tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/louisiana-state-university-1642/articlesLouisiana State University 2023-12-14T05:50:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2196802023-12-14T05:50:31Z2023-12-14T05:50:31ZA desinformação é desenfreada nas mídias sociais: um psicólogo social explica as táticas usadas contra você<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564973/original/file-20231206-23-770wja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C0%2C6177%2C4096&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As campanhas de desinformação usam truques emocionais e retóricos para tentar fazer com que você compartilhe propaganda e falsidades.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/worried-man-working-at-home-looking-in-laptop-royalty-free-image/1451439821">hobo_018/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A guerra de informações <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/technology/russian-disinformation-us-state-department-campaign.html">é abundante, e todos os que estão online foram recrutados</a>, quer saibam ou não.</p>
<p>A desinformação é um conteúdo enganoso gerado deliberadamente e disseminado para fins egoístas ou maliciosos. Ao contrário de informação incorreta (<em>misinformation</em>), que pode ser compartilhada involuntariamente ou com boas intenções, a desinformação intencional (<em>desinformation</em>) tem como objetivo fomentar a desconfiança, desestabilizar instituições, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26508126">desacreditar boas intenções</a>, difamar oponentes e deslegitimar fontes de conhecimento, como a ciência e o jornalismo.</p>
<p>Muitos governos se envolvem em campanhas de desinformação. Por exemplo, o <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/russia-ukraine-taylor-swift-disinformation/">governo russo usou imagens de celebridades</a> para atrair a atenção para a propaganda contra a Ucrânia. A Meta, empresa controladora do Facebook e do Instagram, alertou em 30 de novembro de 2023 que a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1215898523/meta-warns-china-online-social-media-influence-operations-facebook-elections">China intensificou suas operações de desinformação</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2021/10/08/performing-disinformation-a-muddled-history-and-its-consequences/">desinformação não é novidade</a>, e a guerra de informações tem sido praticada por muitos países, <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2019/06/the-united-states-needs-an-information-warfare-command-a-historical-examination/">inclusive os EUA</a>. Mas a Internet dá às campanhas de desinformação um alcance sem precedentes. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/technology/government-disinformation-cyber-troops.html">Governos estrangeiros</a>, <a href="https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/who-knowingly-shares-false-political-information-online/">trolls da Internet</a>, <a href="https://unicri.it/sites/default/files/2020-11/SM%20misuse.pdf">extremistas</a> nacionais e internacionais, <a href="https://counterhate.com/research/the-disinformation-dozen/">aproveitadores oportunistas</a> e até mesmo <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-11-disinformation-realm-spycraft-shady-industry.html">agências de desinformação pagas</a> exploram a Internet para disseminar conteúdo questionável. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unpacking-social-relations/202008/why-misinformation-goes-viral">Períodos de agitação civil</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/us/politics/china-disinformation-ai.html">desastres naturais</a>, <a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/meeting-covid-19-misinformation-and-disinformation-head-on">crises de saúde</a> e <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-disinformation.html">guerras</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8853081/">provocam ansiedade</a> e a busca por informações, das quais os agentes de desinformação se aproveitam.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rbxN6qfbE3w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Meta descobriu e bloqueou sofisticadas campanhas de desinformação chinesas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Certamente vale a pena observar os <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-ways-to-spot-online-misinformation-132246">sinais de alerta para informação incorreta</a> e <a href="https://theconversation.com/incitement-to-violence-is-rarely-explicit-here-are-some-techniques-people-use-to-breed-hate-153585">discurso perigoso</a>, mas há outras táticas que os agentes de desinformação empregam.</p>
<h2>É apenas uma piada</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cde.ual.es/en/key-narratives-in-pro-kremlin-disinformation-the-hahaganda/">Hahaganda</a> é uma <a href="https://stratcomcoe.org/pdfjs/?file=/publications/download/Full-stratcom-laughs-report_web_15-03-2017.pdf?zoom=page-fit">tática</a> na qual os agentes de desinformação usam memes, comédias políticas de veículos estatais ou discursos para minimizar assuntos sérios, atacar outras pessoas, <a href="https://euvsdisinfo.eu/lets-laugh-at-political-murder/">minimizar a violência</a> ou <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/without-prejudice/201307/dehumanizing-others-is-no-joke">desumanizar</a> e desviar a culpa.</p>
<p>Essa abordagem oferece uma defesa fácil: se desafiados, os agentes de desinformação podem dizer: “Você não consegue aceitar uma piada?”, muitas vezes seguida de acusações de ser politicamente correto demais.</p>
<h2>Shhh… conte a todos</h2>
<p>A criação de boatos é uma tática em que os agentes de desinformação afirmam ter <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517441113">acesso exclusivo a segredos</a> que alegam estar sendo propositalmente ocultados. Eles indicam que você “só vai ouvir isso aqui” e insinuam que outras pessoas não estão dispostas a compartilhar a suposta verdade - por exemplo, “A mídia não vai noticiar isso” ou “O governo não quer que você saiba” e “Eu não deveria estar lhe contando isso…”.</p>
<p>Mas eles não insistem que as informações sejam mantidas em segredo e, em vez disso, incluem incentivos para compartilhá-las - por exemplo, “Faça com que isso se torne viral” ou “A maioria das pessoas não terá coragem de compartilhar isso”. É importante questionar como um autor ou palestrante pode ter obtido essas informações “secretas” e qual é o motivo para incentivá-lo a compartilhá-las.</p>
<h2>As pessoas estão dizendo</h2>
<p>Muitas vezes, a desinformação não tem evidências reais, então, em vez disso, os <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691188836/a-lot-of-people-are-saying">agentes de desinformação encontram ou inventam</a> pessoas para apoiar suas afirmações. Essa personificação pode assumir várias formas. Os agentes de desinformação usarão anedotas como evidência, especialmente histórias simpáticas de grupos vulneráveis, como mulheres ou crianças.</p>
<p>Da mesma forma, eles podem disseminar perspectivas de “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2210616">cidadãos preocupados</a>”. Esses especialistas leigos apresentam sua identidade social como autoridade para falar sobre um assunto: “Como mãe…”, “Como veterana…”, “Como policial ….” Os <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2210616">“comunicadores convertidos”</a>, ou pessoas que supostamente mudam da posição “errada” para a “certa”, podem ser especialmente persuasivos, como a mulher que fez um aborto, mas se arrependeu. Essas pessoas geralmente não existem de fato ou podem ser <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52733886">coagidas</a> ou pagas.</p>
<p>Se as pessoas comuns não forem suficientes, podem ser usados <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230907-fake-experts-drive-disinformation-before-bangladesh-polls">especialistas falsos</a>. Alguns são fabricados, e você pode ficar atento ao comportamento do “<a href="https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3/investigating-actors-content/3-spotting-bots-cyborgs-and-inauthentic-activity">usuário não autêntico</a>”, por exemplo, verificando as contas do X - antigo Twitter - usando o <a href="https://botometer.osome.iu.edu/">Botometer</a>. Mas os especialistas falsos podem se apresentar em diferentes variedades.</p>
<ul>
<li>Um falso especialista é alguém usado por seu título, mas que não tem conhecimento relevante de fato.</li>
<li>Um pseudoespecialista é alguém que afirma ter conhecimento relevante, mas <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.732666">não tem treinamento de fato</a>.</li>
<li>Um especialista em lixo eletrônico é um vendido. Ele pode ter tido experiência no passado, mas agora diz o que for lucrativo. Muitas vezes, é possível descobrir que essas pessoas apoiaram outras afirmações duvidosas - por exemplo, que <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/003335490512000215">fumar não causa câncer</a> - ou trabalham para <a href="https://redwoods.libguides.com/fakenews/thinktanks">institutos</a> que produzem regularmente “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00733-5">estudos</a>” questionáveis.</li>
<li>Um especialista em eco é quando as fontes de desinformação <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/china-and-russia-are-joining-forces-to-spread-disinformation/">citam umas às outras</a> para dar credibilidade às suas afirmações. A China e a Rússia citam rotineiramente os jornais umas das outras.</li>
<li>Um especialista roubado é alguém que existe, mas não foi realmente contatado e sua pesquisa é mal interpretada. Da mesma forma, os agentes de desinformação também roubam a credibilidade de fontes de notícias conhecidas, por exemplo, por meio de <a href="https://stratheia.com/typo-squatting-and-disinformation-campaigns-are-the-growing-threat-to-the-national-security-of-pakistan/">typosquatting</a>, a prática de configurar um nome de domínio que se assemelha muito ao de uma organização legítima.</li>
</ul>
<p>Você pode verificar se os relatos, anedóticos ou científicos, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/05/19/are-you-dealing-with-a-real-expert-or-a-fake-7-ways-to-tell/?sh=5e91e90f6dba">foram verificados por outras fontes confiáveis</a>. Pesquise o nome no Google. Verifique o status de especialização, a validade da fonte e a interpretação da pesquisa. Lembre-se de que <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK63643/">uma reportagem</a> ou interpretação não é necessariamente representativa.</p>
<h2>É tudo uma conspiração</h2>
<p>As narrativas conspiratórias envolvem alguma força malévola - por exemplo, “o estado profundo” - <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000392.supp">envolvida em ações secreta</a>s com o objetivo de causar danos à sociedade. O fato de certas conspirações, como a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-we-know-about-cias-midcentury-mind-control-project-180962836/">MK-Ultra</a> e a Watergate, terem sido confirmadas é frequentemente oferecido como prova da validade de novas conspirações infundadas.</p>
<p>No entanto, os agentes de desinformação descobrem que a construção de uma conspiração é um meio eficaz de lembrar às pessoas os motivos do passado para <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9287-z">desconfiar</a> de governos, cientistas ou outras fontes confiáveis.</p>
<p>Mas afirmações extraordinárias exigem evidências extraordinárias. Lembre-se de que as conspirações que acabaram sendo reveladas tinham evidências, geralmente de fontes como jornalistas investigativos, cientistas e investigações governamentais. Seja particularmente cauteloso com conspirações que tentam <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-019-00372-6">deslegitimar instituições produtoras de conhecimento</a>, como universidades, laboratórios de pesquisa, agências governamentais e veículos de notícias, alegando que elas estão envolvidas em um encobrimento.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u8Pg-cD0ytg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As dicas básicas para resistir à desinformação incluem pensar duas vezes antes de compartilhar publicações nas mídias sociais que desencadeiam respostas emocionais, como raiva e medo, e verificar as fontes das publicações que fazem afirmações incomuns ou extraordinárias.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>O bem contra o mal</h2>
<p>A desinformação geralmente tem a dupla finalidade de fazer com que o criador pareça bom e seus oponentes pareçam ruins. A desinformação vai além, pintando as questões como uma batalha entre o bem e o mal, usando acusações de maldade para <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213500997">legitimar a violência</a>. A Rússia gosta particularmente de acusar os outros de serem <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/02/world/europe/ukraine-nazis-russia-media.html">nazistas secretos</a>, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_why-kremlin-tagging-protesters-political-pedophiles/6201377.html">pedófilos</a> ou <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/nato-nazis-satanists-putin-is-running-out-of-excuses-for-his-imperial-war/">satanistas</a>. Enquanto isso, eles geralmente retratam seus soldados ajudando crianças e idosos.</p>
<p>Seja especialmente cauteloso com <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X14542958">acusações de atrocidades</a> como genocídio, especialmente sob a manchete de “notícias de última hora” que chamam a atenção. As <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-39266863">acusações são abundantes</a>. Verifique os fatos e como as informações foram obtidas.</p>
<h2>Você está conosco ou contra nós?</h2>
<p>Uma narrativa de falsa dicotomia faz com que o leitor acredite que ele tem uma de duas opções mutuamente exclusivas; uma boa ou uma ruim, uma certa ou uma errada, uma pílula vermelha ou uma azul. Você pode aceitar a versão da realidade deles ou ser um idiota, uma “ovelha”.</p>
<p>Sempre há mais opções do que as que estão sendo apresentadas, e as questões raramente são tão pretas e brancas. Essa é apenas <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffsoc.2023.1141416">uma das táticas de brigada</a>, em que os agentes de desinformação procuram silenciar pontos de vista divergentes, apresentando-os como a escolha errada.</p>
<h2>Virando a mesa</h2>
<p>O <a href="https://theconversation.com/whataboutism-what-it-is-and-why-its-such-a-popular-tactic-in-arguments-182911">whataboutismo</a> é uma técnica clássica de desinformação russa que eles usam para desviar a atenção de seus próprios erros, alegando os erros de outros. Essas alegações sobre as ações de outras pessoas podem ser <a href="https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-use-and-abuse-of-history/articles/whataboutism">verdadeiras ou falsas, mas, ainda assim, são irrelevantes</a> para o assunto em questão. Os possíveis erros passados de um grupo não significam que você deva ignorar os erros atuais de outro.</p>
<p>Os agentes de desinformação também costumam apresentar seu grupo como a parte prejudicada. Eles só se envolvem em desinformação porque seu “inimigo” se envolve em desinformação contra eles; eles só atacam para se defender; e sua reação foi apropriada, enquanto a dos outros foi uma <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207311282">reação exagerada</a>. Esse tipo de <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207311282">vitimização competitiva</a> é particularmente difundido quando os grupos estão inseridos em um conflito de longa duração.</p>
<p>Em todos esses casos, o agente de desinformação está ciente de que está desviando, enganando, trollando ou fabricando completamente. Se você não acredita neles, eles pelo menos querem fazer você questionar em que pode acreditar, se é que pode acreditar em alguma coisa.</p>
<p>Muitas vezes, antes de entregar seu dinheiro, você analisa os produtos que compra em vez de acreditar no valor de face da propaganda. Isso também deve se aplicar às informações que você compra.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219680/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Colleen Sinclair recebeu financiamento do Instituto Nacional de Justiça, do Departamento de Defesa, da Fundação Gates e do Departamento de Correções da Louisiana</span></em></p>As campanhas de desinformação geralmente usam um conjunto de artifícios retóricos que você pode aprender a identificar, como narrativas de conspiração, enquadramento do bem contra o mal e “segredos revelados”H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165982023-12-07T13:27:32Z2023-12-07T13:27:32ZDisinformation is rampant on social media – a social psychologist explains the tactics used against you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564017/original/file-20231206-23-770wja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6205%2C4105&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Disinformation campaigns use emotional and rhetorical tricks to try to get you to share propaganda and falsehoods.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/worried-man-working-at-home-looking-in-laptop-royalty-free-image/1451439821">hobo_018/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Information warfare <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/technology/russian-disinformation-us-state-department-campaign.html">abounds, and everyone online has been drafted</a> whether they know it or not. </p>
<p>Disinformation is deliberately generated misleading content disseminated for selfish or malicious purposes. Unlike misinformation, which may be shared unwittingly or with good intentions, disinformation aims to foment distrust, destabilize institutions, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26508126">discredit good intentions</a>, defame opponents and delegitimize sources of knowledge such as science and journalism. </p>
<p>Many governments engage in disinformation campaigns. For instance, the Russian government has <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/russia-ukraine-taylor-swift-disinformation/">used images of celebrities</a> to attract attention to anti-Ukraine propaganda. Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, warned on Nov. 30, 2023, that China <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1215898523/meta-warns-china-online-social-media-influence-operations-facebook-elections">has stepped up its disinformation operations</a>.</p>
<p>Disinformation is <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2021/10/08/performing-disinformation-a-muddled-history-and-its-consequences/">nothing new</a>, and information warfare has been practiced by many countries, <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2019/06/the-united-states-needs-an-information-warfare-command-a-historical-examination/">including the U.S.</a> But the internet gives disinformation campaigns unprecedented reach. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/technology/government-disinformation-cyber-troops.html">Foreign governments</a>, <a href="https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/who-knowingly-shares-false-political-information-online/">internet trolls</a>, domestic and international <a href="https://unicri.it/sites/default/files/2020-11/SM%20misuse.pdf">extremists</a>, <a href="https://counterhate.com/research/the-disinformation-dozen/">opportunistic profiteers</a> and even <a href="https://phys.org/news/2021-11-disinformation-realm-spycraft-shady-industry.html">paid disinformation agencies</a> exploit the internet to spread questionable content. Periods of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unpacking-social-relations/202008/why-misinformation-goes-viral">civil unrest</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/us/politics/china-disinformation-ai.html">natural disasters</a>, <a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/meeting-covid-19-misinformation-and-disinformation-head-on">health</a> crises and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-disinformation.html">wars</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8853081/">trigger anxiety</a> and the hunt for information, which disinformation agents take advantage of.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rbxN6qfbE3w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Meta has uncovered and blocked sophisticated Chinese disinformation campaigns.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Certainly it’s worth watching for the warning signs for <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-ways-to-spot-online-misinformation-132246">misinformation</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/incitement-to-violence-is-rarely-explicit-here-are-some-techniques-people-use-to-breed-hate-153585">dangerous speech</a>, but there are additional tactics disinformation agents employ. </p>
<h2>It’s just a joke</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cde.ual.es/en/key-narratives-in-pro-kremlin-disinformation-the-hahaganda/">Hahaganda</a> is a <a href="https://stratcomcoe.org/pdfjs/?file=/publications/download/Full-stratcom-laughs-report_web_15-03-2017.pdf?zoom=page-fit">tactic</a> in which disinformation agents use memes, political comedy from state-run outlets, or speeches to make light of serious matters, attack others, <a href="https://euvsdisinfo.eu/lets-laugh-at-political-murder/">minimize violence</a> or <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/without-prejudice/201307/dehumanizing-others-is-no-joke">dehumanize</a>, and deflect blame. </p>
<p>This approach provides an easy defense: If challenged, the disinformation agents can say, “Can’t you take a joke?” often followed by accusations of being too politically correct.</p>
<h2>Shhh … tell everyone</h2>
<p>Rumor-milling is a tactic in which the disinformation agents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517441113">claim to have exclusive access to secrets</a> they allege are being purposefully concealed. They indicate that you will “only hear this here” and will imply that others are unwilling to share the alleged truth – for example, “The media won’t report this” or “The government doesn’t want you to know” and “I shouldn’t be telling you this … .” </p>
<p>But they do not insist that the information be kept secret, and will instead include encouragement to share it – for example, “Make this go viral” or “Most people won’t have the courage to share this.” It’s important to question how an author or speaker could have come by such “secret” information and what their motive is to prompt you to share it.</p>
<h2>People are saying</h2>
<p>Often disinformation has no real evidence, so instead disinformation agents will <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691188836/a-lot-of-people-are-saying">find or make up people</a> to support their assertions. This impersonation can take multiple forms. Disinformation agents will use anecdotes as evidence, especially sympathetic stories from vulnerable groups such as women or children.</p>
<p>Similarly, they may disseminate “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2210616">concerned citizens’</a>” perspectives. These layperson experts present their social identity as providing the authority to speak on a matter; “As a mother …,” “As a veteran …,” “As a police officer ….” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2210616">Convert communicators</a>, or people who allegedly change from the “wrong” position to the “right” one, can be especially persuasive, such as the woman who got an abortion but regretted it. These people often don’t actually exist or may be <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52733886">coerced</a> or paid. </p>
<p>If ordinary people don’t suffice, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230907-fake-experts-drive-disinformation-before-bangladesh-polls">fake experts</a> may be used. Some are fabricated, and you can watch out for “<a href="https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3/investigating-actors-content/3-spotting-bots-cyborgs-and-inauthentic-activity">inauthentic user</a>” behavior, for example, by checking X – formerly Twitter – accounts using the <a href="https://botometer.osome.iu.edu/">Botometer</a>. But fake experts can come in different varieties.</p>
<ul>
<li>A faux expert is someone used for their title but doesn’t have actual relevant expertise. </li>
<li>A pseudoexpert is someone who claims relevant expertise but has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.732666">no actual training</a>.</li>
<li>A junk expert is a sellout. They may have had expertise once but now say whatever is profitable. You can often find these people have supported other dubious claims – for example, that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/003335490512000215">smoking doesn’t cause cancer</a> – or work for <a href="https://redwoods.libguides.com/fakenews/thinktanks">institutes</a> that regularly produce questionable “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00733-5">scholarship</a>.”<br></li>
<li>An echo expert is when disinformation sources cite each other to provide credence for their claims. China and Russia routinely <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/china-and-russia-are-joining-forces-to-spread-disinformation/">cite one another’s</a> newspapers.<br></li>
<li>A stolen expert is someone who exists, but they weren’t actually contacted and their research is misinterpreted. Likewise, disinformation agents also steal credibility from known news sources, such as by <a href="https://stratheia.com/typo-squatting-and-disinformation-campaigns-are-the-growing-threat-to-the-national-security-of-pakistan/">typosquatting</a>, the practice of setting up a domain name that closely resembles a legitimate organization’s.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can check whether accounts, anecdotal or scientific, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/05/19/are-you-dealing-with-a-real-expert-or-a-fake-7-ways-to-tell/?sh=5e91e90f6dba">have been verified by other reliable sources</a>. Google the name. Check expertise status, source validity and interpretation of research. Remember, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK63643/">one story</a> or interpretation is not necessarily representative. </p>
<h2>It’s all a conspiracy</h2>
<p>Conspiratorial narratives involve some malevolent force – for example, “the deep state” – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000392.supp">engaged in covert actions</a> with the aim to cause harm to society. That certain conspiracies such as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-we-know-about-cias-midcentury-mind-control-project-180962836/">MK-Ultra</a> and Watergate have been confirmed is often offered as evidence for the validity of new unfounded conspiracies. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, disinformation agents find that constructing a conspiracy is an effective means to remind people of past reasons to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9287-z">distrust governments, scientists or other trustworthy sources</a>. </p>
<p>But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Remember, the conspiracies that were ultimately unveiled had evidence – often from sources like investigative journalists, scientists and government investigations. Be particularly wary of conspiracies that try to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-019-00372-6">delegitimize knowledge-producing institutions</a> like universities, research labs, government agencies and news outlets by claiming that they are in on a cover-up.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u8Pg-cD0ytg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Basic tips for resisting disinformation and misinformation include thinking twice before sharing social media posts that trigger emotional responses like anger and fear and checking the sources of posts that make unusual or extraordinary claims.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good vs. evil</h2>
