Nov 30, 2024 | Blog, Journalism, Bias & Censored News
This is a relatively famous New Yorker cartoon by Jason Katzenstein, depicting a generalization about male/female rhetorical styles. But it might as well be illustrating the way social and ideological media “democratize” (read: “devalue”)...
Oct 25, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism, Journalism, Bias & Censored News
In chapter 4 of Climate of Contempt I summarize the academic literature showing how (1) online platform algorithms mislead and anger us, and (2) political persuaders use that anger to push us toward ideological extremes and increasingly intense partisan animosity....
Sep 20, 2024 | Blog, Journalism, Bias & Censored News, Partisanship, Elections and the Energy Transition
Of all the political communication pathologies worsened by modern media technology, one of the lesser-known is “rage-farming.” It’s an old idea in new clothes. Their biographers detail the pettiness of the extended feud between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas...
Sep 5, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate, Journalism, Bias & Censored News
I noted in a previous post that popular understanding of the energy transition is harmed as much by constant minor exaggerations and omissions as by outright lies. Many of the misrepresentations of the MAGA right are characteristically obvious, often parroting Donald...
Aug 10, 2024 | Blog, Journalism, Bias & Censored News, Partisanship, Elections and the Energy Transition
As I have noted in several other posts (e.g. here and here), a second Trump presidency would represent a setback for the energy transition because of Republicans’ turn away from green energy and toward fossil fuels. If opinion polls are to be believed, a strong...
May 25, 2024 | Blog, Journalism, Bias & Censored News
The modern media environment damages public understanding of complex issues as much by incentivizing frequent small inaccuracies as by way of bots and deliberate misinformation. Let’s look at another April 2024 example of sloppy journalism that leaves the wrong...
