My mother is a loyal, long-time Rotarian. I’ve been her guest to many a meeting, and in a previous life spoke with the Rotary club of Red Lodge, MT about the Afghan parliamentary elections of 2010. This past Tuesday, I was lucky enough to join the Rotarians of Waterbury, VT for a conversation about public life online.
I wanted to offer a sense of what we—as users, community members, and civic leaders—can do to build a healthier and more robust public life in the face of polarization and media manipulation.
First, we talked about what we’re up against: not just mis- or dis-information, but organized media campaigns coordinated across a loose network of influencers, blogs, YouTube channels, partisan radio and television. Significant incentives, whether in the form of money, power, or visibility, for the leaders generating and spreading these messages, and incentives in the form of community membership and identity affirmation for the individuals adopting and sharing those same views. A vicious cycle to generate and share increasingly emotionally-triggering content in these networks, all while traditional local media sources cut back or close down, leaving fewer traditional gatekeepers to interrupt the pattern. Just some light conversational fodder over early-morning coffee, really.
In the face of social, structural, and political influence, individual actions can only go so far in resetting the conversation. That’s not to say there’s nothing we can each do, however.
Stop fighting on social media
Zeynep Tufekci once described the context for social media political conversations as “when we encounter opposing views in the age and context of social media, it’s not like reading them in a newspaper while sitting alone. It’s like hearing them from the opposing team while sitting with our fellow fans in a football stadium.”
Once we understand how engaging in opposition online has more in common with cheering from the stands, it’s easier to recognize them as public performance, rather than personal persuasion. And it’s easier to disengage knowing that your comment on that post won’t be the turning point for someone else’s belief.
Control your own information environment
Similarly, recognizing how other posters use appeals to identity and emotion allows you to weed out information sources that manipulate you in this way. Mute old acquaintances sharing conspiracies. Unfollow meme pages that stoke your outrage.
Be especially suspicious of news you love. Deen Freelon described this approach to PBS as “where people should really pay attention when it's something that seems to be too good to be true is attacking something you don't like, whether it's in support of somebody you do like. That raises the possibility that people are really trying to to engage in a disinformation style attack on you.”
We all have biases, and we’re each capable of motivated reasoning. Learning to stop and question a “you love to see it” moment helps us escape our own lesser impulses.
You find what you seek
In her research, Francesca Tripodi has demonstrated how even small differences in search terms lead to significant differences in the results returned. She describes how “services like Google and YouTube can unintentionally expose individuals who consider themselves “mainline conservatives” to “far-right” and “alt-right” content through algorithmic recommendations… simple syntax differences can create and reinforce ideological biases in newsgathering.”
Exercising mindfulness in how we search for information and experimenting with multiple types of queries on topics of political importance or significant disagreement can reclaim control from the biases inherent in search engines’ relevance rankings.
If loved ones share dangerous beliefs, ask questions
Countering conspiracy narratives is exceptionally difficult work and can take time. It’s not hopeless, and resources exist for starting conversations with conspiracy-believers.
Politics is for power
Deplatforming anti-democratic movements falls to the platforms themselves, but as individuals and communities, we can participate in “rejection at the ballot box… the cancellation of political contributions… the pulling of corporate sponsorship, social ostracism, celebrities speaking out like this is like a whole social and cultural and economic and political process,” as Deen Freelon noted in a recent panel discussion.
Other approaches?
We certainly didn’t solve polarization, media manipulation, and the reinforcement of a pluralistic multi-racial democracy over coffee, but we discussed how that work might start in one community. If you’re also engaging with local civic groups on these topics, I’d love to hear what you’re recommending!
Recent publications and appearances
Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Kuo gave a public Lecture at Duke University’s department of Art, Art History, & Visual Studies on “Movement Media: Racial Solidarities Across Platforms.”
“Another word for hustle is ‘survivial’… we should not valorize it.”Tressie McMillan Cottom was quoted in the New York Times about a Squarespace ad that remade Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” into an ode to hustle culture.
Francesca Tripodi was quoted in Sojourners Magazine in an article examining the intersection between religion, media literacy, and rebuilding American democracy.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism released a syllabus for their Fellowship Programme featuring all four of CITAP’s principal researchers: Deen Freelon, Daniel Kreiss, Alice Marwick, and Zeynep Tufekci and senior researcher Shannon McGregor.
Coming soon
On February 26, Deen Freelon will appear on a panel to discuss Ethical and Practical Issues in Data Collection for the University of Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science.
Tressie McMillan Cottom will be giving this year’s Ed Mignon Distinguished Lecture at the University of Washington Information School on April 13. She will also give the keynote address for the Association of College & Research Libraries 2021 Conference, taking place April 13-16.
Zeynep Tufekci will be the keynote speaker for February 18 event on Philanthropy and the Digital Revolution, presented by WINGS.