article the other day claiming a suit had been filed against Facebook and it’s management because their site has become a voice for those that want the holocaust erased. That is what curated information begets.
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I am reminded that the pen of Marat did more to produce the reign of terror in the French Revolution than the sharp blade of the guillotine. A rumor was all his vitriol needed to produce outrage on the streets of Paris. Outrage led to slaughter, as we all recall.
Now every Facebook page is a Marat rant. Mis-information is forwarded and posted, to be believed by the millions. It strikes me that we live in an era that allows “fire!” To be shouted in every theatre, crowded though it may be with gullible citizens.
If we do not learn to recoil from falsehood on sight, censors will soon replace freedom of speech.
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Networks made a mistake moving the news from its own entity to the entertainment division. Network news is full of hyperbole and alarmist “stories” that breed anxiety and mistrust now that their goal is to get ratings, not inform the public.
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What caused the change, & what is the remedy?
Was there some govt subsidy or policy which caused major network TV news to have independence from the political druthers of the moment? I’m thinking back to the late ’60’s, when CBS Dan Rather’s reporting on the ground from Viet Nam was clearly not in synch w/the party line from DC.
Despite its gradual replacement of govt subsidy w/ corporate commercials, the PBS NewsHour still since ’70’s provides us w/measured, journalistic reporting on US news & global topics– a breath of fresh air from MSM sound-bites & the strongly-slanted analysis from CNN, MSNBC, & Fox affiliates. And today even basic cable coverage gets you BBC, which is needed for a wider global view & European viewpoint.
MSM reporting on US news is amplified & corrected by watching [govt-supported] CSPAN, where you can get analysis-free coverage of daily congressional/ senatorial doings, press conferences, election events, DC hearings & meetings of every stripe, & top stories plus topical coverage of universal interest– complete w/ man-on-the-street reactions phoned in– 6 days/wk on Washington Journal.
It seems to me US citizens have everything they need at their fingertips in terms of comprehensive news coverage. Yet a sizeable proportion of citizens seem to consume only the shallowest of MSM sound-bites. Why?
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They are disillusioned, hopeless, fatigued from being one paycheck from eviction…maybe, looking for escape?
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If any of you watched, the Diane Rehm show today she devoted a whole hour to this concern. It IS SCARY. There is so very much divisiveness, so much misinformation by vested interests plus downright lies that MANY are concerned about what will happen now, after the election is over especially if Donald Trump loses, if he loses, refuses to concede as he has threatened to do it could be bad. Even if he wins the country now is divided similarly as pre Civil War. Let us hope and pray we can overcome this divisiveness..
As someone said, we can live together in peace or destroy ourselves with anger, hatred and all the rest of the negativeness that flesh is heir to.
Vince Lombardy once said something to the effect that winning is not the most important thing, it is the ONLY thing. That phrase has been emulated by so many including so many of our politicians that statesmanship has ALMOST become a lost art.
Half truths, lies, innuendo etc permeates our “news” today. Can we survive this onslaught? I hope so, for my children’s and grandchildren’s sake.
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We have a powerful tool at our fingertips to fact check a lot of the blarney that is thrown out into the virtual town square. That tool is the Internet. There is a ton of glop out there, it is an informational wild west but it is possible to sift through the dreck and find actual factual information.
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The mainstream media refused to report, or buried, some of the most important news stories. For example, go to The NY Times (which is nothing more than tabloid trash) and search for Marc Turi the illegal arms dealer, or Beacon Global Strategies the shadowy K-Street firm that brokers all the weapons deals with foreign governments. Where are the stories about the South Korean government, which is on the brink of collapse due to corruption? Twitter is a tremendous resource for accessing reputable international journalism from newspapers such as The Guardian, IBT, BBC, Al Jazeera, RT, The Intercept, etc. Not reporting news is a form of censorship. There is no Free Press in America.
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On occasion, Daily Kos shows the news headlines for foreign editions of U.S. publications, contrasting them with the content for the U.S. market. The difference is night and day. Some obscure snippet of a thought-to-be interesting story is for the U.S. audience. The foreign audience gets Important articles.
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There is a great routine by a German comic who goes by the stage name of Erwin Pelzig in which he complains about the internet and how it nurtures lunatic fringes and conspiracy theories. It goes something like this: “There have always been idiots throughout history, but before the internet, they didn’t know about each other.” Guess that cuts a few ways. Hoping my body (trying to keep it clean) will unclench later this evening.
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I am sure that there are some who get their news on facebook… If that were our only problem. There has never been a time that news was unbiased. So the question is what type of filters we put on the information we receive. At last I guess that is a function of education. Higher Education in Particular. Can’t Have these pesky intellectuals creating non compliant inquisitive minds, can we?. We can talk about our papers of record as equally suspect. As we know from the education wars or discussions on any economic topic .
