Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

One of the biggest & most urgent problems that Britain faces - which politicians, the press, and the national broadcast media rarely, if ever, discuss - is the constant amplification of extreme and divisive voices, in an increasingly polarising national media.

The space for intelligent, measured, nuanced, rational, respectful and reasonable debate, between people who represent the views of the vast majority of British people, has been squeezed out by a tiny pool of contrarian and deliberately provocative voices, chasing viral content.

Instead of qualified, intelligent and nuanced experts - who represent the consensus on important issues from climate change to crime, and from COVID to the economy - we get a constant stream of the same tiny number of professional contrarians, who hold marginal & divisive views.

Take Joe Rogan. There are millions of scientists & health experts who share the view that vaccines are safe & effective & significantly reduce the risk of hospitalisation & death, but it's Robert Malone who is given Rogan's massive platform, which amplifies his outlier opinions.

Similarly, there are millions of intelligent academics who have devoted their lives to researching & thinking about every subject under the sun, but we rarely hear from any of them, while Jordan Peterson is constantly on every platform, sharing his controversial outlier opinions.

The print & broadcast media is becoming like social media: people are funneled into brands which act as echo-chambers, with content that platforms THE most controversial & outlandish voices, giving a false impression that they are in any way representative of the majority view.

The 'Foxification' of broadcast media, on top of our partisan press, results in providers chasing limited (ad) revenue by going for the easy option - producing viral content which appeals to the base emotions of anger & outrage, rather than encouraging nuance & reflection.

The relentlessly confrontational style which is now impossible to avoid - especially on what should be dispassionate news/politics shows - models awful behaviour, & bypasses or diminishes audience's critical thinking capacity by provoking emotional rather than rational responses.

We need more dispassionate, intelligent & nuanced media debate. Currently, THE most controversial/contrarian voices dominate. They're not being "silenced" - quite the opposite. Imo, we need a much wider range of expert voices, instead of constantly amplifying THE most polarising.

Finland may be the nation most resistant to propaganda: media literacy is taught in primary school & since 2016 multi-platform information literacy & strong critical thinking are a core, cross-subject component of the secondary school national curriculum.

theguardian.com/world/2020/jan…

Politicians often benefit from taking outrageous stances, capitalising on #disinformation in order to antagonise certain groups & encourage loyal voters.

Finnish authorities understood this too, so education is focused on important universal values upheld by Finnish society.

Finnish values include fairness, the rule of law, respect for others’ differences, openness, & freedom.

Together, these are a powerful lens to exercise their critical thinking – students are called to make sense of information with these values in mind.

theconversation.com/to-combat-cons…