<p>Disinformation often serves the dual purpose of making the originator look good and their opponents look bad. Disinformation takes this further by painting issues as a battle between good and evil, using accusations of evilness to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213500997">legitimize violence</a>. Russia is particularly fond of accusing others of being <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/02/world/europe/ukraine-nazis-russia-media.html">secret Nazis</a>, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_why-kremlin-tagging-protesters-political-pedophiles/6201377.html">pedophiles</a> or <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/nato-nazis-satanists-putin-is-running-out-of-excuses-for-his-imperial-war/">Satanists</a>. Meanwhile, they often depict their soldiers as helping children and the elderly. </p>
<p>Be especially wary of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X14542958">accusations of atrocities</a> like genocide, especially under the attention-grabbing “breaking news” headline. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-39266863">Accusations</a> abound. Verify the facts and how the information was obtained. </p>
<h2>Are you with us or against us?</h2>
<p>A false dichotomy narrative sets up the reader to believe that they have one of two mutually exclusive options; a good or a bad one, a right or a wrong one, a red pill or a blue pill. You can accept their version of reality or be an idiot or “sheeple.” </p>
<p>There are always more options than those being presented, and issues are rarely so black and white. This is just one of the tactics in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffsoc.2023.1141416">brigading</a>, where disinformation agents seek to silence dissenting viewpoints by casting them as the wrong choice. </p>
<h2>Turning the tables</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/whataboutism-what-it-is-and-why-its-such-a-popular-tactic-in-arguments-182911">Whataboutism</a> is a classic Russian disinformation technique they use to deflect attention from their own wrongdoings by alleging the wrongdoings of others. These allegations about the actions of others may be <a href="https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-use-and-abuse-of-history/articles/whataboutism">true or false but are nonetheless irrelevant</a> to the matter at hand. The potential past wrongs of one group does not mean you should ignore the current wrongs of another. </p>
<p>Disinformation agents also often cast their group as the wronged party. They only engage in disinformation because their “enemy” engages in disinformation against them; they only attack to defend; and their reaction was appropriate, while that of others was an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207311282">overreaction</a>. This type of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207311282">competitive victimhood</a> is particularly pervasive when groups have been embedded in a long-lasting conflict.</p>
<p>In all of these cases, the disinformation agent is aware that they are deflecting, misleading, trolling or outright fabricating. If you don’t believe them, they at least want to make you question what, if anything, you can believe. </p>
<p>You often look into the things you buy rather than taking the advertising at face value before you hand over your money. This should also go for what information you buy into.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Colleen Sinclair has received funding from the National Institute of Justice, the Department of Defense, the Gates Foundation, and the Louisiana Department of Corrections</span></em></p>Disinformation campaigns often use a set of rhetorical devices that you can learn to spot, like conspiracy narratives, good versus evil framing, and revealed secrets.H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178282023-11-28T13:24:34Z2023-11-28T13:24:34ZSharpeville: new research on 1960 South African massacre shows the number of dead and injured was massively undercounted<p>On 21 March 1960 at 1.40 in the afternoon, apartheid South Africa’s police opened fire on a peaceful crowd of about 4,000 residents of Sharpeville, who were protesting against carrying <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa-1800-1994">identity documents</a> that restricted black people’s movement. The police minimised the number of victims by at least one third, and justified the shooting by claiming that the crowd was violent. This shocking story has been thus misrepresented for over 60 years.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257806">new research</a> retells the story of Sharpeville, about 70km south of Johannesburg, from the viewpoint of the victims themselves. As experienced <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/hss/history/people/faculty/clark.php">historians</a> who have undertaken archival research in South Africa <a href="https://history.ucla.edu/faculty/william-worger">since the 1970s</a> we based our <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257806">research</a> on interviews with survivors and investigation into government records in both the <a href="https://archive.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/south-african-police-museum-and-archives">police archives</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/soe/soe/national-archives-south-africa-nasa">national archives</a> in Pretoria. Our work reveals the true number of victims and the exact role of the police in the massacre.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960">Sharpeville Massacre</a> ignited international outrage and the birth of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/british-anti-apartheid-movement">Anti-Apartheid Movement</a> worldwide. It also led to renewed political protests inside South Africa. These were met with the total suppression of political movements that lasted for 30 years. Despite its historic importance, Sharpeville as a place and a community has remained unknown to the wider public and its residents anonymous. Yet they have a story to tell.</p>
<p>Even though the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> chose the 1960 Sharpeville massacre as the formal beginning of its investigation of apartheid crimes, its examination of the massacre itself was perfunctory. Only three witnesses from the community were invited to testify during just part of one day (out of 2,000 witnesses during five years of hearings). </p>
<p>People in Sharpeville believe that the lack of attention to their plight since democracy in 1994 is because the original protest was organised by the rival <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pan-africanist-congress-pac">Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania</a>, not the governing African National Congress (ANC).</p>
<h2>Changing the narrative</h2>
<p>Based on our research, the new book <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003257806">Voices of Sharpeville</a> traces the long residence of Africans in the greater Sharpeville area, as far as the <a href="https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/introduction-to-your-visit-to-the-cradle-of-humankind-world-heritage-site">Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site</a> 100km north. It also emphasises the crucial industrial importance of the greater <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/vaal-triangle-erupts-violence">Vaal Triangle</a> in which Sharpeville is located, from the 1930s onward.</p>
<p>Our work details the rich culture developed by urban Sharpeville residents in defiance of the attempts of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/hendrik-frensch-verwoerd">Prime Minister HF Verwoerd’s</a> attempts to control African life. </p>
<p>Using the words of witnesses as recorded from their hospital beds within days of the shooting, and for weeks and months later, the events of 21 March 1960 are recounted in detail, increasing the number of victims to at least 91 dead, and 281 injured. The official police figures first published in 1960 and repeated endlessly ever since were 69 and 180 respectively. </p>
<p>The witness testimony places the responsibility for the shooting squarely with the police. </p>
<h2>New evidence</h2>
<p>The oral and documentary source material we used was previously off limits to researchers, insufficiently examined, or largely ignored. Access to many records held by the previous apartheid government was absolutely restricted prior to 1994, and since then many of the records have not been properly registered. This makes it challenging for researchers to find important documents.</p>
<p>But with the help of archivists and librarians, we were able to locate rare and even hidden records of Sharpeville and its history, and record the voices of many of the town’s residents.</p>
<h2>History of Sharpeville</h2>
<p>The first settlement in the Sharpeville area – <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/sharpeville-gauteng">Top Location</a> – was razed in the 1950s to make space for white people’s businesses and homes. Official records and aerial photographs reveal the previous existence of a large community on the now empty land. There is also an unmarked cemetery where about 3,500 residents were buried between around 1900 and 1938. </p>
<p>By the mid-20th century, apartheid officials began to plan a bigger settlement in the vicinity. Sharpeville and other places like it were designed in the 1950s to segregate Africans away from the cities, which were reserved for white people only. </p>
<p>Sharpeville’s housing construction became a “model” for the ubiquitous <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/House-types-NE-51-6-and-51-9_fig4_272164901">four-roomed NE 51/9 houses</a> in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43622104">black townships</a> throughout the country, none of which they could own outright but rent only.</p>
<p>In almost 300 witness statements taken by the police immediately following the shooting, many of the everyday details of life in Sharpeville were revealed. These statements were recorded immediately after arrest and under oath by the police to determine guilt or innocence against the charges of “public violence and incitement” brought against them. They were also provided voluntarily in 1961 and 1962, also under oath, by survivors and family members to establish a basis for the compensation the victims unsuccessfully requested.</p>
<p>Details of family life – numbers of children, occupations, wages, and health – were recorded, providing a wealth of information about Sharpeville’s residents. </p>
<p><strong>The massacre</strong>: Testimony, both from the official 1960 <a href="https://idep.library.ucla.edu/sharpeville-massacre#:%7E:text=A%20Commission%20of%20Enquiry%20was,officials%2C%20and%20residents%20of%20Sharpeville">commission of enquiry</a> into the massacre, and the criminal court trial of over 70 Sharpeville residents in 1960-1961, detailed the actions of both the crowd and the police.</p>
<p>The testimony by civilians and police alike, together with the claimants’ statements, provides a minute-by-minute narrative of the day. The testimonies of the residents, including all the Africans who worked for the municipality and as police officers in Sharpeville, unanimously attested to the fact that the crowd gathered peacefully to <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa">protest the pass law</a>. According to these witnesses, by the time of the shooting, almost 300 policemen had been moved into the township, including at least 13 white policemen armed with Sten machine guns. There were five Saracen armoured vehicles. </p>
<p>Police testimony makes it clear that the officer in charge gave the order to shoot, with the machine gunners firing directly into the crowd from a distance of no more than 3-5 metres. As one white official noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It made me think of a wheat field, where a whirlwind had shaken it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The crowd was taken utterly by surprise by the police fusillade. Over three quarters of them, dead and injured alike, were shot in the back as they fled.</p>
<p><strong>The victims</strong>: Crucial to gaining an accurate understanding of the numbers of victims – their names, families, and injuries – were the autopsy and medical records detailing the exact causes of death and injury for the over 300 victims. These forms and narrative statements, filled out by the hospital physicians who treated the injured and performed autopsies on the dead, prove conclusively that the government under-counted the victims by at least one third. </p>
<p>This new information remained embargoed in police records throughout the apartheid years to 1994. Some of it was finally transferred to the national archives in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It details the injuries.</p>
<h2>Remembrance</h2>
<p>The people of Sharpeville wonder why the world has not listened to their stories even as they have told them from the day of the shooting to the present.</p>
<p>In 2023, residents were able to use the information uncovered in our research to update the Wall of <a href="https://www.freedompark.co.za/">Names Memorial</a> (which lists the name of every person who gave their life fighting for freedom in South Africa) at <a href="https://idep.library.ucla.edu/africa/about-freedom-park">Freedom Park</a> in Pretoria to reflect accurately the number of victims killed on 21 March 1960. But still they have received no compensation for their injuries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William H Worger receives funding from the University of California Office of the President.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy L Clark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite its historic importance, Sharpeville itself has remained unknown and its residents anonymous, yet they have a story to tell.Nancy L Clark, Dean and Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University William H. Worger, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961892023-01-11T13:26:22Z2023-01-11T13:26:22Z5 types of threat – how those who want to divide us use language to stoke violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503722/original/file-20230110-26-kfck7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Military police clash with supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro after an invasion to Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images
</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Events like the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/08/bolsonaro-rhetoric-supporters-storm-brazil-congress/">riots in Brazil</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/trump-incitement-inflammatory-rhetoric-capitol-riot">Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection</a> two years before it and the mass shooting at the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/club-q-survivors-blame-hateful-rhetoric-colorado-springs-shooting-rcna61720">Colorado LGBTQ nightclub</a> each occurred after certain groups repeatedly directed dangerous rhetoric against others. It’s the reason <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2022/12/15/colorado-springs-club-q-shooting-lgbtq-rhetoric-congress/">elected officials in the U.S.</a> have begun examining the role language plays in provoking violence.</p>
<p>As a social psychologist who <a href="https://www.academia.edu/94466242/Examining_Online_Extremism_and_Dangerous_Speech">studies dangerous speech</a> and disinformation, I think it’s important for citizens, legislators and law enforcement alike to understand that language can provoke violence between groups. In fact, there are different types of threat in rhetoric that in-groups – people we identify as “us” – use to trigger violence, against out-groups – people we perceive as “them.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three men dressed in suits and ties and seated at a long conference table raise their right hands as they are sworn in during a House Oversight Committee hearing. On the wall behind them hangs a portrait of the late U.S. Rep Elijah Cummings, chair of the House Oversight Committee." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502460/original/file-20221221-20-7g5n7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Club Q shooting survivor Michael Anderson, club owner Matthew Haynes and shooting survivor James Slaugh are sworn in during a House Oversight Committee hearing, Dec. 14, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images News via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my research, I call dangerous speech that paints outsiders as threats “threatoric.” Using this type of dangerous speech allows <a href="https://effectiviology.com/ingroup-outgroup/">in-groups</a> to justify violence as a defense against out-groups. For instance, <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/competing-visions-of-america-an-evolving-identity-or-a-culture-under-attack/">recent polls indicate</a> that 40% of people who primarily consume far-right news sources believe that “true patriots” may have to resort to violence to “save” the country. Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens parroted this sentiment <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106863281/eric-greitens-says-his-rino-hunting-ad-was-meant-in-humor-how-will-voters-see-it">in a campaign ad</a> while he was seeking the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat. In the ad, Greitens called for allies to “Get a RINO (Republican in Name Only) hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit. No tagging limit. And it doesn’t expire – until we save our country.”</p>
<p>Drawing on an array of scientific theories that recognize <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.01.020">the key ingredients driving conflict between groups</a>, I have identified five basic types of threatoric. </p>
<h2>1. Physical threats – They are going to harm us</h2>
<p>Threatoric that paints the out-group as likely to physically harm or kill members of the in-group falls into this category. For example, in-groups sometimes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac015">use disease to paint</a> the out-group as a threat to the in-group’s physical well-being. The accusations people lodged against Asian Americans and immigrants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic are examples.</p>
<p>In-groups also cast out-groups as physically aggressive or violent criminals for the same reason. Masters of threatoric are particularly fond of portraying out-groups as predators of our society’s protected or vulnerable – groups like women, children and the elderly. Such characterizations make the out-group seem deplorable and action to “protect” the vulnerable seem noble.</p>
<p>Periodically, from as far back as the Middle Ages, different in-groups have leveled so-called “<a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/blood-libel">blood libels</a>” against Jews, alleging the murder of Christian children as a part of a ritual. Today, we see echoes of this in QAnon conspiracy theories that accuse liberals of trafficking children. As a consequence, QAnon believers want to “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/09/28/qanon-pedophile-claims-biden-trump-save-the-children-facebook-instagram/3522626001/">save the children</a>” and are <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-125877/">willing to use violence</a> to deal with the alleged threat.</p>
<h2>2. Moral threats – They are degrading our society</h2>
<p>Someone in an in-group who perceives the out-group as degrading society’s cultural, political or religious values casts the out-group as a moral threat.</p>
<p>For example, people frequently target members of the LGBTQ community with this sort of threatoric. Some believe homosexuality <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/25/how-lgbt-adults-see-society-and-how-the-public-sees-them/">is morally wrong</a>. And there are people who argue same-sex marriage poses a danger to marriage itself. During the previous Congress, a Republican <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/missouri-gop-representative-vicky-hartzler-sobs-while-begging-colleagues-to-vote-down-same-sex-marriage-bill">congresswoman crying</a> on the House floor before the chamber signed the Respect for Marriage Act is one case in point. People have <a href="https://www.advocate.com/politics/2012/10/31/10-disasters-gays-were-blamed-causing?pg=full">blamed the alleged immorality of the LGBTQ community</a> for everything from natural disasters to terror attacks. And accusations that LGBTQ people are indoctrinating and grooming children are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/groomer-pedophile-old-tropes-find-new-life-anti-lgbtq-movement-rcna23931">mainstays of political threatoric</a> increasingly peddled today. </p>
<p>Florida’s new <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis">Parental Rights in Education bill</a>, controversially called the Don’t Say Gay bill by some opponents and the<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/10/politics/florida-dont-say-gay-bill-what-matters/index.html"> Anti-Grooming bill</a> by some proponents, prohibits teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in certain classrooms. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nuid0WvxR-I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Former U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri cries on the House floor in December 2022, begging her colleagues to vote against a same-sex marriage bill.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Resource threats – They are taking from us</h2>
<p>Sometimes, members of the in-group portray the out-group as a competitor for valued goods. We see this in the classic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KU5u75J8VU&t=94s">Robber’s Cave Experiment</a>, in which boys attending a summer camp were arbitrarily divided into two groups – Rattlers and Eagles – and made to compete for valued resources. Animosity and conflict between the groups grew quickly.</p>
<p>To amplify perceptions of resource threats, people often play up the perception that access to resources is a <a href="https://partably.com/zero-sum-thinking/">zero-sum game</a>. If the out-group gets access to the desired resource, it will mean little to nothing is left for the in-group. The most common example in this type of threatoric is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcac006">the accusation that immigrants</a> are “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trump-plays-on-immigration-myths">stealing our jobs</a>.” This threat can be extended to casting the out-group as receiving an unfair share of other resources, like education, scholarships, health care or social services.</p>
<h2>4. Social threats – They are obstacles to us</h2>
<p>When members of the in-group blame the out-group for costing the in-group <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/11/14/loss-fear-and-rage-are-white-men-rebelling-against-democracy/">social status</a> or access to important relationships, they are employing social threats. This can be triggered by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1099034094/what-is-the-great-replacement-theory">demographic shifts in population</a>. Alternatively, when in-group members view their status as undesirable, they can look to an out-group to blame. There are often themes of entitlement in this rhetoric, in which the speaker feels he is owed a certain social standing or relationship. For instance, among the Incel movement, a subculture of involuntarily celibate people – mostly men – <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-rage-of-the-incels">rage against women</a> for denying them sexual relationships is common. This rage can have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/16/involuntary-celibates-incels-threat-us-secret-service">lethal consequences</a>, as in the <a href="https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2022/03/secret-services-latest-research-highlights-mass-violence-motived-misogyny">2018 shooting during</a> a yoga class in Tallahassee, Florida. A man killed two women and injured six others.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="In the middle of a crowd of opposing protesters, two men stand face to face, yelling at each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503519/original/file-20230108-6795-sroozm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of Antifa clash with counterprotesters during the Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington, D.C., in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/antifa-and-counter-protestors-to-a-far-right-rally-argue-news-photo/1015806444?adppopup=true">Zach Gibson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Self threats – They make us feel bad</h2>
<p>Lastly, the in-group sometimes feels as if its collective self-esteem is threatened by the out-group, such as when they perceive that the out-group is dehumanizing them. This can lead to thinking along the lines of “they hate us, so we hate them.” Just search for “libtard” or “repugnican” on Twitter for examples. But in this case, the level at which the out-group is perceived as engaging in this derogation is <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/asap.12253">exaggerated</a> and ignores similar behavior by the in-group. The insults hurled by the other group are always cast as worse than any used by the in-group. This threatoric is particularly evident among <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221099146">political partisans</a>.</p>
<p>In some cases, particularly when there has been <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/16/997259390/the-history-behind-tensions-between-israel-palestine">historic conflict</a> between groups, there is past evidence of a group actually representing a threat. But threatoric minimizes transgressions by the in-group and paints the out-group as essentially <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.9.1.1277">toxic</a> to the in-group, threatening anything from their self-image to the lives of those they care about. The greater the perceived threat, the more justified extreme action appears. It becomes an “us or them” narrative. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12743">Numerous studies</a> over <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5969529/">decades of research</a> on intergroup conflict have supported this link between perceived threat and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.06.005">hostility and conflict</a>. Even now, we see this playing out in our streets as, for the first time in history, half of all extremist attacks have been occurring during <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/pushed-extremes-domestic-terrorism-amid-polarization-and-protest">politically polarized demonstrations</a>. We see it in the manifestos of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/us/patrick-crusius-el-paso-shooter-manifesto.html">known killers</a>. </p>
<p>In America, we are fond of the idiom, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” However, we fail to acknowledge that <a href="https://www.katc.com/news/national/how-to-stand-up-to-hate-speech-and-why-its-important">no one throws those sticks and stones without reason</a>. Threatoric gives us that reason.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Colleen Sinclair receives funding from Department of Defense & the National Institute of Justice.</span></em></p>Language can provoke violence between groups especially when people paint others as threats.H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939002022-11-17T07:16:08Z2022-11-17T07:16:08ZEven a limited nuclear war could devastate the world’s oceans: here’s what our modelling shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495355/original/file-20221115-13-tww3fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C1488%2C1145&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On 3 July 1970, France carried out the "Licorne" nuclear test on the atoll of Muroroa, French Polynesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/7969902@N07/510672745">Creative Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States and Russia have recently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-us-discuss-first-nuclear-talks-since-ukraine-conflict-kommersant-2022-11-08/">agreed to hold talks</a> on the New START Treaty, the only accord left regulating the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world. While this is undoubtedly good news, we must not allow it to lull us into complacency. Global events this year, most notably in Ukraine, have raised <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-09-29/survey-fears-about-world-war-iii-are-growing-amid-russia-ukraine-war">fears of a nuclear conflict</a> to levels not seen since the cold war. There are more than 10,000 nuclear warheads remaining in the world, and the Kremlin’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/world/europe/russia-putin-nuclear-threat.html">language</a> regarding weapons of mass destruction has became increasingly threatening in 2022.</p>
