Hot Topic - Disinformation
Social media platforms have been roundly disparaged for failing to curb misinformation, fake news and hate speech. It is an expensive proposition for them, risking profits and share prices. The other risk, negative consumer opinion, can also be costly, particularly when lawmakers add to the rain on their parade. That free speech defense collapses when real lives are at risk from disinformation. When advertisers and telecoms, the financial backbone, are unwilling to put their own brands at risk social media platforms hit the brakes.
Armed conflict is meant to be daunting for participants, frightening for those caught in the middle. Military historians have long noted the confusion, “the fog.” News reporters in these conflict zones are tasked with detailing what is and what is not, lifting, somewhat, the fog. In the post-modern age, combatants apply the weapon of fog with missiles, bombs and tanks.
Evidence seems insurmountable. The human condition is worsening. Total dystopia is upon us. Screens are filled with disinformation absorbed by the indifferent. We’ve reached the point of no point. Still, shoulder on we must. World Press Freedom Day has come around again.
News organizations adore numbers. From election polls and results to sports scores, TV ratings and the Dow Jones Industrial Averages data is big, just following silly animal videos and gruesome crime scene photos. People like winners. Reporters like losers. Editors like pictures. There are courses and conferences on data journalism. Words cannot describe this, which is the point.
European Union institutions adopted a “roll your eyes” attitude toward government officials in Poland and Hungary several years ago, particularly with respect to media issues. There is no arguing with the far-right nationalist, populist, xenophobes. But, diplomacy must endure so communication persists.
The brightest minds, at least the busiest, continue to explore the decline of trust in, well, everything. Institutions are regularly named and shamed. Media is not spared. A level deeper are classes and races. Voices of doom chide the very idea of society. Not very pleasant stuff and those looking most deeply into it all are stuck for solutions.
Organisms seek to survive and sustain themselves. Science has studied self-preservation behavior from the cellular level to social groups. It is, as they say, inherent. Art and literature has often illuminated this metaphorical journey. Who can forget the HAL 9000 singing "Daisy, Daisy" in Arthur C. Clark's 2001: A Space Odyssey?
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