A little on topic entertainment from someone I enjoyed more than Dylan. Does the soul good on this nerve racking day . I believe the copyright protection might be up.
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Thanks for the song Joel! Amazing how some older protest music seems to last longer than most daily news these days.
“Daily News”
Civil rights leaders are a pain in the neck
Can’t hold a candle to Chang Kai Shek
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
Ban the bombers are afraid of a fight
Peace hurts business and that ain’t right
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
Daily News, daily blues
Pick up a copy any time you choose
Seven little pennies in the newsboy’s hand
And you ride right along to never, never land
We got to bomb Castro, got to bomb him flat
He’s too damn successful and we can’t risk that
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
There’s millions of commies in the freedom fight
Yelling for Lenin and civil rights
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
Seems like the whole damn world’s gone wrong
Saint Joe McCarthy is dead and gone
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
Don’t try to make me change my mind with facts
To hell with the graduated income tax
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
John Paul Getty is just plain folks
The UN charter is a cruel hoax
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
J. Edgar Hoover is the man of the hour
All he needs is just a little more power
How do I know? I read it in the Daily News
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Below is a link to some news about the news business.
My impression is that the news is and will become radically personalized with not much left of “public” news except for entertainment. Apps and mobile internet services probably mean that each of us will be getting digital news with a video/youtube component based on what we search for on the web and the GPS and the mobile apps for which we serve as curators.
All of this is already in the works, but the algorithms are getting refined–records of dwell time, returns to favored websites, multiple sensors within innocuous looking devices.
In some respects we are teaching our computers and the quants who design algorithms for us what we wish to know about. The networks and threads are also proliferating so fast that tracing the origin of anything, much less with the hope of some credibility, is likely to be more and more difficult. Networks that link also divide us. There is an upper limit on out time and mind-space for the glut of images and audios. It is no joke that addiction to screen-based imagery is becoming a problem.
http://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/
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Fox crossed the threshold first, providing affirmation for the desired biases of the viewers. Research shows that Fox viewers are less well-informed than people who are exposed to no news. Parts of the rural Midwest have pockets of White people, who have no exposure to Black people, except via media. In my experience, those who watch Fox, express a distorted view of minorities that, lines up with the broadcasted prejudice of Fox.
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I know a lot of European docs and researchers. The two things that universally flabbergast them when they visit the U.S. are drug ads and Fox Skews.
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“Fox Skews”, even better than Faux News. At a Whitehouse press dinner, the table place card for Fox, left it at that.
The other table cards, had the wording, “NBC News”, ABC News”
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” We have also seen that social media gives voice to the powerless who can’t afford to flood the airwaves with propaganda. Parents in Massachusetts, for example, deftly used social media to build a statewide organization to counter the multi-million dollar blitz by out-of-state billionaires who were pushing charter schools.”
This is true, but you, Diane, have amplified the voice of those of us in Massachusetts struggling to keep our schools safe from the parasites. If we are successful in shutting down the billionaires, you will have played a major role in that fight, keeping the issue front and center of all the readers of your blog.
Thank you!
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Christine,
Please send us a report on Question 2 as soon as you get it
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At 8:21 PM, WBUR, one of our 2 public radio stations, has the No on @ vote at 73% to yes at 27%. Looks like a decisive victory at the moment.
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8:40, No on 63% Yes, 39%
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FANTASTIC! What % of the vote is in?
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Holding steady, but quite a small return so far: <5%
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Check in later.
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At 10:15, holding steady 62% No on 2 to 38% in favor, with 34% of precints counted.
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It’s been called for No On 2.
The charteristas have conceded.
Here’s the celebration underway:
https://twitter.com/KatMcKiernan
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What’s the final count? Or the last one?
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40% of the vote: 62% against, 38% in favor.
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Christine,
What a great tribute to the public schools of Massachusetts by its parents and teachers and students!
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Yes, good news amid a night of gloom.
One important point to be considered is that the funds to fight off the billionaires came by way of thousands of small donations from the pockets of teachers across the state. This grassroots activism has saved our public education system, and brought together an entire community focused on schools.
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By the way, Gov. Baker invited Jeb! to his “celebration” . Seems fitting.
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“Are we in the post-truth era? How will we sort fact from fiction?”
You know the answer! We’ll devise a standardized test that shows this inability to sort fact from fiction is the fault of schools and can only be fixed by privatization! The only question on the test will be:
What can fix public education?
a. Market forces
b. For profit charters
c. The end of teacher’s unions
d. All of the above
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“Are we in the post-truth era? How will we sort fact from fiction?” You know the answer! We’ll devise a standardized test that shows this inability to sort fact from fiction is the fault of schools and can only be fixed by privatization! The only question on the test will be . . .”
You are assuming that reasonable public discourse isn’t dead. Anything that happens good now will only work under the principle that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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Check out this article: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-bots-democracy-usa-election
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