<p>Beyond the <a href="https://time.com/after-the-bomb/">horrible fates of victims in the strike zones</a>, a large-scale nuclear exchange would profoundly alter the climate system as we know it, while more limited scenarios could have a devastating impact. An ever-growing body of work has shown that even a local nuclear conflict could usher in a climate catastrophe. As marine scientists, we have considered what this could specifically mean for the world’s oceans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Nuclear test on Bikini Island" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C2516%2C1312&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495336/original/file-20221115-21-6tshfe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Between 1946 and 1958 the United States carried out a series of nuclear weapons tests on Bikini Island in the Pacific.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/grayscale-photo-of-explosion-on-the-beach-73909/">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Global famine and climate breakdown</h2>
<p>In 1982, a group of scientists including Carl Sagan began to raise the alarm on a climate apocalypse that could follow nuclear war. Using simple computer simulations and historic volcanic eruptions as natural analogues, they <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atsc/45/15/1520-0469_1988_045_2123_ammfad_2_0_co_2.xml">showed</a> how smoke that lofted into the stratosphere from urban firestorms could block out the sun for years.</p>
<p>They found that this “nuclear winter”, as it came to be called, could trigger catastrophic famine far from the location of the war. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/12/world/transcript-of-interview-with-president-on-a-range-of-issues.html">Ronald Reagan</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2000/09/07/gorbachev/">Mikhail Gorbachev</a>, leaders of the United States and Soviet Union in the 1980s, both cited this work when they declared that a nuclear war could not be won.</p>
<p>The contemporary threat has prompted a new era of research into the potential climate impact of a nuclear war. Using the latest computational tools, we have investigated what the consequences would be for all life on Earth. In our most recent research, we show that a nuclear conflict would massively <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00088-1">disrupt the climate system</a> and cause <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00573-0">global famine</a>. It could also dramatically disturb the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021AV000610">ocean and its ecosystems</a> for decades and potentially thousands of years after a conflict.</p>
<h2>How a nuclear war could ice over the Baltic Sea</h2>
<p>We explored the scenario of a nuclear war between the US and Russia that results in 150 billion tons of soot from burning cities reaching the upper atmosphere. We found that the low light and rapid cooling would cause large physical changes to the ocean, including a dramatic expansion of Artic sea ice. Critically, this ice would grow to block normally ice-free coastal regions essential for fishing, aquaculture, and shipping all across Europe.</p>
<p>Three years after such a war, arctic sea ice expands by 50%, icing over the Baltic sea year-round and closing major ports such as Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. Even in the scenario of a more limited conflict between India and Pakistan, 27 to 47 billion tons of soot would be ejected into the upper atmosphere, and the resulting cooling would severely compromise shipping through northern Europe.</p>
<p>Worse, the sudden drop in light and ocean temperatures would decimate marine algae, which are the foundation of the marine food web, creating a years-long ocean famine. While the whole ocean would be affected, the worst effects would be concentrated at higher latitudes, including all of Europe and especially in the Baltic states, where ocean light is already in short supply.</p>
<p>The waters in the Arctic and North Atlantic would bear the brunt, likely triggering the collapse of the entire ecosystem. Although fisheries are currently a relatively small sector of the European economy, there might be added pressure to look toward the sea for food should <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00573-0">land-based agricultural systems collapse</a>, leaving the continent with few options for food security.</p>
<h2>A changed ocean</h2>
<p>We expected that a reduction in sunlight and lower temperatures would cause more sea ice and less algae in the oceans. However, we were shocked that our model ocean remained materially transformed for decades after a war, long after temperature and light conditions returned to their pre-war state. Sea ice would settle into to a new expanded state where it would likely remain for hundreds of years.</p>
<p>Ten years after the conflicts, global marine productivity recovers, and even overshoots its initial state. This occurs because enduring changes to ocean circulation push nutrients up to the surface from depth. Once the soot clears and light recovers, phytoplankton can use these nutrients to grow rapidly.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495357/original/file-20221115-16-2vyp1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phytoplankton_Bloom_in_the_Barents_Sea_(Detail)_(4971318856).jpg">Creative Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, such “good news” never reaches Europe, as marine productivity remains compromised in the Arctic and north Atlantic relative to the rest of the world. This occurs because the new environmental state favours a different, larger, type of marine algae that can actually strip nutrients from the surface ocean once they die and sink, counteracting the physical surplus.</p>
<p>Why would the ocean be so slow to recover from a nuclear conflict? Water heats and cools very slowly, and the ocean is strongly stratified with different water masses layered on top of each other. This gives the ocean a much longer “memory” than the atmosphere. Once disturbed, many changes are either not reversible on human timescales or are unlikely to return to their initial state.</p>
<p>These findings add a new perspective on just how much humanity can affect the Earth system. While we are grappling with the fact that our greenhouse gas emissions can reshape the climate in a blink of geological time, it is worth remembering that nuclear arsenals remain large enough to fundamentally shift the Earth system in the blink of an eye.</p>
<h2>The long and the short of it</h2>
<p>Given these stark insights, there is a moral imperative to ask what could and should be done to prevent a nuclear conflict. Recently, a new take on an old philosophy has begun to percolate out of Oxford. The idea, known as <a href="https://www.williammacaskill.com/longtermism">“longtermism”</a>, posits that proper accounting for the sheer number of possible future human lives should prioritise nearly any action that even slightly reduces the risk of a human extinction. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A nuclear warhead" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495358/original/file-20221115-22-jf2f4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Mark 7 nuclear weapon at the US Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_7_nuclear_bomb_at_USAF_Museum.jpg">Creative Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This logic comes with all the standard <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23298870/effective-altruism-longtermism-will-macaskill-future">trappings</a> of trying to do maths with morality, but it starts to make a lot more sense when you realise that the risk of an extinction-level event – and thus the chance we could avert it – isn’t actually unimaginably low.</p>
<p>Even a more limited conflict could push our oceans into a fundamentally new state that lasts much, much longer than we would have expected. Understanding the length, and the weight, of these timescales should be forefront in our calculus of ongoing diplomacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Harrison a reçu des financements de Open Philanthropy, NSF. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Scherrer a reçu des financements de European Research Council and the Research Council of Norway. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Heneghan et Tyler Rohr ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>In Europe, a large-scale war could cause the Baltic Sea to freeze over and severely compromise food security – potentially for decades and even centuries to come.Tyler Rohr, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Modelling, IMAS, University of TasmaniaCheryl Harrison, Assistant professor in oceanography and coastal sciences, Louisiana State University Kim Scherrer, Postdoctoral fellow at the department of Biological Sciences, University of BergenRyan Heneghan, Lecturer in Environmental Modelling, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1935822022-11-04T12:29:56Z2022-11-04T12:29:56ZInoculate yourself against election misinformation campaigns – 3 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492837/original/file-20221101-26-ck41ft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C36%2C5916%2C3971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Get a shot of preparation and protect yourself from malicious information warriors.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/doctor-hold-syringe-prepare-for-injection-epidural-royalty-free-image/950747286">boonchai wedmakawand/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the midterm elections approach, Americans are already being subjected to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/technology/midterm-elections-misinformation.html">misinformation campaigns</a>, often online, that are intended to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/13/spanish-latino-misinformation-2022-elections/">provoke confusion</a>, anger or even action. When the election is over, it’s almost certain there will be even more misleading material competing for people’s attention.</p>
<p>You can defend yourself against this onslaught and help curb both the spread and the effect of misinformation. Several scholars have written for The Conversation U.S. about this process, often called “inoculation,” because it prepares your mind to repel infectious, harmful ideas. Here are some of their key pieces of advice.</p>
<h2>1. Learn about misinformation’s effects</h2>
<p>Misinformation not only gives people incorrect material – it leads them to disbelieve facts. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZEN_Z2UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">John Cook</a>, a cognitive psychologist at George Mason University, explained: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/inoculation-theory-using-misinformation-to-fight-misinformation-77545">When people were presented with both the facts</a> and misinformation about climate change, there was no net change in belief. The two conflicting pieces of information canceled each other out.”</p>
<p>He went on to explain that “when they collide, there’s a burst of heat followed by nothing. This reveals the subtle way that misinformation does damage. It doesn’t just misinform. It stops people believing in facts.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inoculation-theory-using-misinformation-to-fight-misinformation-77545">Inoculation theory: Using misinformation to fight misinformation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Know yourself</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C14%2C4778%2C3671&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A hand stopping a Pinocchio-nosed person" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C14%2C4778%2C3671&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389858/original/file-20210316-16-1ifjiq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Identify and stop the lies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/big-hand-with-cartoon-character-stop-sign-royalty-free-illustration/1292878719">NLshop/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s useful to note, as social psychology scholar <a href="https://www.cci.msstate.edu/osil/bio.php?d=-1">H. Colleen Sinclair</a> at Mississippi State University did, that “<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-ways-to-avoid-becoming-a-misinformation-superspreader-157099">research has found people are more susceptible to misinformation</a> that aligns with their preexisting views.”</p>
<p>So, Sinclair recommends, “be particularly critical of information from groups or people with whom you agree or find yourself aligned – whether politically, religiously, or by ethnicity or nationality. Remind yourself to look for other points of view, and other sources with information on the same topic.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-ways-to-avoid-becoming-a-misinformation-superspreader-157099">7 ways to avoid becoming a misinformation superspreader</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Seek help</h2>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xSIkkza9TVI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Russia is not the only source of misinformation, but here is a look at its propaganda machine.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Baltic nations – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – are small countries right next to Russia, and former parts of the Soviet Union. Their people have decades of experience with misinformation campaigns and are among the best in the world at resisting them.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/terry-thompson-660173">Terry Thompson</a>, a cybersecurity scholar at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, explained how: First, they cooperate with other nations to report what’s going on, including “<a href="https://theconversation.com/countering-russian-disinformation-the-baltic-nations-way-109366">analyz[ing] Russian social media activities</a> targeting Baltic nations … and provid[ing] insight into identifying and detecting Russian disinformation campaigns” so regular citizens can be informed.</p>
<p>There are also “‘Baltic elves’ – volunteers who monitor the internet for Russian disinformation” and spread the word, Thompson explained. </p>
<p>Further, those nations are part of a collective European Union project that “identifies disinformation efforts and publicizes accurate information” that disinformation warriors would like to undermine.</p>
<p>It’s all part of a wide-ranging effort to help people understand what’s real and what’s out there to mislead them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/countering-russian-disinformation-the-baltic-nations-way-109366">Countering Russian disinformation the Baltic nations' way</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As elections approach – and even after they’re done – there’s a lot of confusing, and deliberately misleading, information out there. Learn how to protect yourself.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1708672021-12-22T08:25:02Z2021-12-22T08:25:02ZHalaman opini pada koran lokal membantu mengurangi polarisasi politik: temuan dari Amerika<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429245/original/file-20211029-24-8zehf4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4827%2C3613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jurnalisme opini dapat membuat orang gusar -- atau dapat menyatukan mereka.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-people-reading-one-newspaper-royalty-free-image/102759526?adppopup=true">momentimages/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jika Anda tidak tahu apa itu jurnalisme opini, Anda tidak sendirian. Banyak orang yang juga tidak mengetahui hal itu. </p>
<p>Walau tidak banyak yang tahu, di Amerika Serikat (AS), artikel editorial, kolom opini, dan artikel opini yang dikirimkan pembaca kepada editor di halaman opini editorial (<em>op-ed</em>), berperan menjembatani perpecahan politik sekaligus membantu berita lokal untuk tetap eksis.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/225755/americans-news-bias-name-neutral-source.aspx">Menurut survei oleh Gallup pada 2017</a>, dua pertiga responden berpendapat bahwa media berita tidak membedakan antara fakta dan opini. Pendapat terkait ini jumlahnya meningkat dari sekitar 42% responden pada 1984. </p>
<p>Pada polling lain, <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/confusion-about-whats-news-and-whats-opinion-is-a-big-problem-but-journalists-can-help-solve-it/">hanya 43%</a> orang AS yang mengatakan bahwa <a href="https://theconversation.com/journalists-believe-news-and-opinion-are-separate-but-readers-cant-tell-the-difference-140901">mereka dapat dengan mudah membedakan antara berita dan opini online</a>). Setengah dari orang AS tidak familier dengan istilah “op-ed”.</p>
<p>Ketika garis pemisah antara opini dan berita kabur di benak banyak orang AS, <a href="https://www.axios.com/media-trust-crisis-2bf0ec1c-00c0-4901-9069-e26b21c283a9.html">kepercayaan pada media akan jatuh</a>. Sumber berita lokal -– surat kabar harian dan program berita televisi lokal -– dianggap lebih <a href="https://knightfoundation.org/articles/local-news-is-more-trusted-than-national-news-but-that-could-change/">terpercaya, peduli, dan tidak memihak</a> daripada sumber berita nasional. Namun, kepercayaan itu juga runtuh.</p>
<p>Seperti hampir semua hal lain dalam politik Amerika, <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2020/01/24/us-media-polarization-and-the-2020-election-a-nation-divided/">kepercayaan publik terhadap media terpolarisasi menurut afiliasi partai</a>: pendukung partai Demokrat mempercayai media jauh lebih banyak daripada Partai Republik. Kade paling ideologis dari masing-masing partai pun memiliki gagasan sangat berbeda tentang kepercayaan media.</p>
<p>Mengingat kebingungan dan ketidaksepakatan ini, tampaknya tidak mungkin jurnalisme opini dapat menjadi pengaruh positif. Tapi, penelitian kami menunjukkan hasil sebaliknya.</p>
<p>Kami adalah <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RSOzvUAAAAAJ&hl=id&oi=ao">peneliti</a> yang mempelajari <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BeWPCGEAAAAJ&hl=id&oi=ao">politik</a> dan <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AzPHmwYAAAAJ&hl=id&oi=ao">media</a>. Kami menemukan bahwa <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy051">koran lokal</a> – dan <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/home-style-opinion">jurnalisme opini lokal</a> khususnya – dapat menjembatani perpecahan politik dan menarik lebih banyak pembaca.</p>
<h2>Forum komunitas yang hidup</h2>
<p>Jurnalisme opini bukanlah pemberitaan; ia berbeda karena ada sudut pandang yang dinyatakan. Jurnalisme opini memiliki tiga format dasar: editorial; kolom opini, atau <em>op-ed</em>; dan surat kepada editor.</p>
<p>Editorial adalah suara suatu media yang ditulis oleh dewan redaksi, sering kali terdiri dari editor, pemilik, dan anggota komunitas. <em>Op-ed</em> biasanya ditulis oleh kolumnis profesional atau pemimpin komunitas. Surat ditulis oleh pembaca biasa.</p>
<p><em>Op-ed</em> memastikan bahwa <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/107769901008700204">perspektif dari kalangan non-jurnalis</a> muncul di surat kabar untuk membantu masyarakat umum <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.%201747-1346.2008.00122.x">menafsirkan peristiwa besar</a>. Harapannya, artikel itu dapat <a href="https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/QJPS-16112">mempengaruhi pikiran pembaca</a> tentang suatu masalah. </p>
<p>Halaman <em>op-ed</em> yang baik mirip seperti balai warga yang memungkinkan pembaca untuk mendiskusikan dan memperdebatkan isu-isu penting baik bagi komunitas mereka maupun di luarnya.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot from Desert Sun newspaper column by editor Julie Makinen with the headline, 'The Desert Sun opinion pages are taking a summer vacation from national politics. You can help us!'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pada bulan Juni 2019, Editor Desert Sun Julie Makinen mengumumkan perubahan besar untuk halaman opini surat kabar: tidak ada politik nasional.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2021/03/31/desert-sun-opinion-page-study-shows-experiment-curbed-polarization/4826254001/">Desert Sun screenshot</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Namun, krisis ekonomi membuat halaman opini berita lokal di AS semakin sulit untuk menyadari potensinya sebagai forum komunitas yang dinamis. Pendapatan yang turun dan jumlah staf yang berkurang memaksa media lokal untuk <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/08/in-print-newspapers-cut-opinion/">menggunakan lebih banyak kolumnis sindikasi dari luar komunitas surat kabar</a> dan yang karyanya biasanya memiliki fokus nasional. Beberapa koran bahkan telah meniadakan posisi editor opini.</p>
<p>Tanpa staf khusus untuk mencari penulis komunitas dan mengedit karya mereka, ruang <em>syndicated column</em> (artikel suatu kolumnis yang terbit di beragam media) akan diisi lebih banyak konten yang berfokus pada <a href="https://www.cjr.org/criticism/bret-%20stephens-op-ed-new-york-times-wall-street-journal.php">konflik ideologis “kanan versus kiri”</a> antara <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz039">dua ekstrem politik nasional</a> AS, dan bukan pada masalah lokal.</p>
<h2>Tidak ada lagi politik nasional?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/home-style-opinion/646C3D86BDCB2E370CEB0A5D51083171#fndtn-information">Buku kami</a> menunjukkan bahwa yang dapat terjadi adalah sebaliknya: menghilangkan berita politik nasional di halaman opini dan menghidupkan kembali konten opini lokal dapat membantu surat kabar menarik pembaca dan meredakan ketegangan di komunitas mereka. </p>
<p>Harian <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/">The Desert Sun</a> di Palm Springs, California, <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/2019/%2006/07/desert-sun-opinion-pages-taking-break-national-politics-july-help-us/1369621001/">mencoba cara ini pada bulan Juli 2019</a>: tidak ada kolom sindikasi, tidak ada kartun tentang politik nasional, tidak ada surat tentang Presiden Donald Trump saat itu.</p>
<p>Kami mengukur bagaimana eksperimen ini mengubah materi yang dipublikasikan dan sikap orang-orang di komunitas.</p>
<p>Keputusan itu menciptakan perubahan besar. Pada bulan Juni, bulan sebelum perubahan ini, setengah dari halaman op-ed The Desert Sun merupakan kolom sindikasi nasional. Sepertiga dari semua kolom membahas Trump. </p>
<p>Pada bulan Juli, kolom sindikasi nasional menghilang, begitu pula semua tulisan yang menyebut Trump. </p>
<p>Topik California menjadi fokus kurang dari setengah dalam semua kolom pada bulan Juni. Tapi, pada bulan Juli, 96% tulisan berfokus pada California. </p>
<p>Penyebutan partai Demokrat dan Republik turun lebih dari setengah, dari 25% dari semua kolom menjadi 10%.</p>
<p>Isu-isu lokal lalu memenuhi halaman: isu-isu seperti pelestarian seni dan budaya, lalu lintas dan pengembangan pusat kota, serta pendidikan dan lingkungan mendapat lebih banyak perhatian. Dalam momen ini, karakter unik Palm Springs bersinar.</p>
<p>Kami menyurvei pembaca sebelum dan sesudah eksperimen The Desert Sun, di Palm Springs. Kami membandingkannya dengan surat kabar Ventura County Sun, media lokal kota Ventura, yang tidak mengubah halaman opininya. </p>
<p>Apakah perubahan dalam jurnalisme opini mengubah cara berpikir dan perasaan orang tentang lawan politik mereka?</p>
<p>Ternyata, polarisasi politik – ketika orang merasa jauh dari pihak yang berbeda pandangan – melambat secara signifikan di Palm Springs dibandingkan dengan Ventura pada kelompok-kelompok tertentu:</p>
<ul>
<li>Mereka yang membaca koran;</li>
<li>Mereka yang tahu banyak tentang politik; dan</li>
<li>Orang yang paling banyak berpartisipasi dalam politik.</li>
</ul>
<p>Kelompok-kelompok ini adalah orang-orang dengan kemungkinan tertinggi untuk berbagi pandangan dan memberi tahu orang lain. Mereka juga berpotensi menyebarkan pengaruh surat kabar ke komunitas yang lebih luas. </p>
<p>Bahkan, meski hanya sebagian kecil dari komunitas yang membaca koran secara teratur – total sirkulasi The Desert Sun lebih dari 26.000 eksemplar – perubahan seperti ini tetap memiliki efek yang lebih besar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two boxing gloves that represent Red and Blue America, pushing against each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ketika halaman opini berfokus pada politik nasional dan partisan, komunitas menjadi terpolarisasi secara politis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cultural-wars-royalty-free-image/1254512635?adppopup=true">wildpixel/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pembaca The Desert Sun menikmati perubahan: jumlah pembaca online untuk opini <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnist/2021/03/31/desert-sun-opinion-page-%20study-shows-experiment-curbed-polarization/4826254001/">hampir dua kali lipat di bulan Juli</a>. Dalam survei setelah eksperimen, hampir lima kali lebih banyak pembaca <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/2019/08/16/desert-sun-survey-readers-approve-local-news-only-editorial-page/2033233001/">mengatakan mereka menyetujui dan tidak menyetujui eksperimen ini</a>. </p>
<p>Eksperimen tersebut membantu surat kabar merekrut lebih banyak penulis opini yang terus berkontribusi di bulan-bulan berikutnya.</p>
<h2>Berinvestasi lagi pada opini</h2>
<p>Pendukung berita lokal dapat memetik pelajaran dari penelitian ini dengan mengumpulkan uang untuk membayar posisi editor opini dan mendanai pemikiran kreatif seperti eksperimen The Desert Sun.</p>
<p>Jika mereka tidak melakukan itu, maka halaman opini akan layu dan tidak lagi mencerminkan komunitas mereka. </p>
<p>Halaman opini lokal saja memang tidak akan memulihkan model ekonomi yang mendukung surat kabar dalam beberapa dekade terakhir. Tapi penelitian kami menunjukkan hal tersebut dapat menggaet sejumlah pembaca untuk menjembatani beberapa kesenjangan politik yang dapat membuat komunitas di AS terpisah.</p>
<p>Dengan menjaga fokus pada isu-isu lokal, halaman opini dapat berperan kecil memulihkan kepercayaan dan membantu surat kabar lokal bertahan di masa-masa sulit ini.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Rachel Noorajavi menerjemahkan artikel ini dari bahasa Inggris.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Halaman depan harusnya menjadi balai warga, tempat pembaca berdiskusi dan berdebat atas isu penting bagi komunitas dan sekitarnya.Johanna Dunaway, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M UniversityJoshua P. Darr, Assistant Professor of Political Communication, Louisiana State University Matthew P. Hitt, Associate Professor of Political Science, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1653002021-11-16T13:18:33Z2021-11-16T13:18:33ZJournalism in middle America got communities through the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431132/original/file-20211109-21-6ott5j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C8231%2C5475&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Journalists and news organizations had to be resilient to serve their communities during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-male-journalist-preparing-questions-for-royalty-free-image/1349183013?adppopup=true">Illustration E+/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>News of the pandemic’s devastating effect on journalism was conveyed by headlines across the nation telling of <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2021/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffs-furloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/">newsroom closures, layoffs and furloughs</a>. </p>
