4 ms·

This feels similar (but not the same!) as the "vaccines cause autism" argument. Perhaps the news was never that reliable it's just easier to see unreliable new

• jacquesm 9y ago
  > This feels similar (but not the same!) as the "vaccines cause autism" argument. Except that it isn't similar at all. The news may not have been reliable and may have always had a propaganda element in it (especially when it came to things like war coverage, royal families and so on), but it was a reasonably known quantity. The 'weaponization' of news and the horizontal interconnects between people facilitating the formation of cliques and echo chambers is as far as I can see a historically unprecedented affair. The degree to which this is responsible for the current polarization of entire societies is something that will be studied for a long time, the 'vaccines cause autism' argument is for the most part limited to the fringes rather than that it expands at the speed of light to all corners of our (global!) society.
  • JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > horizontal interconnects between people facilitating the formation of cliques and echo chambers is as far as I can see a historically unprecedented affair To give mechanism to your effect, microtargetting an audience has never been possible before the way it is today. You can assemble an in-group audience of millions before anyone outside even notices you exist. That jeapordises traditional fact-checking mechanisms.