Thread by @jeffjarvis

In one day, a half-dozen people I respect told me I must read this essay by @bernstein. They were so right. It is a brilliant examination of the presumptions of the Big Disinfo industry of moral entrepreneurship & its relation to the myths of advertising, media, and online. 1/

https://twitter.com/Bernstein/status/1427603389530116098

.@bernstein explores the paradox of having to believe that advertising can persuade to believe that propaganda can persuade. Some quotes follow: 2/

Bless @bernstein, for he examines media's conflict of self-interest: "An even more vexing issue for the disinformation field, though, is the supposedly objective stance media researchers and journalists take toward the information ecosystem to which they themselves belong." 3/

.@bernstein: "The media narrative of sinister digital mind control has obscured a body of research that is skeptical about the effects of political advertising and disinformation." Right. But if advertising work then media doesn't work as a business and then... danger! danger! 4/

Ergo, in this belief system, advertising must work to support journalism and propaganda must work to support journalism's mission of neutralizing it and both must work for tech to argue it is influential. But where are the data? What if is is all untrue? 5/

.@bernstein: "In this context, the disinformation project is simply an unofficial partnership between Big Tech, corporate media, elite universities, and cash-rich foundations." 6/

And now a message of full disclosure: My school received money from Facebook to give in turn to efforts to combat disinformation. I receive nothing personally from any platform. /disclosure 7/

Here's what's impressive about @bernstein's essay: He is critical of Facebook's critics as he is critical of Facebook itself while exposing their paradoxical interdependence. 8/

.@bernstein: "Ironically, to the extent that this work creates undue alarm about disinformation, it supports Facebook’s sales pitch. What could be more appealing to an advertiser, after all, than a machine that can persuade anyone of anything?" 9/

"The ? is: Why do disinformation workers think they are the only 1s who have noticed that Facebook stinks? Why should we suppose the rest of the world has been hypnotized by it? Why have we been so eager to accept Silicon Valley’s story about how easy we are to manipulate?" 10/

.@Bernstein: "One reason to grant Silicon Valley’s assumptions about our mechanistic persuadability is that it prevents us from thinking too hard about the role we play in taking up and believing the things we want to believe...." 11/

.@bernstein: "...It turns a huge question about the nature of democracy in the digital age—what if the people believe crazy things, and now everyone knows it?—into a technocratic negotiation between tech companies, media companies, think tanks, and universities." /12

So now I recommend you read, contemplate, & discuss @bernstein's essay.
Next we need to ask what it is we need to know--what data & research are necessary--to have an informed debate about disinfo's, the net's, & media's impact before intervening. /13
harpers.org/archive/2021/0…