<p>Journalism was in trouble in 2020. In fact, it had <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/13/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-fallen-26-since-2008/">been in trouble for a while</a>.</p>
<p>But how did so many local news organizations – especially newspapers – manage to survive the pandemic? Weeklies beefed up their daily online news coverage, business models were blown up and existing rationales for why journalism matters became more than theoretical to rural journalists. </p>
<p>Their determination to survive and serve as a public health lifeline for their communities fueled an oral history project that my colleague <a href="https://journalism.ku.edu/teri-finneman">Teri Finneman</a> and I conducted, interviewing 28 journalists across seven states in the middle of the country. We learned how locally owned and family-owned newspapers made it through COVID-19.</p>
<p>“There’ve been times that we’ve had to reach out to mayors and different cities and communities across the state … to make sure that … knew that [journalists] were deemed essential workers,” said Ashley Wimberley, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association. <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/covid-19-essential-workers-in-the-states.aspx#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20U..S,energy%20to%20defense%20to%20agriculture.">That label</a> exempted news workers from stay-at-home orders and designated them as critically needed by their communities. </p>
<p>There were no easy answers. Not in Louisiana, <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/manship/people/faculty-staff/mari.php">where I teach journalism at Lousiana State University</a>. Not anywhere.</p>
<h2>Telling the history</h2>
<p>Oral history grabs the first impressions of history for those living now, looking back at what just happened. It helps people understand the present and how to move forward, out of a crisis. But it also records events for scholars and citizens in the future.</p>
<p>“Always remember that when you’re putting those stories in your newspaper, that you are printing your community’s history,” Amy Johnson, the publisher of the <a href="https://www.springviewherald.com/">Springview Herald in Nebraska</a>, told us. </p>
<p>Benny Polacca of the <a href="http://osagenews.org/">Osage News in Oklahoma</a> told us something similar: He encouraged journalists covering some future pandemic to “do your due diligence in order to come to some type of understanding, some type of argument, some type of focus, if you were going to be reporting or researching the time of COVID-19.”</p>
<p>Often, it’s journalism on the coasts that gets the attention of researchers. The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times – these big news organizations are written about constantly. </p>
<p>By talking to journalists in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, our project pushed back against this tendency to ignore the middle of the nation and its important journalism. <a href="https://www.poynter.org/the-essential-workers/">As a kind of new essential worker</a>, journalists found themselves in charge of explaining complicated guidance from state and local officials about COVID-19, how schools would work and where to get help.</p>
<p>“I hope that, through this, that our role as journalism, they [the public] realize how important it is that the information we put out, you know, how it affects them every day,” Johnson said.</p>
<p>Kansas Press Association Executive Director Emily Bradbury had a message for these journalists who were working for news organizations increasingly threatened with being shut down: “I want them to know that in the midst of an emergency, in the midst of what can seem like a hopeless situation, when they look at their financials, that what they’re doing is important. And what they’re doing matters, and that no one else can do what they do, and they look out for their communities like no one else.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Emily Bradbury, Kansas Press Association head, stands in front of a building with the Kansas Press Association logo. on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emily Bradbury, Kansas Press Association Executive Director, tells reporters that ‘what they’re doing is important. And what they’re doing matters…and they look out for their communities like no one else.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Mari and Teri Finneman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Loans, side hustles and deals</h2>
<p>Reporters and editors found new ways of paying the bills. That meant accepting government subsidies in the form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/paycheck-protection-program-ppp-86108">Paycheck Protection Program</a> loans. It meant, for some, going door to door and asking readers to subscribe, or keep subscribing. It meant consolidating newspapers, putting out more online editions, or taking pay cuts. </p>
<p>“People just don’t understand. It costs a lot of money and time to do this, and I just wish we – there was more value or people appreciate it or understood the value and the cost of really providing this service,” said <a href="https://www.communityvoiceks.com/site/about.html#:%7E:text=Bonita%20Gooch%20serves%20both%20as,and%20accomplishments%20of%20the%20community">Bonita Gooch, the publisher of The Community Voice</a>, a Black newspaper based in Wichita, Kansas.</p>
<p>Some publishers took on side hustles to bring in revenue, creating ad copy for local business or doing marketing work. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.kingfisherpress.net/">The Kingfisher Times & Free Press in Oklahoma</a>, for example, Christine Reid, the paper’s editor, created ads for a local vocational-technical school. “I’ve also tried to use that as an avenue to … generate more ads for the newspaper,” Reid said. </p>
<p>Some papers worked out advertising deals with local businesses as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/catherineerdly/2020/12/18/four-trends-that-will-shape-retail-in-2021/">consumers shopped more locally</a>. </p>
<p>Local publishers did whatever it took to stay afloat. As some of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1957703">our initial findings have shown</a>, that showed both opportunity and hesitancy about change. </p>
<p>“We’re gonna have to rely less on advertising revenue and more on subscription revenue, and so we’ve got to make sure we’re offering a unique product that they want to pay for,” said <a href="https://www.bhpioneer.com/opinion/145-years-but-who-s-counting/article_d9408232-c880-11eb-a24e-1b942eb543d1.html">Letti Lister, the president and publisher of the Black Hills Pioneer</a> in Spearfish, South Dakota.</p>
<p>We saw tentative signs of hope, as journalists got financial and moral support from their readers during a fraught election. “If anything, it’s rallied the troops, if you will, in our community because they trust us, they know that we’re going to report the news in a timely manner and keep the public up to date,” said <a href="https://www.newrockfordtranscript.com/">Amy Wobbema, publisher of the New Rockford Transcript in North Dakota</a>. Arguably most coverage was <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-election-2020-a-toolkit-for-democracy-worthy-coverage-for-journalists-148591">calm and steady</a>. </p>
<p>But there was still hesitancy over what newspapers had to do to adapt. Some journalists are uncomfortable with receiving government funding and would rather rely on community support. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.sdna.com/about">South Dakota Newspaper Association Executive Director Dave Bordewyk</a> put it: “Sort of, ‘Look, contribute to our newspaper … because if you value that importance of local news and journalism, then we need your support beyond just subscribing to the newspaper or advertising, which has gone away.’” </p>
<p>Ultimately, the pandemic showed that more research needs to be done on journalism in rural areas – we managed to talk to only a fraction of the total number of small-town journalists and publishers. Other scholars have already learned that <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/articles/keeping-opinion-local-the-benefits-of-cutting-national-politics-from-opinion-sections/">local journalism helps reduce violent partisanship and reinforces institutions</a>. To be clear, scholars have defined violent partisanship as the willingness to resort to physical altercations to resolve disputes – good local journalism channels that energy toward peaceful, democratic ends. Other <a href="https://citap.unc.edu/local-news-platforms-mis-disinformation/">scholars have found that institutions like local courts and governments get increased legitimacy as a result of local news</a>. More sustained scholarly attention will likely turn up other benefits that the public isn’t yet aware of.</p>
<p>“That’s what we hope. What I hope comes out of this is that readers can understand that, and can … have a renewed value on what that [local] publication has done for their community during this pandemic,” Bradbury told us. </p>
<p>[<em>Understand key political developments, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s politics newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Thomas Mari received funding from this project from the Manship School at Louisiana State University. </span></em></p>The decline of the news industry has been well documented. How did news organizations in the US heartland, facing potential extinction, survive – and even thrive – through the pandemic?William Thomas Mari, Assistant Professor of Media law and Media History, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695732021-10-08T17:26:39Z2021-10-08T17:26:39ZBiden restores protection for national monuments Trump shrank: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425507/original/file-20211008-13-1pz09lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5485%2C3088&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The twin buttes that give Bears Ears National Monument in Utah its name are sacred places to many Indigenous Tribes and Pueblos.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bears-ears-as-seen-from-natural-bridges-national-royalty-free-image/1203244684">T. Schofield, iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Oct. 7, 2021, the Interior Department announced that President Biden was <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/administration-leaders-applaud-president-bidens-restoration-national-monuments">restoring protection</a> for three U.S. national monuments that the Trump administration sought to shrink drastically: <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears</a> and <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument">Grand Staircase-Escalante</a> in Utah, and <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/habitat-conservation/northeast-canyons-and-seamounts-marine-national">Northeast Canyons and Seamounts</a> in the Atlantic Ocean. President Trump’s 2017 orders downsizing these monuments, originally created by previous administrations, ignited debate over whether such action was legal. Here are five articles from our archives that examine this controversy.</p>
<h2>1. A law rooted in presidential power</h2>
<p>Presidents can designate lands as national monuments quickly, without seeking consent from Congress, under the 1906 <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R41330.pdf">Antiquities Act</a>. Congress passed the law to protect historically valuable archaeological sites in the Southwest that were being looted. </p>
<p>But as the late <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XcJV-xEAAAAJ&hl=en">John Freemuth</a>, a public policy scholar at Boise State University, observed, presidents soon were <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">using it much more expansively</a> – and affected interests pushed back: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Use of the Antiquities Act has fueled tensions between the federal government and states over land control – and not just in the Southwest region that the law was originally intended to protect. Communities have opposed creating new monuments for fear of losing revenues from livestock grazing, energy development, or other activities, although such uses have been allowed to continue at many national monuments.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Freemuth predicted in a 2016 article that “future designations will succeed only if federal agencies consult widely in advance with local communities and politicians to confirm that support exists.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">How the Antiquities Act has expanded the national park system and fueled struggles over land protection</a>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"606156058814476288"}"></div></p>
<h2>2. Can presidents alter monuments their predecessors created?</h2>
<p>Many environmental advocacy groups and tribes opposed President Trump’s order to remove large swaths of land from these three monuments and sued to block it. The Antiquities Act is silent on this question. But when The Conversation asked environmental lawyers <a href="https://www.law.lsu.edu/directory/profiles/nicholas-bryner/">Nicholas Bryner</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_YZy3OwAAAAJ&hl=en">Eric Biber</a>, <a href="https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/profile.jsp?id=189">Mark Squillace</a> and <a href="https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/profile.jsp?id=189">Sean Hecht</a>, they argued – based on other environmental statutes and legal opinions – that <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">such acts would require congressional approval</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Courts have always been deferential to presidents’ use of the law, and no court has ever struck down a monument based on its size or the types of objects it is designed to protect. Congress, rather than the president, has the authority to alter monuments, should it decide that changes are appropriate.”</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">President Trump's national monument rollback is illegal and likely to be reversed in court</a>
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</p>
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<h2>3. Monuments have scenic, cultural and scientific value</h2>
<p>National monuments protect many unique resources. For example, Bears Ears conserves land where Indigenous people have lived, hunted and worshiped for centuries. The Bears Ears designation was requested by an intertribal coalition and approved by President Barack Obama after extensive consultation with tribal governments.</p>
<p>Many national monuments contain scenic lands and areas that are critical habitat for endangered species, such as desert tortoises and California condors. The underwater canyons of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts house sponges, corals, squid, octopus, numerous fish species and <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/habitat-conservation/northeast-canyons-and-seamounts-marine-national">endangered sperm whales</a>.</p>
<p>Monuments also can have important scientific value. President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante partly to protect <a href="https://theconversation.com/shrinking-the-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument-is-a-disaster-for-paleontology-103414">thousands of unique fossil sites</a>, most of which had yet to be studied. Many were located in areas near potential shale gas, coal or uranium extraction zones.</p>
<p>“Decades of ongoing research in this region have literally rewritten what scientists know about Mesozoic life, especially about the ecosystems that immediately preceded the final extinction of the dinosaurs,” Indiana University earth scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aPOrK60AAAAJ&hl=en">P. David Polly</a> writes. “Paleontologists like me know that the still-pristine Grand Staircase-Escalante region has divulged only a fragment of its paleontological story.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shrinking-the-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument-is-a-disaster-for-paleontology-103414">Shrinking the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a disaster for paleontology</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientists sitting in the dirt brush soil away from fossilized bones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Researchers dig for fossils in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which has emerged as one of the most important paleontological reserves in the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=117745&org=NSF">Utah Museum of Natural History</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>4. How a Native American Interior Secretary sees it</h2>
<p>The stark difference between the Trump and Biden administrations’ public land policies can be summed up by comparing their respective interior secretaries. </p>
<p>President Trump chose U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana to head the agency, which manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, including national monuments. Zinke, who supported opening public lands for oil and gas development and mining, led a review that proposed shrinking the three monuments Biden has just restored. </p>
<p>President Biden’s interior secretary, former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-country-is-excited-about-the-first-native-american-secretary-of-the-interior-and-the-promise-she-has-for-addressing-issues-of-importance-to-all-americans-153775">first Native American</a> to head the agency that maintains government-to-government relationships with and provides services to Native American Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities.</p>
<p>“For Native Americans, seeing people who look like us and are from where we come from in some of the highest elected and appointed offices in the U.S. demonstrates inclusion. Indian Country finally has a seat at the table,” writes Arizona State University Indigenous studies scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Bc-RS6QAAAAJ&hl=en">Traci Morris</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-country-is-excited-about-the-first-native-american-secretary-of-the-interior-and-the-promise-she-has-for-addressing-issues-of-importance-to-all-americans-153775">'Indian Country' is excited about the first Native American secretary of the interior – and the promise she has for addressing issues of importance to all Americans</a>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vSYw43bEIII?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Utah Native Americans support President Biden’s decision to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante to their original boundaries.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>5. Monuments aren’t always beloved at first</h2>
<p>Some of the most popular U.S. national parks initially were protected as national monuments, then expanded and given national park status by Congress years later. They include <a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm">Acadia</a> in Maine, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm">Joshua Tree</a> in Southern California, and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm">Arches</a> in Utah. </p>
<p>But a site’s merit may not be obvious at first. As Arizona State University’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Pyne">Stephen Pyne</a> writes, the first Europeans who explored the Grand Canyon in the 18th and 19th centuries thought it was unremarkable or worse; one called it “altogether valueless.”</p>
<p>Then geologists working for the federal government traversed the canyon, and wrote rapturous accounts that <a href="https://theconversation.com/grand-canyon-national-park-turns-100-how-a-place-once-called-valueless-became-grand-111144">recast it as a marvel</a> – a shift that Pyne calls “an astonishing reversal of perception”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The geologic mystery of the canyon is how the south-trending Colorado River made a sudden turn westward to carve its way, cross-grained, through four plateaus. This is also more or less what happened culturally. Intellectuals cut against existing aesthetics to make a place that looked nothing like pastorals or alpine mountains into a compelling spectacle.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>President Theodore Roosevelt agreed. After making multiple visits to the canyon, he designated it as a national monument in 1908. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grand-canyon-national-park-how-a-place-once-called-valueless-became-grand-111144">Grand Canyon National Park: How a place once called 'valueless' became grand</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Biden administration is restoring full protection to three national monuments that President Trump sought to cut down drastically.Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1673312021-09-20T12:32:57Z2021-09-20T12:32:57ZLouisiana’s coastal cultures are threatened by the very plans meant to save their wetlands and barrier islands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421875/original/file-20210917-48792-19e1sj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6182%2C4124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"My family has lost everything. We all live in this area, and now it’s all gone," said Fusto Maldonado, whose home in Barataria, Louisiana, flooded during Hurricane Ida.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-maldonado-family-travel-by-boat-to-their-home-after-it-news-photo/1337537259">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Waves of disaster have earned Louisiana a reputation as the place to watch for how climate change will impact coastal areas. <a href="https://theconversation.com/hurricane-ida-turned-into-a-monster-thanks-to-a-giant-warm-patch-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-heres-what-happened-167029">Hurricane Ida</a> was merely a punctuation mark in a series of devastating tropical cyclones, tragic inland floods, epic oil spills and deadly epidemics.</p>
<p>Despite these all-too-frequent catastrophes, many residents of Louisiana’s vulnerable coastal areas remain firmly committed to rebuilding after each disaster. The powerful pulls of family, faith, traditional foods, local music, culture and landscapes create a strong attachment.</p>
<p>Native Americans, African Americans, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jela/learn/historyculture/from-acadian-to-cajun.htm">Acadians</a>, <a href="http://losislenos.org">Isleños</a> and <a href="https://64parishes.org/entry/vietnamese-in-louisiana">Vietnamese</a> populate the coastal region, living in narrow settlements along the bayous and natural levees that stand a few feet above the backwater swamps and marshes. Many come from a history of traumatic displacement from their traditional homelands. They adapted to the local environment, became skilled shrimpers, fishers and oyster farmers and sunk deep roots.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A fisherman in a round hat watches stands on a boat with rigging as bags of shrimp being moved off by a boom arm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421878/original/file-20210917-23-cpjlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vietnamese fishermen hoist bags of shrimp off a boat in Leeville, Louisiana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bags-of-shrimp-are-hoisted-off-a-vietnamese-shrimp-boat-news-photo/102445514">Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In coastal Louisiana, people often live their entire lives near where they were born. Yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1115-7">they have also moved</a>, incrementally “up the bayou” – away from the Gulf of Mexico – over the decades in order to survive in a perilous place. Each major storm prompts a few more departures that contribute to a slow trickle of recovery-weary residents.</p>
<p>As the state tries to cope with repeat catastrophes, it is figuring out how to manage an ongoing crisis – the slow-motion loss of these southern wetlands and barrier islands. They provide valuable natural storm protection. But the state’s solutions may end up harming the communities that live there and endangering the unique cultures that define the Louisiana coast.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://lsu.edu/ga/people/faculty/craig-e-colten/">historical geographer</a> living in Louisiana, I study these areas and recently published a <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/state-of-disaster/">book on Louisiana’s land-loss crisis</a>. My research documents how these rural areas are being asked to adapt to save cities and industries, and how that’s affecting their cultures. </p>
<h2>The downside to wetlands restoration</h2>
<p>The state’s coastal margins have been disappearing at the rate of about <a href="https://coastal.la.gov/reports/2017-coastal-master-plan/">23 square miles per year</a>. That’s due in part to flood protection levees that redirected water-borne sediment away from the Mississippi River Delta. This sediment once seasonally rejuvenated the river’s floodplain, backswamps and marshes during spring flooding. Now, it’s channeled between high levees, so all that material is carried far offshore.</p>
<p>Without regular replenishment, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz5512">the delta sinks</a>. Navigation canals dug for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207717">oil and gas development</a> have contributed to saltwater intrusion and erosion, furthering land loss. Pumping oil and gas also <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/of03-337/extraction.html">accelerates the land’s subsidence</a>.</p>
<p>The gradual rise of the water level in the Gulf of Mexico as the climate warms, combined with these other processes, exposes Louisiana to the <a href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/">highest rates of relative sea level rise</a> in the U.S. That makes the low-lying coastal parishes more susceptible to erosion and storm surge flooding like Ida’s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial photo showing homes and covered docks lining the edges of a bayou." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421931/original/file-20210917-27-1vymepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Near Lafitte, Louisiana, homes are nestled along bayous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bayou-lafitte-louisiana-united-states-of-america-news-photo/500638787?adppopup=true">Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of southern Louisiana showing expected land loss by 2050." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=235&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421484/original/file-20210916-19-191h1r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rising seas and sinking land are changing the outline of Louisiana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://coastal.la.gov/reports/2017-coastal-master-plan/">Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fixing one problem, creating another</h2>
<p>To offset this slow-moving disaster, the state has launched an ambitious program to fortify the coast and restore wetlands and barrier islands.</p>
