The words belong to former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and they have a haunting quality in our own age of poisoned public discourse. Here’s another Moynihan contribution: “defining deviancy down.” It captures the way standards and expectations, as they fall, become accepted at each new, lower level as somehow “normal.”
Confirmation Bias - describes the underlying tendency to notice, focus on, and give greater credence to evidence that fits with our existing beliefs; seeking out information to confirm what we already believe
Media Bias - a pattern of unfairness or willful inaccuracy over time by a specific journalist or news outlet. It cannot be proven by a single isolated incident.
Audience Bias - describing the tendency of individuals to see bias in news media reports because they are unconsciously viewing journalism through their own biases; a key element of Audience Bias is Cognitive Dissonance (see below)
The discomfort a person feels when confronted with information that doesn't align or conform with their beliefs, viewpoint, or understanding of the truth. It can result in people disregarding, dismissing, blocking or warp incoming new information that does no
A widely publicized falsehood (e.g. the earth is flat) designed to invite automatic and unthinking acceptance by a massive group of people. Hoaxers are generally confident that their representations will receive no scrutiny at all. They have such confidence because their hoax aligns with believers' views of reality so that they accept the hoax without argument or evidence, and never question it.
Ideas or beliefs that are intentionally propagated to deliberately spread to influence
Adolf Hitler: "It's task is not to make an objective study of the truth...its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly."
Data gathered from social media and other sources shapes the ads that dominate our news feeds. Data is gathered based on what we like, comment on and share; the posts we hide and delete; the videos we watch; the ads we click on; the quizzes we take, and for the sole purpose of money and profit.
Social media and messaging to try to sway voters in presidential elections particularly in the US and Kenya This is very bad news for anyone worried about truth and democracy. While in the US, fake news helped to propel into power a man lacking the credentials to be president, but in countries like Kenya, fake news can kill.
Shayan Sardarizadeh of the BBC explained to Hanaa’ Tameez of Neiman Journalism Lab that social media posters on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, or Twitter can make significant sums of money from “engagement farming.” Posting outrageous material that engages viewers pumps up a user’s brand, making them able to command high prices from marketers.
Sardarizadeh notes that the Israel-Hamas war (October 2023) is a particularly attractive situation for engagement farmers, and rumors and fake videos are flying.