"Tens of thousands of #austerity deaths. The haunting memory of #Grenfell Tower & its fatal cladding. The #Windrush scandal. #FoodBanks as far as the eye can see. The twin horrors of the #Covid crisis & #Brexit bedlam."
"A pro-death-penalty Home Secretary with a black-belt certificate in actual bullying. Toby Young, Darren Grimes and Laurence Fox cunting around every TV channel and internet site as they pretend they're being silenced."
"When else in history have the purportedly censored sounded so unbearably loud? Political correctness – that fusty old Enlightenment idea of making an effort to treat people fairly & equally – is castigated as the worst possible tyranny imaginable."
"Any act of human kindness, however great or small, is dismissed immediately as "virtual signalling". Not even Marcus Rashford can save us now.... Topics this time include being beaten down even lower by the seemingly endless grind of Tory rule...
...feeling alienated from one's fellow British subjects because they are only too eager to scapegoat foreigners exactly as our rulers wish us to, the hollowness of material consumerism, inequality, homelessness and other assorted political, social, and mental miseries."
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When trust in political institutions & politicians falls, as it has in the #UK, #USA & #Brazil, trust in the news media is dragged down with it.
And societal polarization means even the best news coverage can come to be seen as biased by large sections of the population.
People’s perception of #journalism & the #news media is influenced by their perception of other institutions, & by cues provided by politicians & other elites, who increasingly aggressively & explicitly attack independent news media & question journalists’ integrity & motives.
It's OK be wrong. We can't always be right. More importantly, we need to value having the confidence to change our mind in light of new, reliable, & credible information or evidence - even if it contradicts what we previously thought. Imho, that shows REAL strength of character.
ONE major problem we face is that our current commercial print & broadcast news is increasingly partisan & combative, disproportionately features views which align with powerful interests, too often denies complexity & nuance, & avoids the measured & impartial framing of stories.
In a context of hyper-free-market capitalism in the UK & USA, it's clear that very powerful & grotesquely wealthy individuals disproportionately own & influence much of the press & broadcast news in order to help shape public opinion & Govt policy, & thus protect their interests.
BAD NEWS for COVID-deniers & anti-vaxxers: to counter their viral #misinformation at a time when #COVID19 vaccines are being rolled out, new research has produced a “psychological vaccine” against misinformation, in the form of online games (links below).
Rather than simply exposing #misinformation, new research focuses on the more general ways in which people are misled – #manipulation techniques such as the use of excessively emotional language, the construction of conspiracy theories, & the false testimony of fake experts.
In a series of online games, players learn how #misinformation works from the inside by being encouraged to create their own fake news: Bad News is about misinformation in general, Harmony Square is about political misinformation, & Go Viral! about misinformation around #COVID19.
The news media is a crucial institution for democratic decision-making, providing much of the information on which citizens base their political choices.
Unfortunately, powerful interests have co-opted them to disseminate #propaganda.
'Institutional processes lead the news media to propagate output supportive of dominant state-corporate elite interests... powerful agents and groups intentionally manage the news arena and thereby guide journalistic selection and production processes.'
"As a consequence, journalists produce and distribute #propaganda without intending to do so and on behalf of dominant state-corporate interests. Theoretical conceptualisations of what constitutes propaganda can be applied with validity to the content structures of media texts:
What are the key persuasive strategies used by populist nationalists?
A mix of advocative (we the people) & conflictive (discredit & blame elites & 'dangerous others' such as the Left, Muslims & migrants).
Successfully deployed by Nazis, politicians, shock-jocks & the press. 🧐
'Populism’ has become synonymous with the radical right, & as such, discourses filled with hate, anger, fear & nostalgia for a glorious past. Populist voters are demonized & accused of acting out of rage, or voting based on gut-feelings rather than reasoning & deliberation.
Often they are dismissed as bigots or a “basket of deplorables”. Mainstream parties across Europe denounce populist parties as irresponsible actors for fuelling emotions, rather than fostering a rational debate, and thus causing political & civic turmoil.