<p>The plan includes structures to <a href="https://coastal.la.gov/reports/2017-coastal-master-plan/">divert Mississippi River water and sediment</a> into the marshes again. But those freshwater diversions bring another problem: They can change the water chemistry and add sediment, affecting the oysters, shrimp, crabs and fish that residents depend on.</p>
<p>The state’s <a href="https://coastal.la.gov/">Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority</a>, which is directing this gargantuan effort, is attentive to protecting the major industries and largest cities, restoring critical coastal habitats and ecological functions, and assisting coastal residents. Toward these ends it has <a href="https://coastal.la.gov/reports/2017-coastal-master-plan/">spent millions of dollars</a> studying the geology, hydrology and ecology of the region. And it intends to spend billions on its projects, which would create multiple layers of defense such as restored wetlands and barrier islands, along with levees.</p>
<p>Its regularly updated plans note that local culture matters as well. Yet, it hasn’t measured the social and cultural processes at work or modeled their future. Planners have offered no designs for protecting and restoring cultures that will be disrupted by either land loss or the projects on the drawing boards.</p>
<h2>Cultures at risk</h2>
<p>Distinctive ethnic and culture groups have persisted here despite living amid the waves of calamity that wash over their homes. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05047-170305">Our studies</a> explain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1115-7">how locally based practices</a> have enabled them to rebound, rebuild and recover after hurricanes, river floods, epidemics and oil spills. Social scientists refer to these as inherent or informal resilience.</p>
<p>Long before the arrival of Civil Defense, FEMA or other government-organized response efforts, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05047-170305">residents deployed these practices</a>, enabling people reeling from a hurricane to begin rescuing, sheltering and feeding neighbors and repairing housing and workplaces. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Satellite images showing widespread flooding" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421923/original/file-20210917-23-1phhpiy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Satellite images of Louisiana’s coast on Sept. 19, 2015 (left), and on Sept. 3, 2021 (right), after Hurricane Ida.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148809/a-changed-landscape-in-southern-louisiana-after-hurricane-ida">Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The state’s restoration plans neglect these fundamental cultural skills.</p>
<p>The plan also allows for “<a href="https://coastal.la.gov/reports/2017-coastal-master-plan/">voluntary acquisition</a>” of homes of those who live beyond the structural protections and wish to depart. Yet, there has been no meaningful discussion, study or planning for assisted resettlement of at-risk communities by the agency in charge of coastal restoration. Another agency has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-021-00682-5">worked for several years to assist</a> the largely Native American community of <a href="https://isledejeancharles.la.gov/">Isle de Jean Charles</a> to begin an inland move. There is no comparable effort for other communities within the master plan.</p>
<p>Buyouts may enable some families to escape a precarious situation. But without community-wide resettlement assistance, it will inevitably contribute to community fragmentation and cultural dissolution as residents drift apart.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Severely damaged homes and a sign that reads: 'Isle de Jean Charles is not dead. Climate change sucks.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421918/original/file-20210917-27-ftkkoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rising seas had already forced many people out of Isle de Jean Charles, a largely Native American community, by the time Ida hit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TropicalWeather/aba12712a5074fdeabbee4edd16c24b7/photo">AP Photo/Gerald Herbert</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As cultural communities erode due to departures caused by massive storms and other disasters, the state is abetting, unintentionally, the disintegration of the coastal region’s distinctive and highly valued cultures.</p>
<h2>A warning to other coastal areas</h2>
<p>Louisiana’s landscape offers a preview of what might be expected in other locations facing sea level rise and seeking protection behind fixed dikes or levees.</p>
<p>These barriers tend to disrupt local environments that resource-based economies such as fishing depend on. They also contribute to a “levee effect” – the creation of a false sense of security that exposes coastal residents to severe impacts when a storm exceeds the levee’s design limits. </p>
<p>With each successive storm, recovery funds will go into repairing damaged rigid coastal protection systems, like the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/after-a-14-billion-upgrade-new-orleans-levees-are-sinking/">US$14 billion</a> to repair the New Orleans levees after Hurricane Katrina and the untabulated damage to restoration projects caused by Ida. That means less money available to address the needs of threatened cultural communities.</p>
<p>Designing protection systems that incorporate informal resilience, such as community-directed resettlement planning, or that integrate with existing social networks can protect both coastal cultures and inland populations. And when conditions become untenable, as some Louisiana settlements are discovering, the state’s investments may have to go beyond individual buyouts to help communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-021-00682-5">plan a safer future together</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig E. Colten received funding from the Community and Regional Resilience Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Water Institute of the Gulf</span></em></p>As the state copes with hurricanes and climate disasters, it is figuring out how to manage the slow-motion loss of its coastal land. But its plans could endanger the cultures that define the region.Craig E. Colten, Professor Emeritus of Geography, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1588342021-05-27T12:06:40Z2021-05-27T12:06:40ZLocal newspapers can help reduce polarization with opinion pages that focus on local issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402435/original/file-20210524-21-14xhh37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4819%2C3613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opinion journalism can rile people up -- or it can bring them together.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-people-reading-one-newspaper-royalty-free-image/102759526?adppopup=true">momentimages/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’re confused about opinion journalism and what it is, you’re not alone. Many Americans are. But even so, the editorials, opinion columns and letters to the editor that fill the op-ed pages could help bridge political divides in the U.S. and offer some help to struggling local news outlets.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/225755/americans-news-bias-name-neutral-source.aspx">Two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup in 2017 said</a> that the news media do not distinguish between fact and opinion, an increase from 42% in 1984. <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/confusion-about-whats-news-and-whats-opinion-is-a-big-problem-but-journalists-can-help-solve-it/">Only 43%</a> of people in another poll said that <a href="https://theconversation.com/journalists-believe-news-and-opinion-are-separate-but-readers-cant-tell-the-difference-140901">they can easily tell the difference between news and opinion online</a>. Half of Americans are unfamiliar with the stock opinion journalism term, “op-ed,” which is shorthand for an opinion column.</p>
<p>As the lines between opinion and news blur in many Americans’ minds, <a href="https://www.axios.com/media-trust-crisis-2bf0ec1c-00c0-4901-9069-e26b21c283a9.html">trust in media is falling</a>. Local news sources – daily newspapers and local television news programs – are seen as more <a href="https://knightfoundation.org/articles/local-news-is-more-trusted-than-national-news-but-that-could-change/">trusted, caring and unbiased</a> than national news sources, but even that trust is fraying.</p>
<p>Like nearly everything else in American politics, <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2020/01/24/u-s-media-polarization-and-the-2020-election-a-nation-divided/">trust in the media is polarized along party lines</a>: Democrats trust the media far more than Republicans do, and the most ideological members of each party have the most different ideas about media’s trustworthiness.</p>
<p>Given this confusion and disagreement, it might seem unlikely that opinion journalism could be a positive influence. But our research shows that it can.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RSOzvUAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholars</a> who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BeWPCGEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">politics</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AzPHmwYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">the media</a>. We have found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy051">local newspapers</a> – and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/home-style-opinion">local opinion journalism</a> in particular – can bridge political divisions and attract more readers.</p>
<h2>Vibrant community forum</h2>
<p>Opinion journalism is not news reporting; it is distinguished by its stated point of view. It has three basic formats: editorials; opinion columns, or “op-eds”; and letters to the editor. </p>
<p>Editorials are written in the newspaper’s voice by the editorial board, often composed of editors, owners and community members. Op-eds are typically written by professional columnists or community leaders. Letters are written by regular readers.</p>
<p>Op-eds ensure that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/107769901008700204">perspectives from nonjournalists</a> appear in the newspaper, help the general public <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2008.00122.x">interpret major events</a> and can <a href="https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/QJPS-16112">change readers’ minds</a> on the issues. The best op-ed pages operate almost like a town square, allowing readers to discuss and debate issues important both to their communities and beyond.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot from Desert Sun newspaper column by editor Julie Makinen with the headline, 'The Desert Sun opinion pages are taking a summer vacation from national politics. You can help us!'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402440/original/file-20210524-15-6sxk37.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In June 2019, Desert Sun Editor Julie Makinen announced a big change for the newspaper’s opinion pages: no national politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2021/03/31/desert-sun-opinion-page-study-shows-experiment-curbed-polarization/4826254001/">Desert Sun screenshot</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the economic crisis in local news is making it harder for the opinion page to realize its potential as a vibrant community forum. Falling revenues and diminished numbers of staff have forced local newspapers to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/08/in-print-newspapers-cut-opinion/">use more syndicated columnists from outside of the paper’s community</a> and whose work usually has a national focus. Some papers have cut the position of opinion editor completely. </p>
<p>Without a dedicated staffer to seek out community writers and edit their work, newspapers’ reliance on syndicated columns means more opinion columns focused on <a href="https://www.cjr.org/criticism/bret-stephens-op-ed-new-york-times-wall-street-journal.php">“right versus left” ideological conflicts</a> between the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz039">two national political extremes</a>, not local issues.</p>
<h2>No more national politics?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/home-style-opinion/646C3D86BDCB2E370CEB0A5D51083171#fndtn-information">Our book</a> shows how doing the opposite – getting rid of national politics on the opinion page and reinvesting in local opinion content – can help newspapers attract readers and cool tensions in their community.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.desertsun.com/">The Desert Sun</a> of Palm Springs, California, <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/2019/06/07/desert-sun-opinion-pages-taking-break-national-politics-july-help-us/1369621001/">tried this for the month of July 2019</a>: no syndicated columns, no cartoons about national politics, no letters about then-President Donald Trump. </p>
<p>We measured the ways this experiment changed the material that was published and the attitudes of the people in the community.</p>
<p>It was a major shift. In June, the month prior to this change, half of The Desert Sun’s op-ed page was nationally syndicated columns, and one-third of all columns referenced Trump. In July, national syndication disappeared, as did all stories mentioning the president. California topics were the focus of less than half of all columns in June, but 96% focused on California in July. Mentions of the Democratic and Republican parties dropped by more than half, from 25% of all columns to 10%.</p>
<p>Local issues filled the page: Issues like artistic and cultural preservation, traffic and downtown development, and education and the environment got much more attention. The unique character of Palm Springs shone through, once given a chance.</p>
<p>We surveyed readers before and after The Desert Sun’s experiment, in Palm Springs and a different city, Ventura, whose local newspaper, the Ventura County Sun, didn’t change its opinion page. We wanted to see if the change in opinion journalism shifted how people think and feel about their political opponents.</p>
<p>Political polarization, which is when people feel far apart from the opposing party, slowed significantly in Palm Springs compared to Ventura among certain groups: </p>
<ul>
<li>Those who read the newspaper; </li>
<li>Those who know a lot about politics; and</li>
<li>People who participate most in politics.</li>
</ul>
<p>These groups are the people most likely to share their views and inform others, potentially spreading the newspaper’s influence into the broader community. Even if only a fraction of the community reads the newspaper regularly – The Desert Sun’s total circulation is just over 26,000 – a change like this could have larger spillover effects. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two boxing gloves that represent Red and Blue America, pushing against each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402441/original/file-20210524-15-tgyilu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When opinion pages concentrate on national, partisan politics, communities become polarized politically.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cultural-wars-royalty-free-image/1254512635?adppopup=true">wildpixel/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Desert Sun’s readers enjoyed the change: Online readership of opinion pieces <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2021/03/31/desert-sun-opinion-page-study-shows-experiment-curbed-polarization/4826254001/">nearly doubled in July</a>, and in reader surveys we fielded after the experiment, almost five times as many readers <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/2019/08/16/desert-sun-survey-readers-approve-local-news-only-editorial-page/2033233001/">said they approved as said they disapproved of the experiment</a>. The experiment helped the newspaper recruit more opinion writers, who then continued to write in the months that followed.</p>
<h2>Reinvesting in opinion</h2>
<p>Supporters of local news could follow the lessons of this research by raising money to pay for opinion editor positions and funding creative thinking like The Desert Sun’s experiment.</p>
<p>The alternative is that opinion pages will wither and cease to reflect their communities. A local-only opinion page won’t restore the economic model that supported newspapers in decades past, but our research shows it can bring back some readers and bridge some of the political divides that can drive American communities apart.</p>
<p>By keeping the focus local, the opinion page could play a small part in restoring trust and helping local newspapers survive these trying times.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The best op-ed pages operate like a town square, allowing readers to discuss and debate issues important to their communities and beyond. But many now focus on divisive national political issues.Johanna Dunaway, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M UniversityJoshua P. Darr, Assistant Professor of Political Communication, Louisiana State University Matthew P. Hitt, Associate Professor of Political Science, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1564632021-03-15T12:59:17Z2021-03-15T12:59:17ZAfter the insurrection, America’s far-right groups get more extreme<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389153/original/file-20210311-14-148i0gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C5000%2C3570&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Capitol remains on lockdown, defended by the National Guard.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/national-guard-soldiers-patrol-outside-the-us-capitol-on-news-photo/1231535500">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the U.S. grapples with domestic extremism in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, warnings about more violence are coming from the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/us/politics/wray-domestic-terrorism-capitol.html">FBI Director Chris Wray</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/domestic-terror-law-blindspot-capitol-attack-1568352">others</a>. The Conversation asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fjys1XAAAAAJ&hl=en">Matthew Valasik</a>, a sociologist at Louisiana State University, and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=cLpO6QwAAAAJ">Shannon E. Reid</a>, a criminologist at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte, to explain what right-wing extremist groups in the U.S. are doing. The scholars are co-authors of “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300453/alt-right-gangs">Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White</a>,” published in September 2020; they track the activities of far-right groups like the Proud Boys.</em></p>
<h2>What are U.S. extremist groups doing since the Jan. 6 riot?</h2>
<p>Local chapters of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/us/extremism-capitol-riot.html">Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Groypers and others</a> are breaking away from their groups’ national figureheads. For instance, some local Proud Boys chapters have been <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/12/proud-boys-splintering-after-capitol-riot-revelations-leader/6709017002/">explicitly cutting ties</a> with national leader Enrique Tarrio, the group’s chairman.</p>
<p>Tarrio was arrested on federal weapons charges in the days before the insurrection, but he has also been revealed as a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-proudboys-leader-exclusive/exclusive-proud-boys-leader-was-prolific-informer-for-law-enforcement-idUSKBN29W1PE">longtime FBI informant</a>. He reportedly aided authorities in a variety of criminal cases, including those involving <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/proud-boys-enrique-tarrio-fbi-informer/2021/01/27/21c1df0e-60be-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html">drug sales, gambling and human smuggling</a> – though he has not yet been connected with cases against Proud Boys members.</p>
<p>When a leader of a far-right group or street gang leaves, regardless of the reason, it is common for a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2015.1038106">struggle to emerge</a> among remaining members who seek to consolidate power. That can result in violence spilling over into the community as groups attempt to reshape themselves. </p>
<p>While some of the splinter Proud Boys chapters will likely maintain the Proud Boys brand, at least for the time being, others may evolve and become more radicalized. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjpb5q/for-some-joining-the-proud-boys-was-a-stop-on-the-way-to-neo-nazi-terror">The Base, a neo-Nazi terror group</a>, has recruited from among the ranks of Proud Boys. As the Proud Boys sheds affiliates, it would not be surprising for those with <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx8xp4/a-proud-boys-lawyer-wanted-to-be-a-nazi-terrorist">more enthusiasm</a> about hateful activism to seek out more extreme groups. Less committed groups will wither away.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in sunglasses stands outside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389151/original/file-20210311-13-1aibpdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enrique Tarrio, the national leader of the Proud Boys, outside the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/enrique-tarrio-leader-of-the-proud-boys-is-seen-outside-the-news-photo/1231447173">Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does that response compare with what happened after 2017’s ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville?</h2>
<p>Neither the Capitol insurrection nor the Charlottesville rally produced the response from mainstream America that far-right groups had hoped for. Rather than rising up in a groundswell of support, most Americans were appalled – some so much that they have <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/01/962246187/spurred-by-the-capitol-riot-thousands-of-republicans-drop-their-party">abandoned the Republican Party</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, right-wingers have been hit hard by the post-insurrection actions by <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-social-media-bans-twitter-facebook-parler-d8e985e0-0c59-4386-95c7-a2aa3ff0096e.html">large technology companies</a> like Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google and Amazon. They took down far-right group members’ accounts and removed right-wing social media platforms, including <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html">permanently blacklisting Donald Trump’s Twitter account</a> and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-was-parler-shut-down-heres-why-the-social-network-is-offline-11610478890">temporarily blocking all traffic to Parler, a conservative social media platform</a>. Those steps are <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/parler-bans-new-chapter-free-speech-wars/">more significant</a> than earlier moderation and algorithm changes those companies had undertaken in previous efforts to curb online extremism.</p>
<p>Another major difference is the lack of regret. Nobody on the right wanted to be associated with Charlottesville after it happened. Figureheads of the far right who had <a href="http://idavox.com/index.php/2017/08/26/the-internet-never-forgets-how-gavin-mcinnis-attempts-to-delete-charlottesville-support-message-but-cant/">initially promoted that rally</a> saw the negative public reaction and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/09/21/gavin-mcinnes-alt-right-proud-boys-richard-spencer-charlottesville/">distanced themselves, even condemning</a> the “Unite the Right” rally.</p>
<p>After the insurrection at the Capitol, their response was different. They did not split and blame other right-wing groups. Instead, conservative and extreme-right circles have united behind a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972564176/antifa-didnt-storm-the-capitol-just-ask-the-rioters">false claim that they did nothing wrong</a>, and alleged, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-far-right-rioters-at-the-capitol-were-not-antifa-but-violent-groups-often-blame-rivals-for-unpopular-attacks-153193">left-wing activists assaulted the Capitol</a> – while disguised as right-wingers.</p>
<h2>Are extremist groups attracting new members?</h2>
<p>Some members have left extremist groups in the wake of the Jan. 6 violence. The members who remain, and the new members they are attracting, are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/opinion/domestic-terrorism-far-right-insurrection.html">increasing the radicalization of far-right groups</a>. As the less committed members abandon these far-right groups, only the more devout remain. Such a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/3/3/2019262/-Warning-of-III-militia-plot-fueled-by-March-4-conspiracy-theories-induces-House-to-shut-down">shift is going to alter the subculture</a> of these groups, driving them farther to the right. We expect this <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/podcasts/the-growing-threat-of-far-right-extremism">polarization will only accelerate the reactionary behaviors and extremist tendencies</a> of these far-right groups.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/23/959884145/how-conservative-media-has-covered-bidens-first-days-as-president">Right-wing pundits</a> and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-washington-military-occupation-liberal-fear">conservative media</a> are continuing to stoke fears about the Biden administration. We and other observers of right-wing groups expect that extremists will come to see <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/08/capitol-mob-far-right-trump-propaganda/">the events of Jan. 6 as just the opening skirmish in a modern civil war</a>. We anticipate they will continue to seek an end to American democracy and the beginning of a new society free – or even purged – of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/19/magazine/boogaloo.html">groups the right wing fears</a>, including immigrants, Jewish people, nonwhites, LGBTQ people and those who value multiculturalism.</p>
<p>We expect that these groups will continue to <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/01/22/capitol-insurrection-shows-how-trends-far-rights-fringe-have-become-mainstream">shift more and more to the extreme right</a>, posing risks for acts of violence both large and small.</p>
<h2>Have far-right extremists’ views toward the police changed?</h2>
<p>With a Democratic administration and attorney general, the far right will no longer view federal law enforcement agencies as friendly, the way they did under the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-riot-exposes-far-right-police-officers-longstanding-issue-2021-1">Trump administration</a>. Rather, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/capitol-police-officers-support/2021/01/08/a16e07a2-51da-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html">view the police as the enemy</a>. </p>
<p>Even before Joe Biden took office and the Republicans officially lost control of the U.S. Senate, the Capitol riot showed this divide between right-wing extremists and police. A Capitol Police officer was assaulted with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/11/police-beating-capitol-mob/">flagpole bearing an American flag</a>, and some members of the mob were <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2021/0114/Capitol-assault-Why-did-police-show-up-on-both-sides-of-thin-blue-line">police officers and military personnel</a>. Many more were <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/21/958915267/nearly-one-in-five-defendants-in-capitol-riot-cases-served-in-the-military">military veterans</a>.</p>
