Really interesting piece - I think it dovetails nicely with something I heard you say once, which is that there used to be pre-packaged ideologies people could just take off the shelf, but those aren't really good enough anymore, so people are grabbing bits and pieces of things and making their own ideologies. A similar thing is happening with 'truth', which explains why so many people want to "do their own research".
Interesting premise but I think Frank underemphasizes the impact of social media, the internet and cable news on information/misinformation/disinformation.
Over the past two decades, the internet, social media and cable news have destroyed the fourth estate. Two key elements of how social media/internet/cable news destroyed reasonably objective newspapers is by completing removing the role of editors in bringing news to the public. Editors used to provide a critical role in filtering the impulsiveness of reporters to ensure more fairness, accuracy and less opinion of the news. Of course newspapers weren't perfect, but editors kept a lot of salacious, spurious and sensational "news" out of newspapers. There are no editors online or in cable news anymore. And then cable news with its need to fill 24 hours of programming and compete with Social Media news feeds similarly trashed any editorial restraint.
I don't disagree that social media has been a big deal! I just don't think it's the cause of the supposed misinformation crisis. My perspective here isn't just on the subset of major media during the slice of time of the middle twentieth century--the one we all lived through and therefore take for "normal." Looking more broadly this was just a small slice of a larger world of information exchange. Looking at the bigger picture, the world of information has always been chaos as people push and pull for various reasons and agendas.
Controlling social media isn't going to solve the problem because its not the real cause. The think that is going to solve the problem is more trustworthy institutions that people believe, count on, and trust.
Really interesting piece - I think it dovetails nicely with something I heard you say once, which is that there used to be pre-packaged ideologies people could just take off the shelf, but those aren't really good enough anymore, so people are grabbing bits and pieces of things and making their own ideologies. A similar thing is happening with 'truth', which explains why so many people want to "do their own research".
And with nobody trustworthy, it's hard to do that work alone.
Interesting premise but I think Frank underemphasizes the impact of social media, the internet and cable news on information/misinformation/disinformation.
Over the past two decades, the internet, social media and cable news have destroyed the fourth estate. Two key elements of how social media/internet/cable news destroyed reasonably objective newspapers is by completing removing the role of editors in bringing news to the public. Editors used to provide a critical role in filtering the impulsiveness of reporters to ensure more fairness, accuracy and less opinion of the news. Of course newspapers weren't perfect, but editors kept a lot of salacious, spurious and sensational "news" out of newspapers. There are no editors online or in cable news anymore. And then cable news with its need to fill 24 hours of programming and compete with Social Media news feeds similarly trashed any editorial restraint.
I don't disagree that social media has been a big deal! I just don't think it's the cause of the supposed misinformation crisis. My perspective here isn't just on the subset of major media during the slice of time of the middle twentieth century--the one we all lived through and therefore take for "normal." Looking more broadly this was just a small slice of a larger world of information exchange. Looking at the bigger picture, the world of information has always been chaos as people push and pull for various reasons and agendas.
Controlling social media isn't going to solve the problem because its not the real cause. The think that is going to solve the problem is more trustworthy institutions that people believe, count on, and trust.