New Insights on Tech and the Crisis of Democracy
On this podcast, we’ve come back again and again to questions around mis- and disinformation, propaganda, rumors, and the role that digital platforms play in anti-democratic phenomena. In a new book published this summer by Oxford University Press called Connective Action and the Rise of the Far-Right: Platforms, Politics, and the Crisis of Democracy, a group of scholars from varied research traditions set out to find new ways to marry more traditional political science with computational social science approaches to understand the phenomenon of democratic backsliding and to bring some clarity to the present moment, particularly in the United States.
Justin Hendrix had the chance to speak to two of the volume’s editors and two of its authors:
- Steven Livingston, a professor and founding director of the Institute for Data Democracy and Politics at the George Washington University;
- Michael Miller, managing director of the Moynihan Center at the City College of New York;
- Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington and a co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public; and
- Josephine Lukito, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and senior faculty research associate at the Center for Media Engagement.
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors
Related Knowledge Center: Media literacy
Digital technology has irrevocably altered the media landscape. As traditional sources of credible information — gatekeepers — lose influence, jostled and often replaced by content of uncertain pedigree, many users lack the requisite skills to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies, sense from nonsense. The market doesn’t reward one over the other — social media algorithms often produce better business outcomes with falsehoods — prompting some dedicated efforts to empower users with better critical-thinking tools.
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.