<p>It’s not clear what this different view of law enforcement means for police officers, active-duty military and veterans who are members of right-wing groups. But we anticipate that only those who are most zealously committed to far-right causes will remain active. That, in turn, will push those groups <a href="https://theconversation.com/armed-groups-from-capitol-riot-pose-longer-term-threat-to-biden-presidency-153580">even farther to the extreme right</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man at a lectern" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389154/original/file-20210311-16-ziit0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attorney General Merrick Garland has decades of experience fighting right-wing extremism in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BidenAttorneyGeneral/19424077c4cc4862a13d15175a8566df/photo">Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Has anything changed for militias since Biden has become president?</h2>
<p>In 2009, the <a href="https://fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf">Department of Homeland Security issued a report warning</a> about the growing membership in far-right groups, including their active recruitment of military veterans. Shortly after the report was released, <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/08/dhs/">Republicans in Congress</a> pushed for the <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781633885165/Hateland-A-Long-Hard-Look-at-America%27s-Extremist-Heart">report to be retracted</a> and for <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2011/inside-dhs-former-top-analyst-says-agency-bowed-political-pressure">dramatically reducing the federal effort</a> to monitor far-right groups in the U.S. This permissive atmosphere allowed far-right groups to grow and spread nationwide. </p>
<p>The Trump administration further served far-right groups by failing to pay out <a href="https://time.com/5944085/far-right-extremism-biden/">federal grants for grassroots counterviolence programs</a>, by <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/trump-shut-countering-violent-extremism-program/574237/">refusing to help</a> local law enforcement agencies with equipment or training to deal with these groups, and by routinely <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/trump-domestic-extemism-homeland-security-401926">downplaying the violence</a> perpetrated by these white power groups. Essentially, far-right groups were unpoliced for the past decade or more.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But that approach has ended. Merrick Garland’s appointment as Biden’s attorney general is a big signal: In his career at the Department of Justice before becoming a federal judge, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/merrick-garland-oklahoma-city-bombing/2021/02/19/a9e6adde-67f2-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html">Garland supervised the investigations of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing</a>.</p>
<p>These were two of the most noteworthy acts of far-right domestic terrorism in the nation’s history. Garland has said that he will make fighting right-wing violence and attacks on democracy <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/539885-garland-pledges-to-prioritize-domestic-terrorism-battle">major priorities of his tenure</a> at the head of the Justice Department.</p>
<p>In January, Canada designated the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdw8z/what-canadas-terror-laws-mean-for-proud-boys">Proud Boys and other right-wing groups as terrorist organizations</a>, which puts pressure on U.S. law enforcement to reconsider how they <a href="https://theconversation.com/designating-the-proud-boys-a-terrorist-organization-wont-stop-hate-fuelled-violence-154709">evaluate, investigate and prosecute</a> these extremist groups. Beyond law enforcement’s treating these far-right groups like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/03/the-proud-boys-are-a-far-right-gang-trump-boosted-them-on-national-tv">street gangs</a>, there are also laws in place to combat <a href="https://www.insider.com/canada-is-considering-labeling-proud-boys-a-terrorist-organization-2021-1">violence associated with domestic terrorism</a>. </p>
<p>It appears that U.S. prosecutors may finally begin to take seriously the violent actions of Proud Boys, especially as more and more members are being charged with coordinating the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/proud-boys-leader-capitol-riot/2021/03/02/0ca15138-7aed-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html">breach of the U.S. Capitol Building</a>.</p>
<p>But as police power comes to bear on these violent right-wing groups, many of their members remain at least as radicalized as they were on Jan. 6 – if not more so. Some may feel that <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/militia-armed-uprising-biden-bundy-haaland-interior.html">more extreme measures</a> are needed to resist the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/qanon-theorists-switch-date-march-20-after-no-trump-inauguration-call-4th-false-flag-1573871">Biden administration</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156463/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New members are joining and some are leaving – as right-wing groups reorganize, scholars of the movement foresee increased polarization, with a risk of more violence.Matthew Valasik, Associate Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University Shannon Reid, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1544562021-02-16T13:30:04Z2021-02-16T13:30:04Z46,218 news transcripts show ideologically extreme politicians get more airtime<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384034/original/file-20210212-23-188m7kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=485%2C0%2C5505%2C3970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks to the press after the House voted to remove her from committee assignments.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-speaks-during-a-press-conference-news-photo/1230985464?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Committee assignments are normally a blessing for new House members. But some of today’s newer members, like freshmen Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn, seem to be more interested in punditry than policy.</p>
<p>When Greene was stripped of her committee assignments on Feb. 4 for a series of past statements that included <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55940542">threats directed against her Democratic colleagues</a>, she replied by tweeting that she woke up “<a href="https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1357675098887577601?s=20">literally laughing</a>” that “a bunch of morons” had given her “free time” to promote her views in the media.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Cawthorn, <a href="https://time.com/5931815/madison-cawthorn-post-trump/">in a recent email to colleagues</a>, noted that he built his staff “around comms [communications] rather than legislation.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.joshuadarr.com">We research</a> how changes in the media have shifted the incentives of elected officials and the considerations of voters, and what that means for American democracy.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz039">In recent work</a>, we showed that extremely conservative and extremely liberal legislators receive far more airtime on cable and broadcast news than their moderate counterparts. </p>
<p>Robust local news outlets once held legislators to account by <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691126074/congress-the-press-and-political-accountability">covering whether they delivered for their districts</a>. But as local news has declined, voters are turning to national media outlets for their political news. There, ideological outliers now set the tone of the debate, distorting perceptions of the important issues and warping Americans’ views of their political options.</p>
<h2>Communications become currency</h2>
<p>Committees give representatives <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Congressmen_in_Committees.html?id=BTvPAAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description">power and influence</a> on issues that matter to their district. A seat on a committee can help a representative <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Congress.html?id=j17QomTrD1EC">claim credit for legislation</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12323">raise money</a>.</p>
<p>Serving on powerful and relevant committees pays dividends for new legislators, who are under pressure to produce before they face reelection in less than two years. New members are called backbenchers for a reason, however. They step into a system where experience is currency, and they are flat broke. Spots on committees are doled out by party leadership based on seniority and loyalty.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago, newcomers were totally out of luck. The House was controlled by older, entrenched committee chairs who were <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/26/congress-broke-american-politics-218544/">even more powerful than elected leadership</a>.</p>
<p>But after the 1974 election swept in 93 new members, these backbenchers – dubbed “Watergate Babies,” since they were elected in the wake of President Nixon’s resignation – pushed for reforms that opened up committee membership and allowed <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/26/congress-broke-american-politics-218544/">television coverage</a> of committee hearings and the House floor. In the following years, politicians like Newt Gingrich took advantage of this opportunity to <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/26/congress-broke-american-politics-218544/">reach prime-time audiences and raise their profiles</a> through combative floor speeches.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A congressman on the House floor is shown through the lens of a camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384039/original/file-20210212-21-2lsg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse is seen through a television camera viewfinder as he delivers an opening statement during a committee hearing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/house-judiciary-committee-member-rep-joe-neguse-is-seen-news-photo/1193420409?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Communications staffs <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/making-laws-and-making-news/">expanded</a> as earning coverage and shaping debate <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo3534630.html">through the media rather than in committee meetings</a> became the norm. </p>
<p>The tactics that make good television are very different from those for succeeding in the committee system. Breaking from the party line is punished when committees are the way to get ahead and party leaders control the assignments. </p>
<p>But this same divergence from the party line <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/when-politicians-attack/DD8E70CD87999788C8C9C894A3EB6872">is rewarded when media exposure becomes a valuable currency</a>: Sticking out from the crowd can elicit attention from media outlets seeking to highlight controversy in order to attract viewers.</p>
<p>Then there’s social media, which allows politicians to bypass reporters and editors. Rather than merely hoping reporters publish their quotes, representatives can tweet and post whatever they like, reaching <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/marjorie-taylor-greene-capitalizing-on-controversy/">large audiences of supporters and donors</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1323813315169165313"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-impostors-steve-benen?variant=32123357626402">Instead of shaping policy</a> that would help them locally, politicians focus on burnishing their national profiles, either through winning coverage on national cable and broadcast news or by boosting their social media followings. </p>
<h2>Extreme members reap the rewards</h2>
<p>Today’s new House members understand that media coverage will help them achieve their goals, and that expressing extreme ideas is one way to earn it.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz039">Our research</a> shows that ideologically extreme members of Congress get to speak more often than moderates on both cable and broadcast networks. </p>
<p>Using a common ideological measure called <a href="https://voteview.com/">DW-NOMINATE</a>, we compared the ideologies of all House members with those featured on cable networks Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, and broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC. We studied 46,218 transcripts from 2005 to 2013 to find when representatives spoke on air.</p>
<p>We found that the House that’s shown on the news is much more ideologically extreme than the actual House. When we divided representatives into five equal groups by ideology, we found that the most extreme groups on each end of the political spectrum were most often given airtime.</p>
<p>This effect is strongest for conservatives on the far right end of the spectrum, though both ideological poles are heard from more often on national cable and broadcast television than moderates. Cable networks were more likely than broadcast to feature extreme legislators, but overall, pushing the boundaries meant more coverage across television networks.</p>
<h2>On television news, conflict and drama sell</h2>
<p>Since news companies primarily seek to attract viewers and boost ad revenue, the conflict and drama stoked by extreme legislators make them a natural fit for <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691123677/all-the-news-thats-fit-to-sell">this business model</a>.</p>
<p>While it may help the bottom lines of TV networks, it doesn’t help democracy.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that the public already sees politics as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/697253">more polarized than it is</a>, and that media coverage of political conflict and polarization can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2015.1038455">deepen those perceptions</a>. TV networks and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/radical-ideas-social-media-algorithms/">social media algorithms</a>, by amplifying the extremes, are likely driving the American public further apart.</p>
<p>Broader trends in the media – namely, the demise of local news – are making this dynamic worse. Both local <a href="https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2018/new-pew-study-says-local-tv-news-viewing-dropping-fast-2/">television</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/local-journalism-in-crisis-why-america-must-revive-its-local-newsrooms/">newspapers are declining fast</a>, but <a href="https://sanford.duke.edu/articles/newspapers-still-best-bet-local-news">local newspapers supply most of the stories</a> that local TV reports on. The entire local news ecosystem is suffering: Local <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/20/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-dropped-by-a-quarter-since-2008/">newsrooms have shed half their employees</a> since 2008.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand what’s going on in Washington.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-most">Sign up for The Conversation’s Politics Weekly</a>.]</p>
<p>Local news outlets are much more likely to report on the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691126074/congress-the-press-and-political-accountability">benefits and services legislators bring back</a> to their districts. When local news is strong, government is <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/11/damaged-newspapers-damaged-civic-life-how-the-gutting-of-local-newsrooms-has-led-to-a-less-informed-public/">more responsive</a>, local elections are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08997764.2013.785553">more</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087419838058">competitive</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/WP44.pdf">local government finances even improve</a>. On the other hand, where local news is weaker, there is <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.104.8.2456">more corruption</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy051">polarization</a>.</p>
<p>When legislators respond to local news incentives instead of national ones, their constituents benefit. As local news declines, they have less reason to do so.</p>
<p>Any solution would require national TV news to change. Networks could feature a range of views instead of flocking to the extremes, include <a href="https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/tv-news-extreme-partisans-congress/">more perspectives from local journalists</a> or spotlight <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/compromise-in-an-age-of-party-polarization-9780197510506?lang=en&cc=us">compromises as well as disagreements</a>, all of which would help reverse these dynamics.</p>
<p>For now, freshmen stepping into the House think that their path forward is paved with national media coverage. </p>
<p>In many ways, they’re not wrong.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When far-right and far-left politicians get most of the media attention, it hurts democracy.Joshua P. Darr, Assistant Professor of Political Communication, Louisiana State University Jeremy Padgett, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of MobileJohanna Dunaway, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1467282020-09-24T19:10:14Z2020-09-24T19:10:14ZHomes are flooding outside FEMA’s 100-year flood zones, and racial inequality is showing through<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359877/original/file-20200924-20-1400ezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=291%2C354%2C2299%2C1612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hurricane Harvey showed the racial disparities in flood damage outside Houston's 100-year flood zones.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-wait-to-be-rescued-from-their-flooded-homes-after-news-photo/840245708">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When hurricanes and other extreme storms unleash downpours like Tropical Storm Beta has been doing in the South, the floodwater doesn’t always stay within the government’s flood risk zones.</p>
<p>New research suggests that nearly twice as many properties are at risk from a 100-year flood today than the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood maps indicate. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, many of the people living in those properties have no idea that their homes are at risk until the floodwaters rise.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SmYUxIEAAAAJ&hl=en">sociologist who works on disaster vulnerability</a>. In a new study, I looked at the makeup of communities in Houston that aren’t in the 100-year flood zone, but that still flood. What I found tells a story of racial disparities in the city. Research in other cities has shown <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4">similar flooding problems</a> in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. </p>
<p>Poor stormwater infrastructure, expanding urbanization and limited flood mitigation efforts are a few of the reasons why.</p>
<h2>Flooding outside the zones</h2>
<p>About <a href="https://furmancenter.org/files/Floodplain_PopulationBrief_12DEC2017.pdf">15 million</a> Americans live in FEMA’s current 100-year flood zones. The designation warns them that their properties face a 1% risk of flooding in any given year. They must obtain flood insurance if they want a federally ensured loan – insurance that helps them recover from flooding.</p>
<p>In Greater Houston, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01840.x">47% of claims</a> made to FEMA across three decades before Hurricane Harvey were outside of the 100-year flood zones. Harris County, recognizing that FEMA flood maps don’t capture the full risk, now <a href="https://www.hcfcd.org/floodinsurance">recommends that every household</a> in Houston and the rest of the county have flood insurance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman puts her daughter's shoe on after they were rescued from a flooded apartment complex." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359882/original/file-20200924-23-1nf75x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harris County, home to Houston, now recommends all households have flood insurance, whether they’re in a FEMA flood zone or not.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SevereWeatherTexas/4fe6ec4e1f7c4e328e50cf71f3f3606d/photo">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New risk models point to a similar conclusion: Flood risk in these areas outstrips expectations in the current FEMA flood maps.</p>
<p>One of those models, from the <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/2020-national-flood-risk-assessment-highlights/">First Street Foundation</a>, estimates that the number of properties at risk in a 100-year storm is 1.7 times higher than the FEMA maps suggest. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaac65">researchers</a> find an even higher margin, with 2.6 to 3.1 times more people exposed to serious flooding in a 100-year storm than FEMA estimates.</p>
<h2>What FEMA’s flood maps miss</h2>
<p>Understanding why areas outside the 100-year flood zones are flooding more often than the FEMA maps suggest involves larger social and environmental issues. Three reasons stand out.</p>
<p>First, some places rely on relatively old FEMA maps that don’t account for recent urbanization.</p>
<p>Urbanization matters because impervious surfaces – think pavement and buildings – are not effective sponges like natural landscapes can be. Moreover, the process for updating floodplain maps is locally variable and can take years to complete. Famously, New York City was updating its maps when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 but hadn’t finished, meaning flood maps in effect <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nyc-flood/">were from 1983</a>. FEMA is required to assess whether updates are needed every five years, but the <a href="https://www.fema.gov/cis/nation.html">majority of maps</a> <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2017/OIG-17-110-Sep17.pdf">are older</a>.</p>
<p>Second, binary thinking can lead people to an underaccounting of risk, and that can mean communities fail to take steps that could protect a neighborhood from flooding. The logic goes: if I’m not in the 100-year floodplain, then I’m not at risk. Risk perception <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab195a">research</a> backs this up. FEMA-delineated flood zones are the major factor shaping flood mitigation behaviors.</p>
<p>Third, the era of climate change scuttles conventional assumptions.</p>
<p>As the planet warms, extreme storms are becoming <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/">more common and severe</a>. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a high rate, computer models suggest that the chances of a severe storm dropping 20 inches of rain on Texas in any given year will increase from about 1% at the end of the last century to 18% at the end of this one, a chance of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716222114">once every 5.5 years</a>. So far, <a href="https://www.rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/195.pdf">FEMA hasn’t taken into account the impact climate change is having</a> on extreme weather and sea level rise.</p>
<h2>Racial disparities in flooding outside the zones</h2>
<p>So, who is at risk?</p>
<p>Years of research and evidence from storms have highlighted social inequalities in areas with a high risk of flooding. But most local governments have less understanding of the social and demographic composition of communities that experience flood impacts outside of flood zones.</p>
<p>In analyzing the damage from Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area, I found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aba0fe">Black and Hispanic residents disproportionately experienced flooding</a> in areas beyond FEMA’s 100-year flood zones.</p>
<p>With the majority of flooding from Hurricane Harvey occurring outside of 100-year flood zones, this meant that the overall impact of Harvey was racially unequal too.</p>
<p>Research into where flooding occurs in Baltimore, Chicago and Phoenix points to some of the potential causes. <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4#16">In Baltimore and Chicago</a>, for example, aging storm and sewer infrastructure, poor construction and insufficient efforts to mitigate flooding are part of the flooding problem in some predominantly Black neighborhoods. </p>
<h2>What can be done about it</h2>
<p>Better accounting for those three reasons could substantively improve risk assessments and help cities prioritize infrastructure improvements and flood mitigation projects in these at-risk neighborhoods.</p>
<p>For example, First Street Foundation’s risk maps account for <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/flood-model-methodology_overview/">climate change</a> and present <a href="https://floodfactor.com/">ratings</a> on a scale from 1 to 10. FEMA, which works with communities to update flood maps, is <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1521054297905-ca85d066dddb84c975b165db653c9049/TMAC_2017_Annual_Report_Final508(v8)_03-12-2018.pdf">exploring rating systems</a>. And the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/03/new-report-calls-for-different-approaches-to-predict-and-understand-urban-flooding">called for a new generation of flood maps</a> that takes climate change into account. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Including recent urbanization in those assessments will matter too, especially in fast-growing cities like Houston, where <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1boBRyDvMFW6W">386 new square miles</a> of impervious surfaces were created in the last 20 years. That’s greater than the land area of New York City. New construction in one area can also <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2018/01/city-in-a-swamp-as-houston-booms-its-flood-problems-are-only-getting-worse/">impact older neighborhoods downhill</a> during a flood, as some Houston communities discovered in Hurricane Harvey.</p>
<p>Improving risk assessments is needed not just to better prepare communities for major flood events, but also to prevent racial inequalities – in housing and beyond – from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/688786177/how-federal-disaster-money-favors-the-rich">growing</a> after the unequal impacts of disasters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146728/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin T. Smiley receives funding from an Early-Career Fellowship from Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and is supported as a Fellow in the Enabling Program for the Next Generation of Hazards and Disasters Researchers as part of the National Science Foundation's Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment program.</span></em></p>New risk models show nearly twice as many properties are at risk from a 100-year flood today than the government’s flood maps indicate.Kevin T. Smiley, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1453612020-09-02T12:21:41Z2020-09-02T12:21:41ZWhat college students need to know about liability waivers for COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355852/original/file-20200901-20-pwc32h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6016%2C3989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Waivers don't automatically mean students give up rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/signing-a-new-contract-royalty-free-image/1088419242?adppopup=true">Cunaplus_M.Faba/ via iStock Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As college and university campuses across the United States reopen, administrators are faced with the task of protecting students while also protecting the interests of the institutions they lead. This includes reducing the risk of lawsuits. Some institutions have resorted to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/08/03/students-asked-sign-liability-waivers-return-campus">forcing students to sign liability waivers</a>. What purpose do these serve and is this the best course of action? As a professor who researches <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pDJHeb8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">higher education law</a>, here are my answers to four questions related to these waivers.</p>
