Sociologists know what conditions make it more likely a mass delusion will take hold and spread through a group – whether adherence to a fashion fad or belief in a doomsday cult.
The risks of big data are not getting enough attention.
We can learn a lot from the business practices and ethical stance of newspaper publishing in the 1830s. This image of a New York City newsroom is from the book, “Industries of to-day.”
(Martha Luther Lane/Library of Congress)
Many are calling for government to step in to stop bots and the spread of fake news on sites like Facebook and Twitter. A media expert explains why this is a slippery slope.
Media education opportunities should be more frequently available in schools to ensure young Australians meaningfully engage with news media.
Shutterstock
Will the arrival and popularity of Oculus Go and other VR systems make us think differently about alternative realities and so-called alternative facts?
It’s good for scientists to work in glass laboratories.
Len Rubenstein
Science isn’t cold, hard facts uncovered by emotionless robots. Acknowledging how and where values play a role promotes a more realistic view and can advance science’s reputation for reliability.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially dismissed as “crazy” the warnings that Russia had been using Facebook to spread propaganda in the 2016 U.S. election. He has since apologized and introduced plans and tools aimed at fighting false information on the platform. In this file photo, he delivers the commencement address at Harvard University in May.
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)
In a fight for the global flow of information, social media firms must be regulated. Their billions of dollars in revenue put their financial interests in conflict with truth and democracy.
Some of the Facebook and Instagram ads used in 2016 election released by members of the U.S. House Intelligence committee.
AP Photo/Jon Elswick
Gordon Hull, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
A scholar asks whether democracy itself is at risk in a world where social media is creating deeply polarized groups of individuals who tend to believe everything they hear.
U.S. President Donald Trump raises his glass in a toast at the start of a dinner in Seoul, South Korea.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
U.S. President Donald Trump’s “scourge of oppressive stupidity” has been in the Oval Office for a year. His assault on higher education is among Trump’s more disturbing penchants.
Governor George Wallace stands defiant in an attempt to block the integration of the University of Alabama, June 11, 1963.
Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report Magazine via Wikimedia Commons
Forty years after the apartheid regime clamped down on the free press, South Africa’s media continues to face threats, albeit in more subtle forms than in the past.
Demonstrators protest against the decision by the South African Broadcasting Corporation to stop airing violent protest scenes.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
As South Africa marks Media Freedom Day, it’s clear that its battle isn’t over. Attacks on journalists continue –through physical intimidation and there’s also the threat of new laws.
The American people used to get more information in common.
sirtravelalot/Shutterstock.com
Micro-targeted online advertising has destroyed how Americans share experiences and a common knowledge base. The fix for this societal and political problem is as simple now as it was in 1840.
The original ‘Blade Runner’ took place in a dreary, dystopian Los Angeles in 2019.
Warner Bros.
The relationship between corporations, machines and humans defines modern life in ways that Ridley Scott – even in his wildest dreams – couldn’t have imagined.
The status of facts and their use in politics hasn’t changed as a result of Donald Trump’s election.
Reuters/Joshua Roberts