Listen to this podcast exploring fake news, post-truth, filter bubbles, Trump, and democracy.
“Post-truth” was the Oxford English Dictionary word of the year for 2016, and “fake news” in 2017. What do they mean? Are Trump’s characterizations of CNN and the New York Time’s accurate? Who produces fake news? How can you tell the difference?
This podcast probes a culture of fake news, post-truth, Trump, and other phenomena from the last few years that corrupt our “information space.” As information age citizens, we depend on good information (facts) to make decisions as voters and consumers. Is that information available? What harms it? What harm might corrupted information do to us?
In this week’s podcast, we get into some of the most extraordinary and convoluted conspiracy theories and how the internet has allowed some of this claptrap to flourish. Tune in, challenge yourself, think bigger, think better.
Erratum: I stumble over the word “shut down” and say “shot down” when talking about Comet Pizzeria.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- Why Veles, the Macedonian fake news factory, focused on a pro-Trump, anti-Clinton rhetoric.
- What we have actually learned from fake news.
- Where the bias lies with fact-checkers and the media.
- How politicians use fake news as a Trump-card.
- The four dimensions of post-truth politics.
- How money dictates consumer choice, legislation, and the facts we use in our lives.
- Why the internet has made us collectively dumber.
- Why irrationality prevails within party politics.
- How filter bubbles ruin your perspective and how you can combat them.
I’m raffling off books every week for people who leave the podcast a review on iTunes. Let me know the title of your review to be entered to win by emailing me at paul@paulgibbons.net
Featured on the Show:
- If you would love to support the show in another way, please check out my Patreon site.
- Critical Thinking – a Threat to Society or the Path to Better Living? With Linda Elder
- The best, most authoritative article on fake news from Veles: https://www.wired.com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news/
- Fake News – What It Is and What It Is Not with Paul Levinson
- Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
- Merchants of Doubt documentary
- Truth Wars by Paul Gibbons
- Track your filter bubble
- An extension to escape your filter bubble
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- Leave us a review on iTunes.
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