<h2>1. Do liability waivers protect universities from lawsuits?</h2>
<p>Generally, no. A liability waiver is generally viewed in court as an <a href="https://lawshelf.com/coursewarecontentview/assumption-of-risk/">assumption of risk</a> on the part of the person who signs it. So in this case it would be the student. This means that the person acknowledges there are some naturally occurring risks to partaking in an activity. However, a liability waiver does not mean a person signs away all rights to sue for injuries or harm. If a party is <a href="https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=838">grossly negligent</a>, a court might still hold the party legally responsible.</p>
<p>For example, if I sign a waiver to participate in a rock-climbing class, I acknowledge some risks, such as slipping and falling and breaking a bone. However, my signature does not mean I’ve agreed to waive my right to sue if the facility’s safety equipment is faulty or it fails to provide needed instruction.</p>
<p>Students returning to campus inherently know they will face some risk of exposure to COVID-19. I do not believe universities should force them to acknowledge the obvious. However, if a university wantonly deceives the student body by hiding or delaying notification about an outbreak, or promises certain safety precautions and fails to take them, a liability waiver will not be of much use to the school against a lawsuit filed by one or more students.</p>
<h2>2. What constitutes liability?</h2>
<p>In short, a person who files a negligence claim must demonstrate that the other party was the “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/proximate_cause">proximate cause</a>” of the injury, meaning the injury directly resulted from the inaction or improper action of the other party. This could be physical injury, emotional injury or even injury to one’s reputation.</p>
<p>Though the higher education community has sought immunity <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/20/republicans-make-it-harder-sue-colleges-coronavirus">from Congress over COVID-19-related lawsuits</a>, the probability that courts would hold a university that has taken good faith, common sense measures liable for a student’s illness is unlikely, I believe. First, establishing proximate cause would be difficult. Could the student have been infected at the grocery store? Was the student infected by the carelessness of a roommate or classmate, rather than any malfeasance on the part of the institution? Further, if courts were to open the doors to such lawsuits, then universities could perhaps be sued every cold and flu season. Similarly, every airline, restaurant, and department store could be held liable for their customers’ COVID-19 – or flu infections. That is something I just do not see courts paving the way for.</p>
<h2>3. Can universities force anyone to sign liability waivers?</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, it appears that an institution can legally make signing liability waivers mandatory and an enrollment requirement. What is problematic is this places a student who may feel uncomfortable returning to campus or signing such a document in an unfair predicament. Can that student defer without paying a penalty? Will the student be able to transfer courses taken at another school during the pandemic? Essentially the student is being offered a “take it or leave it” contract with potentially serious repercussions for their education.</p>
<h2>4. What might be a better course of action?</h2>
<p>Universities have the authority to control and monitor student behavior via their student <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/15/student-conduct-codes-and-pledges-promise-good-covid-19-habits">codes of conduct</a>. These codes create a contractual agreement between the university and the student as to what is acceptable behavior. Instead of trying to shirk responsibility for student safety, some campuses have made it clear to students that they share in the responsibility for keeping the broader community safe. Some schools are enforcing these regulations more harshly than others. The Ohio State University has cracked down on students who do not follow safety regulations. By late August, it had <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/08/25/906039378/more-than-200-ohio-state-university-students-suspended-for-violating-pandemic-ru">suspended more than 200 students</a> for violating its COVID-19-related restrictions.</p>
<p>While suspension would appear to be an extreme measure, there unfortunately are no easy answers as to how a university can keep its campus open without succumbing to additional viral outbreaks. <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/roadmap/docs/roadmap-fall-2020.pdf">At Louisiana State University</a>, where I teach, students complete online daily symptom checks and are offered free testing. They are quarantined for 14 days – with provisions that classwork will be made virtual for them – should they be exposed to the virus.</p>
<p>All in all, attempting to deflect liability by forcing students to sign waivers strikes me as ill-advised for colleges and universities. The optics of having students sign liability waivers are not good, to say the least. It makes colleges and universities seem like they are more concerned with resuming in-person instruction and reopening their dorms than they are about the health, welfare and safety of their students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joy Blanchard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A legal expert explores the limitations of COVID-19 liability waivers some colleges are asking students to sign.Joy Blanchard, Associate Professor of Higher Education, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1452172020-08-28T19:03:32Z2020-08-28T19:03:32ZA burning chemical plant may be just the tip of Hurricane Laura’s damage in this area of oil fields and industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355358/original/file-20200828-22-ak8va5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C131%2C2290%2C1482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smoke billowed from the fire at a chlorine plant in Westlake, Louisiana, after Hurricane Laura moved through on Aug. 27. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Tropical-Weather-Louisiana/5de715f074584e6181260928c0445435/5/0">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hurricane Laura plowed through the heart of Louisiana’s oil and chemical industries as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving a chlorine plant on fire and the potential for more hazardous damage in its wake.</p>
<p>The burning BioLab facility sent dark smoke <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?475226-1/louisiana-governor-edwards-hurricane-briefing">and chlorine gas into the air</a> over the small community of Westlake, near Lake Charles, and shut down Interstate 10, officials said. The governor warned residents, already reeling from the hurricane’s damage, to <a href="https://twitter.com/LouisianaGov/status/1299009238317043712">stay in their homes</a>, close their windows and doors, and turn off any air conditioning that might still be operating.</p>
<p>While the full health impacts of the fire weren’t immediately known, a storm-driven chlorine gas release in a vulnerable community is the type of worst-case scenario that scientists and <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/eng/cee/people/Pardue.php">engineers like myself</a> have warned the petrochemical industry about for decades.</p>
<p>These warnings have followed spills and fires at chemical facilities over the past 15 years, including those <a href="https://bstiweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Petroleum-and-Hazardous-Material-Releases-from-Industrial-Facilities-Associated-with-Hurricane-Katrina1.pdf">triggered by Hurricane Katrina</a>’s storm surge and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-harvey-spills/oil-and-chemical-spills-from-hurricane-harvey-big-but-dwarfed-by-katrina-idUSKCN1BQ1E8">Hurricane Harvey’s excessive rainfall</a>.</p>
<p>Hurricane Laura’s damage will reveal itself over the coming days. The storm passed directly over the large Hackberry oil field, located in a sensitive marsh environment south of Lake Charles. The area includes thousands of active and abandoned wells and associated infrastructure, such as storage tanks and pipelines.</p>
<p>Crews were mobilizing to assess the damage in the oil field as the remnants of Laura moved north. The region has experienced a large loss of energy jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. It is unknown whether this contraction affected the preparation of this oil field and others for the storm. </p>
<h2>Relaxed safety rules put vulnerable people at risk</h2>
<p>Extreme storms like Hurricane Laura are rare, but they carry the potential for very significant, even fatal, chemical exposures for displaced people. As the chlorine plant fire burned in Westlake, residents were told to try to shelter in place in homes already damaged by the storm.</p>
<p>These exposures occur outside of the U.S. regulatory safety net that aims to protect communities. Chemical plants often operate under <a href="https://www.deq.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/emergency_declarations/HURRICANELAURADEAO.pdf">emergency rules</a> that relax regulations during and immediately after severe storms.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Flooding and wind damage near Lake Charles, Louisiana." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355359/original/file-20200828-24-18bnmqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hurricane Laura’s storm surge caused widespread flooding in the Lake Charles area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Tropical-Weather-Louisiana/ce6f56b2609b421298b21b7fbb9c26fd/37/0">AP Photo/David J. Phillips</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The exposed residents are often the most vulnerable: elderly, poor and minority communities that can’t easily evacuate far prior to a storm. The Westlake chlorine fire was just miles from the remnants of Mossville, Louisiana, an unincorporated African American community that is a <a href="https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i12/Mossvilles-end.html">textbook example</a> of one decimated by pollution from these chemical plants.</p>
<h2>Why chemical tanks are so vulnerable to storms</h2>
<p>Over time, severe storms have revealed several technological failures that recur in nearly every large weather event.</p>
<p>Bulk chemical storage tanks like those prevalent in this part of Louisiana can float, even in relatively shallow water, due to the strong buoyant forces that act on them. They’re surrounded by containment basins, typically made of concrete or earth, but these basins are designed to contain spills in nonflooded conditions. Flooding is a different story. If a storm surge or heavy rain sends water into the basin, it can cause the tank to float. Once the water recedes, the tank can settle to the ground in ways that can damage the tank and cause a leak or worse.</p>
<p>Another common failure mode is the collapse of <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Failures-of-floating-roof-tanks-during-Harvey-12269513.php">floating roofs</a> used to contain vapors. Heavy rainfall can cause the roofs to sink, releasing chemicals from the tanks. Wind-driven buckling can also occur, even in the absence of flooding, and flying debris can also puncture tanks.</p>
<p>The failure of storage systems designed to keep the chemicals from reacting with air or water often produces the most dramatic releases. The <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/08/03/arkema-indictment-chemical-fire-hurricane-harvey/">Arkema chemical fire</a> during Hurricane Harvey and this chlorine gas release are examples of these high-visibility failures. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/30/arkema-disaster-harvey-regulations-texas-crosby/">People living near the Arkema plant sued</a>, saying the chemicals caused respiratory problems and contaminated their water. </p>
<p>The absence of plant workers during the storm can exacerbate these issues, and small problems can become large ones in the absence of any intervention. </p>
<h2>These systems can be made safer</h2>
<p>In an industry that thrives on innovation, few technologies have emerged to specifically address these failures.</p>
<p>While plant managers must plan for hurricanes, there is not a specific set of operational strategies or federal guidance that has evolved from previous storms. The most common mitigation method is to simply fill the tanks with more chemical to minimize floating.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p>What is needed are real technologies that address the physics that drive tank failures. These include systems that allow buoyant forces to move tanks vertically, but not laterally. Tanks that allow rainwater to drain from floating roofs without accumulating are another.</p>
<p>Hardened storage systems that maintain the most reactive chemicals in a safe condition even under extreme weather are also needed.</p>
<p>Beyond safer tanks, chemical plants can improve their stewardship with surrounding communities by deploying sensing and surveillance systems that can detect releases. These systems could inform residents before, during and after storms and guide first responders to chemical releases in the immediate aftermath.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/09/how-beirut-blast-compared-with-similar-explosions-texas-china-france/">deadly Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut</a> at a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate and the explosion at a <a href="https://chinadialogue.net/en/pollution/9188-back-to-the-blast-zone-one-year-after-the-tianjin-explosion/">chemical warehouse that caught fire in Tianjin</a>, China, in 2015, are reminders that we have to be vigilant of what is being stored in our midst. It is time for industry to partner with its neighbors to develop safer systems for hurricanes and severe storms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Pardue does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A storm-driven chlorine gas release in a vulnerable community is the type of worst-case scenario that scientists and engineers have warned about for decades.John Pardue, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1400462020-06-05T12:08:38Z2020-06-05T12:08:38ZWhy are white supremacists protesting the deaths of black people?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339627/original/file-20200603-130923-2jmxf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C44%2C5982%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A member of the far-right Boogaloo Bois group walks next to protestors in Charlotte, N.C., on May 29, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-far-right-militia-boogaloo-bois-walks-next-to-news-photo/1216297279">Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As protests about police violence among black people continue and become more widespread across the U.S., certain individuals and groups have begun to stand out – including <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/01/dhs-domestic-terrorists-protest-294342">anarchists, agitators and members of a variety of far-right groups</a>. </p>
<p>With the country’s <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/">long history of racist killings</a>, it may be confusing to think that racists and white supremacists are among those objecting to the killing of people of color.</p>
<p>But people affiliated with <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3zmj5/the-boogaloo-bois-are-bringing-their-ar-15s-and-civil-war-ideology-to-the-lockdown-protests">far-right groups</a> aren’t trying to be part of the overall protest movement. Having researched these groups, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fjys1XAAAAAJ&hl=en">we</a> think it’s likely that they are attempting to hijack the event for their own purposes.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cLpO6QwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researchers</a> of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300453/alt-right-gangs">street gangs and far-right groups</a>, we see that in this case, they want to <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkyb9b/far-right-extremists-are-hoping-to-turn-the-george-floyd-protests-into-a-new-civil-war">stoke a civil war between the races</a> – one they think they can win. By antagonizing police, destroying property, or intimidating the public by adopting military gear – including weapons – these groups are attempting to instigate violence between the police, protesters and the public. Rousting law enforcement to violently retaliate against black people en masse is the first step.</p>
<h2>Instigating civil war</h2>
<p>The far-right is not unified by a strict ideology. It is a broad movement with various factions vying for greater amounts of attention and influence. </p>
<p>In spite of this tension, our <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-nationalist-groups-are-really-street-gangs-and-law-enforcement-needs-to-treat-them-that-way-107691">research shows</a> that many share the conspiracy belief that Western governments are corrupt and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078">controlled by the New World Order, a cabal of wealthy Jewish elites</a>. To them, wealthy Jewish investor and democracy advocate <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/2/15946556/antisemitism-enlightenment-george-soros-conspiracy-theory-globalist">George Soros is the puppet master</a> of the world economy. </p>
<p>William Luther Pierce’s 1978 novel “The Turner Diaries,” which has come to be known as “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2004/turner-diaries-other-racist-novels-inspire-extremist-violence">the bible of the racist right</a>,” lays out a plan to instigate a race war and bring about the federal government’s collapse. The book has inspired violence from the far-right, most notably the 1995 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/us/Timothy-McVeigh-Oklahoma-City-Bombing-Coronavirus.html">bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1266806579724193792"}"></div></p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/11/20882005/accelerationism-white-supremacy-christchurch">Accelerationism</a>” – the idea that inducing chaos, provoking law enforcement, and promoting political tension will hasten the collapse of Western government – has taken root among far-right groups. One such group, the “<a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkyb9b/far-right-extremists-are-hoping-to-turn-the-george-floyd-protests-into-a-new-civil-war">Boogaloo Bois</a>,” identified by their penchant for wearing Hawaiian shirts, has been observed at protests in <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/">Minnesota</a>, <a href="https://www.adl.org/blog/extremists-weigh-in-on-nationwide-protests">Florida</a>, <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/70497/far-right-infiltrators-and-agitators-in-george-floyd-protests-indicators-of-white-supremacists/">Georgia</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/mmedinanews/status/1266845792184254464?s=21">Texas</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/grimkim/status/1266806579724193792?s=21">Pennsylvania</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremyjojola/status/1267602083508703233">Colorado</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/RoseCityAntifa/status/1266930791629467650">Oregon</a>. As with any far-right movement, “Boogaloo Bois” groups are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/us/boogaloo-extremist-protests-invs/index.html">rather unstructured and have varied beliefs</a>, lacking any hierarchical organization.</p>
<p>In Las Vegas, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/three-men-connected-boogaloo-movement-tried-provoke-violence-protests-feds-n1224231">three “Boogaloo Bois”</a> were arrested with firearms and a plan to incite violence during George Floyd protests. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7jvq8/white-supremacist-group-identity-evropa-posed-as-antifa-on-twitter-and-called-for-looting-and-violence">Social media posts</a> and <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/they-want-their-civil-war-far-right-boogaloo-militants-embedded-themselves-in-the-george-floyd-protests-in-minneapolis/">online chat groups</a> have also shown them attempting to infiltrate other protests across the country.</p>
<p>Joining the crowds provides these groups <a href="https://apnews.com/6223153093f08fa910c4ab445771b773">an opportunity to discredit protesters</a> by inciting looting, rioting, violence and vandalism – which they hope will spark like-minded white Americans to resist the civil disobedience of protesters. Already, there are <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/blm-rallies-across-america-are-being-menaced-by-armed-counterprotesters">roving bands of armed white counterprotesters</a> at protests across America. </p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dzbv3/neo-nazi-accelerationists-calling-for-terror-attacks-during-social-unrest">far-right extremists are talking on social media</a> about the protests requiring a lot of police attention and see an opportunity to engage in targeted terror attacks. Their overall intention is the same: fanning flames to burn down the federal government, making room for them to establish a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567137/proud-boys-and-the-white-ethnostate-by-alexandra-minna-stern/">whites-only country</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>They’re not really protesting – they’re hoping to find an opportunity to spark violence and trigger a war between black and white Americans.Matthew Valasik, Associate Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University Shannon Reid, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1370442020-04-28T19:33:41Z2020-04-28T19:33:41ZWhy are white supremacists protesting to ‘reopen’ the US economy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330849/original/file-20200427-145560-cmr9wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5184%2C3430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joey Gibson, leader of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, addresses a crowd on April 19, 2020, in Olympia, Washington, insisting the state lift restrictions put in place to help fight the coronavirus outbreak.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jpoey-gibson-leader-of-the-right-wing-group-patriot-prayer-news-photo/1210404334">Karen Ducey/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/us/protests-coronavirus-stay-home-orders/index.html">series of protests</a>, primarily in state capitals, are demanding the end of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Among the protesters are people who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/us/politics/wisconsin-coronavirus-protests.html">express concern about their jobs or the economy</a> as a whole.</p>
<p>But there are also far-right <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/1/17253444/qanon-trump-conspiracy-theory-reddit">conspiracy theorists</a>, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/proud-boys">white supremacists</a> like <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300453/alt-right-gangs">Proud Boys</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/13/833010421/patriot-movement-calls-on-followers-to-defy-covid-19-restrictions">citizens’ militia members</a> at these protests. The exact number of each group that attends these protests is unknown, since police have not traditionally monitored these groups, but signs and symbols of far right groups have been seen at many of these protests across the country. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/493707-kentucky-sees-highest-spike-in-coronavirus-cases">protests risk</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/20/us-protests-lockdown-coronavirus-cases-surge-warning">spreading the virus</a> and have <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/04/15/lansing-capitol-protest-michigan-stay-home-order/5136842002/">disrupted traffic, potentially delaying ambulances</a>. But as researchers of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cLpO6QwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">street gangs’</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fjys1XAAAAAJ&hl=en">far-right groups’</a> violence and recruitment, we believe these protests may become a way right-wingers expand the spread of anti-Semitic rhetoric and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/boogaloo-facebook-pages-coronavirus-militia-group-extremists_n_5ea3072bc5b6d376358eba98">militant racism</a>.</p>
<p>Proud Boys, and many other far-right activists, don’t typically focus their concern on whether stores and businesses are open. They’re usually more concerned about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1544149">pro-white, pro-male rhetoric</a>. They’re attending these rallies as part of their longstanding search for any opportunity to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691170206/the-extreme-gone-mainstream">make extremist groups look mainstream</a> – and because they are always looking for potential recruits to further their cause.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330847/original/file-20200427-145566-8ddyl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio addresses a protesters at a April 25, 2020, event he helped organize in Miami to call for the reopening of Florida amid the coronavirus pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/enrique-tarrio-event-organizer-and-leader-of-the-far-right-news-photo/1211015058">Adam DelGuidice/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exploiting an opportunity</h2>
<p>While not all far-right groups agree on everything, many of them now subscribe to the idea that Western government is corrupt and <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/11/20882005/accelerationism-white-supremacy-christchurch">its demise needs to be accelerated</a> through a race war.</p>
<p>For far-right groups, almost any interaction is <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_RecruitmentRadicalizationAmongUSFarRightTerrorists_Nov2016.pdf">an opportunity to connect with</a> people with social or economic insecurities or their children. Even if <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/4/22/21227928/coronavirus-social-distancing-lockdown-trump-tea-party">some of the protesters have genuine concerns</a>, they’re in protest lines near people looking to offer them targets to blame for society’s problems.</p>
<p>Once they’re standing side by side at a protest, members of far-right hate groups <a href="https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/03/11/neo-nazis-saw-patriot-prayer-rallies-as-fertile-recruitment-grounds-and-targeted-local-newspapers-to-gain-publicity/">begin to share their ideas</a>. That lures some people deeper into <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/05/05/what-happened-after-my-13-year-old-son-joined-the-alt-right/">online groups and forums where they can be radicalized</a> against immigrants, Jews or other stereotypical scapegoats.</p>
<p>It’s true that only a few will go to that extreme – but they represent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/11/29/the-daily-use-of-gab-is-climbing-which-talker-might-become-as-violent-as-the-pittsburgh-synagogue-gunman/">potential sparks for future far-right violence</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330822/original/file-20200427-145525-171w776.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Virginia State Police officers keep an eye on an April 22, 2020 rally in Richmond calling for the state’s governor to lift restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/state-police-officers-monitor-activity-during-a-reopen-news-photo/1210663121">Ryan M. Kelly/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Official responses</h2>
<p>President Donald Trump, a <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/far-right-white-evangelicals-love-trump-for-many-reasons-including-their-terrifying-obsession-with-the-end-times-report/">favorite of far-right activists</a>, has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/21/far-right-distrust-quarantine/">tweeted encouragement</a> to the protesters. Police responses have been uneven. Some protesters have been <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/coronavirus-stay-at-home-orders-violations-pennsylvania-philadelphia-new-jersey-police-enforcement-20200421.html">charged with violating emergency government orders</a> against public gatherings. </p>
<p>Other events, however, have gone <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-nationalist-groups-are-really-street-gangs-and-law-enforcement-needs-to-treat-them-that-way-107691">undisturbed by officials</a> – similar to how <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/magazine/FBI-charlottesville-white-nationalism-far-right.html">far-right “free speech” rallies</a> in 2018 often were <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2018/08/14/to-deter-violence-why-not-consider-alt-right-groups-as-street-gangs/">treated gently by police</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/04/21/as-protests-spread-states-tread-carefully-to-avoid-inflaming-extremists">Police have tended to be hesitant</a> to deal with far-right groups at these protests. As a result, the risk is growing of right-wing militants spreading the coronavirus, either unintentionally at rallies or in intentional efforts: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/23/1930417/-White-nationalists-looking-to-weaponize-coronavirus-pandemic-both-literally-and-figuratively">Federal authorities have warned</a> that some right-wingers are talking about specifically sending infected people to target communities of color. </p>
<p>One thing police could do – which they often do when facing criminal groups – is to track the level of coordination between different protests. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/us/white-supremacy-the-base.html">Identifying far-right activists who attend multiple events</a> or travel across state borders to attend a rally may indicate that they are using these events <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/opinion/coronavirus-protests-astroturf.html">as part of a connected public relations campaign</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Militant far-right groups are always looking to appear legitimate and to recruit more Americans to their causes.Shannon Reid, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina – CharlotteMatthew Valasik, Associate Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1201522019-07-18T14:40:45Z2019-07-18T14:40:45ZSouth Africa’s state owned companies: a complex history that’s seldom told<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283638/original/file-20190711-173347-t4jvo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eskom and Iscor were formed to feed the railway network's need for cheap electricity and steel</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The problems of South Africa’s state owned enterprises are in the headlines every day. Yet many have existed for over 80 years. </p>
<p>Why were they established in the first place and how have they survived this long? Their histories provide clues for their successes and failures.</p>
<p>State owned enterprises in South Africa date back to the 19th century when <a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/Krugerpark_History-travel/paul-kruger-history.html">Paul Kruger’s</a> Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek tried to promote local industries to stave off British control. Kruger’s government erected high tariffs against imports of many consumer goods as well as industrial goods used by the mining industry. At the same time it handed out monopoly concessions for local manufacture. In most cases, foreign capital still managed to control these enterprises – the most important for railway service and electricity generation for the mines.</p>
<p>Kruger’s aim of fostering economic independence through local industries was utterly defeated with the British victory in the <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/census/events/britain5.htm">South African War</a> in 1902. But the connection between economy and state lived on through <a href="https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1184">the railway</a> and electricity concessions. By the 1920s, the expanding railway enterprise – the South African Railways and Harbours, now Transnet – needed more and cheaper electricity, and steel for rails. In 1923, the Smuts government established the <a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/sites/heritage/Pages/1923.aspx">Electricity Supply Commission</a> (now Eskom) in part to serve the railways and also the growing mining industry. </p>
<p>In 1928, Prime Minister <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/james-barry-munnik-hertzog">Barry Hertzog</a> established the <a href="https://www.arcelormittalsa.com/Portals/0/The-History-of-ArcelorMittal-South-Africa.pdf">Iron and Steel Corporation</a> (ISCOR) to produce cheap steel rails for the South African Railways and Harbour and to create some independence from the profit-seeking European steel makers.</p>
<p>Although both Eskom and Iscor were established under state auspices, they enjoyed only tepid government support and faced stiff competition. They were established at a time when nearly all industrial goods and many consumer goods were imported at great cost. In the case of electricity, the major market – the Rand gold mines – was already under contract to the private <a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/sites/heritage/Pages/VFP-(1).aspx">Victoria Fall Power Company </a>. And in the case of steel, a European cartel of steel makers was ready to dump cheap steel on the South African market in order to kill off local production. Some foreign firms established small operations inside the country, but with profits still flowing back to overseas investors.</p>
<h2>How did they survive?</h2>
<p>Initially, both state corporations survived through close partnerships with their private competitors. In the case of Eskom, the power supplier agreed to provide electricity to the private Victoria Fall Power Company at cost while the the company passed it on to their mining customers at a hefty profit. </p>
<p>Iscor reached similar agreements with local engineering firms, providing them with raw steel to be fashioned into finished products. In addition, Iscor reached a compromise agreement with European steel producers in 1936. This essentially divided the local market, with Iscor providing approximately one-third of steel goods.</p>
<p>Even more contentious were the corporations’ labour policies. In the 1920s and 1930s, the white South African government pursued a policy of favouring white people in industrial jobs as a means of alleviating poverty in largely Afrikaans-speaking rural communities. State entities were under the most pressure to hire whites, many unskilled, into their operations. But, facing heavy competition, Iscor could not raise its costs and employed almost as many black people as white people on its factory floor in Pretoria. In fact, most white employees were foreign skilled workers. And the associated coal and iron ore mines (both Iscor and Eskom used vast amounts of coal) had predominantly black workers.</p>
<p>Both of the first state corporations were dependent on close business relations with private firms, often to their own detriment, and reliance on low labour costs to survive. But they could hardly profit or flourish under such conditions. During the Second World War, they were able to establish more successful operations under near monopoly conditions.</p>
<h2>Building monopolies</h2>
<p>During World War Two, South Africa’s position changed from an importer to an exporter of many industrial and consumer goods. Its normal trading partners –England and Germany – were obviously preoccupied with supporting their own wartime needs. In fact England called on South Africa to provide goods from bullets to blankets to help the Allied effort. The intensified local manufacture of so many goods placed pressure on Eskom and Iscor, but also provided great opportunities for expansion.</p>
<p>In Eskom’s case, the greediness of the private Victoria Fall Power Company throughout the war persuaded private capitalists that a partnership with the state would be beneficial. Electricity demand from the mines and also the wartime factories on the <a href="https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/sa-mining/gold">Witwatersrand</a> (Rand) skyrocketed during the war. The cost of electricity to the mines rose by 10%. By the end of the war, Eskom posted a loss for the first time in its history while the Victoria Fall Power Company earned handsome profits. </p>
<p>By 1948, Eskom had succeeded in expropriating the private company with assistance from the largest mining company in the country – <a href="http://www.company-histories.com/Anglo-American-PLC-Company-History.html">Anglo-American Corporation</a> – which provided money for the buy-out. Eskom then linked all power stations in the country into a national grid allowing for cheaper production of electricity and lower prices to its customers.</p>
<p>Similarly, Iscor was able to eliminate competition through partnerships with the Anglo American Corporation. Iscor needed to find local engineering firms that would process its raw steel into war materiel. Many were either foreign or were owned by the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/sammy-marks">Lewis and Marks</a> investment company that also operated a competing steel company, Union Steel. </p>
<p>In 1945, Anglo American – which became Iscor’s partner in all of the major engineering firms – bought out the company. Since Anglo was principally a customer for their goods, it was interested in low prices and not in reaping profits through steel manufacture.</p>
<h2>An Apartheid model</h2>
<p>The change of government in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-african-general-elections-1948">1948</a> led to a brief change in policies toward the state corporations. The Nationalist government, wary of foreign and even local capital and suspicious of the state corporations’ ties to Anglo American, initially refused to provide the funds for further expansion of either Iscor’s or Eskom’s facilities. Partnerships with the local engineering firms were likewise ditched. </p>
<p>But by the early 1950s, realising the advantages to such arrangements, the government relented and the old ties were renewed, leading to massive increases in production by both firms. In addition, the government looked the other way as it became apparent that black workers were being used extensively at both firms – and even as semi-skilled workers at Iscor – yielding a wage bill that was less than a quarter what it was for whites.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the early state corporations could only survive by relying heavily on support from private capital in the form of partnerships and outright financial support, and the extensive use of disenfranchised and thus lower cost labour to insure low charges to its customers. </p>
<p>Yet this structure could not survive the flight of capital and the enfranchisement of the workforce that followed the democratic transition of the 1990s. </p>
<p>Iscor’s former partners fled to more lucrative parts of the world and the steel corporation was <a href="https://arcelormittalsa.com/Whoweare/OurHistory.aspx">sold</a> to private interests; and Eskom faced an expanding demand for residential electricity without the financial and marketing support of the mining houses.</p>
<p>Their survival now depends on adapting to the dramatic changes in South Africa’s post-apartheid economy rather than relying on their old strategies.</p>
<p><em>This article is based on a book – Manufacturing Apartheid: State Corporations in South Africa – written by Nancy L Clark. Published in 1994, it is now out of print.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy L Clark has received funding from the Fullbright-Hays research fund, Social Science Research Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, California State University, Louisiana State University, and University of California.</span></em></p>Though formed by the state, Eskom and Iscor enjoyed very little state support in their infancy. To survive, they had to cooperate with the private sector companies they were meant to compete with.Nancy L Clark, Dean and Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1193692019-06-27T10:59:34Z2019-06-27T10:59:34ZHere’s a 1918 role model for Sarah Sanders’ successor as White House press secretary<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281464/original/file-20190626-76709-10h5x2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ray Stannard Baker joins Woodrow Wilson at the lectern in front of Congress.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodrow_Wilson_addressing_Congress_(LOC).jpg">Library of Congress</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Stephanie Grisham, communications director for Melania Trump, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/new-white-house-press-secretary-brings-a-combative-style-to-the-job/2019/06/25/5a60631c-9770-11e9-8d0a-5edd7e2025b1_story.html?utm_term=.f742a5aed474">will replace</a> Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House press secretary. Sanders’ controversial tenure will end <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/us/politics/sarah-sanders-leaving-white-house.html">June 30</a>.</p>
<p>Critics claim Sanders rejected the public service aspect of her position by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sarah-sanders-was-the-disdainful-queen-of-gaslighting/2019/06/14/d6eb36c8-8e8d-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html?utm_term=.b0787e03a5f2">misinforming the public</a> and refusing to renounce the president’s “enemy of the people” label of the press. </p>
<p>Sanders held <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/22/us/politics/white-house-press-briefing.html">fewer daily press briefings</a> than any of her predecessors and effectively stopped briefings altogether in March of this year. Analysts say her legacy will be the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/13/media/legacy-of-sarah-sanders/index.html">death of the press briefing</a>, a decades-old tradition used to inform the press, and by extension, the American public. </p>
<p>We are <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/manship/people/faculty-staff/hamilton.php">media</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/meghan-menard-mccune-240401">scholars</a>. At a time when the office of White House press secretary is the focus of controversy, we believe the first person to hold the position, journalist <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/wilson-ray-stannard-baker/">Ray Stannard Baker</a>, could be a role model for Grisham and future press secretaries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281463/original/file-20190626-76743-xyue5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sarah Sanders is stepping down as White House press secretary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/ba89ed338fca44309f464cc1478ff4ca/20/0">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
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<h2>‘He is absolutely honest’</h2>
<p>Baker was <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/uploaded_pdf/ead_pdf_batch_21_july_2006/ms006006.pdf">appointed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1918</a> to handle publicity for the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/related-records/rg-256">American Commission to Negotiate Peace</a>, which traveled to Paris to craft an agreement at the end of World War I. In those days of progressive journalism, the word publicity had a positive connotation of enlightening citizens about government activity. </p>
<p>Good press relations has been recognized as an integral part of presidential leadership <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27551327?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">since the William McKinley administration</a>. The McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson administrations each developed new techniques to manage publicity, including the use of press releases and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27552665?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">presidential press conferences</a>. One of these innovations was White House <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-timelines/the-white-house-and-the-press-timeline">secretaries who dealt with the press</a> as part of larger portfolios. </p>
<p>Even though Stephen Early of Franklin Roosevelt’s administration was the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Who-Speaks-President-Secretary-Cleveland/dp/081560632X">first presidential press secretary</a> in both title and function, our research shows Baker was the first person to serve as a president’s full-time, personal intermediary with the press.</p>
<p>When Wilson tapped him for the publicity job, Baker was concluding a nearly yearlong mission as a <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/uploaded_pdf/ead_pdf_batch_21_july_2006/ms006006.pdf">special assistant to the Department of State</a>. He had traveled to Europe to assess the outlook of liberal and labor groups, whose support Wilson needed for a cooperative peace.</p>
<p>Wilson described Baker as <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Republic-of-Spin/">“a man of ability, vision and ideals.”</a> He believed the journalist’s <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807896853/power-and-the-people/">“esteemed” reputation</a> among the news correspondents would be “most advantageous” to the success of the commission’s publicity work. </p>
<p>Baker was well qualified for the publicity role. A study of his <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/mm78011593/">personal papers</a> shows he was judicious in his opinions and self-reflective. He had credibility: At his peak, he “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Muckrakers.html?id=Wq3ZAAAAMAAJ">was considered the greatest reporter in America”</a> by his readers and peers, according to historian Louis Filler. He had integrity: He wrote a pathbreaking <a href="https://archive.org/details/followingcolorl00bakegoog/page/n11">book on race relations</a>. He was <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/mm78011593/">principled</a>: He supported individuals, not political parties, depending on their ideas. </p>
<p>“[Baker] is distinctly the ablest man we have had in charge of news dispensing since the war began,” one correspondent wrote in an <a href="https://rbsc.princeton.edu/collections/ray-stannard-baker-papers">unsigned note found among Baker’s papers</a>. “He is absolutely honest and he works in our behalf until very late.”</p>
<p>Baker also had a democratic understanding of the role of press secretary.
He articulated this in 1921 when he looked back on his experience in Paris. </p>
<p>“I honestly endeavored at Paris to do the real work of publicity, getting out the facts & the background, as well as to report exactly what was being done, so far as I was permitted to do,” <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/mm81057141/">he wrote</a>. </p>
<h2>A new diplomacy</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/paris-peace">Paris Peace Conference</a> was a high historical moment. It marked the end to the most devastating war up to that time and the beginning of negotiations for a first-ever plan for permanent world peace. </p>
<p>Some 500 journalists – including <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1919/04/the-peace-makers/527475/">150 Americans</a> – traveled to Paris to cover the conference.</p>
<p>Baker believed the American peace commission was a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SLg9ZMmuKBMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=woodrow+wilson+and+the+world+settlement&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMyunpiobjAhUPKK0KHfg0BKsQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=%22great%20public%22&f=false">“great public undertaking”</a> that required open communication with the people of the world. He believed publicity would be the heartbeat of American diplomacy. </p>
<p>With the end of wartime censorship, many journalists <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1919/04/the-peace-makers/527475/">shared Baker’s hope</a> for a “new diplomacy” that was transparent and reflective of public opinion. </p>
<p>Instead, the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and the U.S. agreed to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7hNpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=wilson+the+great+war+and+the+fourth+estate+james+startt&source=bl&ots=VHA_kOKa-Q&sig=ACfU3U1j3hodV6l5Ub6uj3JK51Ij6d2gOg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR7aDIhYjjAhXNUt8KHYe5DZEQ6AEwCXoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=wilson%20the%20great%20war%20and%20the%20fourth%20estate%20james%20startt&f=false">closed-door negotiations</a>.</p>
<p>The American correspondents felt betrayed by Wilson, who had called for “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at,” in his famous <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson14.asp">Fourteen Points speech in January 1918</a>. </p>
<p>Baker did his best to help the correspondents get news. </p>
<p>One of Baker’s innovative ideas was for experts to draft briefing papers on “<a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/journalists-diplomatic-mission/">various highly complex situations”</a> for the correspondents, many of whom had little experience covering foreign affairs. He arranged <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807896853/power-and-the-people/">press interviews</a> with the experts as well. Baker also played a lead role in preparing a 14,000-word <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924088058205&view=1up&seq=175">summary</a> of the treaty that was released around the world.</p>
<p>After lobbying Wilson, Baker successfully gained American correspondents <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924088058205&view=1up&seq=205">access to Versailles</a> to witness the first meeting between the Allied powers and Germany.</p>
<p>Baker believed that the success of his position depended on positive, friendly relations with reporters. In a show of mutual respect and cooperation, Baker helped form the <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924088058205&view=1up&seq=205">American Press Delegation</a>, a press association that acted as an intermediary between Baker’s office and the correspondents. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281466/original/file-20190626-76701-10hilu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Woodrow Wilson attends the Paris Peace Conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Eawatchf-AP-I-France-APHSL-France-Paris-Peace-C-/8d02a6fcc6764b2c9e27664529684f86/1/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<h2>‘Not going to lie to you’</h2>
<p>Reporters trooped to Baker’s Paris office in such large numbers they <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924088058205&view=1up&seq=178">wore its aged, red carpet to shreds</a>. </p>
<p>For Baker, truth and publicity were the guiding principles of press relations. In one of his first meetings with correspondents, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DzEO6c6DsBAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=a+journalist%27s+diplomatic+mission&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNm7eg6YLjAhXrYt8KHcGcDXQQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=a%20journalist's%20diplomatic%20mission&f=false">Baker said,</a> “I am not going to lie to you. If I am entrusted with information that I am required not to pass along I am going to say frankly that I cannot tell… as far as possible I will make reports of facts I have to give uncolored by my own opinions or desires.” </p>
<p>Baker met with the president each evening. Afterwards, he briefed reporters on what transpired during the day, to the extent the president allowed. </p>
<p>While Baker was never accused by reporters of lying or withholding information, correspondents became frustrated with Wilson’s secrecy. Baker, who <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807896853/power-and-the-people/">“did not sanction the desire for secrecy that underlay the decision to bar reporters”</a> from conference proceedings, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924088058205&view=1up&seq=201">repeatedly urged</a> the president to meet with the correspondents. According to Baker, Wilson met with the press only three or four times. </p>
<p>Of course, Baker did not make every correspondent happy. <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/journalists-diplomatic-mission/">But he took reporters’ expectations seriously</a>. He accepted that journalists, as part of their jobs, were skeptical. He knew that some of the correspondents were bitterly opposed to the president. As a former journalist himself, he understood that reporters’ primary loyalty was to facts, not the administration. </p>
<p>“I knew well… the dread felt by every really able writer, and we had some of the best from America, of being used by propagandists for their own ends,” <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/journalists-diplomatic-mission/">Baker wrote</a> in his diary. </p>
<p>The most significant barrier to realizing Baker’s vision of serving the public interest was the absence of the President Wilson’s earnest engagement. <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000488088">Baker believed</a> the “greatest failure” of the peace conference was the “failure to take the people into our confidence.” </p>
<p>Wilson’s preference for keeping the press at arm’s length <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780312213848">contributed to his failure</a> to convince the U.S. Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and join the League of Nations. </p>
<p>Wilson’s defeats are a warning to presidents and their press secretaries. Public servants can leave no better legacy than respect for democracy – and a crucial element in that respect is transparency. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/journalists-diplomatic-mission/">Baker put it</a>: “Publicity is indeed the test for democracy.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119369/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving her job, and two media scholars reflect on the career of the very first press secretary – a model of openness who respected news reporters.Meghan Menard McCune, Ph.D. candidate, Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University John Maxwell Hamilton, Global Scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC and Hopkins P Breazeale Professor, Manship School of Mass Communications, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.