It’s no small task to unravel the many competing voices now dispensing “breaking news” every time we look at our phones, watch TV, read a newspaper or listen to one of thousands of blogs angling to catch our ear.
How do we know what we can count on to be true in this crowded field of news sources, and which news feeds can be relied on to give us the real facts as we enter another national election cycle?
The League of Women Voters of the Cape Cod Area hopes to lay some groundwork to help the public find some answers, in “Media, Misinformation, and the Protection of Democracy,” a free presentation on Oct. 14, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Knight Auditorium, Barnstable High School.
The program will feature two speakers, both educators with extensive expertise in media issues.
Joan Donovan studies the world of media misinformation
“We study media ecosystems,” said Donovan, assistant professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University College of Communications. Central to her field of expertise is the study of media manipulation and its destructive effects on the democratic process.
In a recent phone interview, Donovan said her presentation will address some of the distinctions between misinformation (inaccurate, mistaken) and disinformation (deliberately misleading or malicious in intent) now so prevalent in the current media scene. The explosion of online info, she said, has fostered the creation of “instant” news briefs that are grabbed up and disseminated immediately to multiple outlets. The shift is “one of scale,” since the goal of social media is the ability to quickly “distribute (the latest item) to a wide public” regardless of its accuracy.
In addition, the proliferation of artificial intelligence has considerably altered the journalistic landscape, she said. Content has gone beyond just changing the slant of a post, to the development of “generative AI” that creates content from scratch. The technological ability to detect many such “deep” fakes becomes more and more challenging.
“What makes a lie believable” is “the battle of our generation,” she said.
There are no easy solutions. “We need government to engage more with the future of technology,” not just step in when it’s a done deal and the technology has already been deployed.
She added that she hopes people will leave the presentation with a better understanding of “what’s happening” as a result of these many changes, and come away “equipped with knowledge” to create a more “fair and balanced environment” for news.
Dan Kennedy delves into the future of local journalism
Kennedy is professor of journalism at Northeastern University, with a primary focus on media ethics and the future of local news. He’s co-author, with Ellen Clegg, a former editor at the Boston Globe, of a forthcoming book, “What Works in Community News,” an exploration of the central importance of local journalism in communities across the country.
Kennedy has long championed the cause of local journalism.
“Local news,” he said during a phone call, “is the key to overcoming political polarization at the national level, which is tearing our society apart.”
Although substantive local coverage won’t negate the intense national polarization, he said, it “can help people reconnect with news about their communities, bolstering civic engagement and lowering the temperature.”
These interactions “can help people relearn the art of cooperation” that he hopes at some point may extend to issues at the national level.
Independent news startups on the horizon
Kennedy expounds on the importance of local news in his blog “Media Nation,” as well as on the website whatworks.news. His forthcoming book, he said, focuses on a more hopeful future for community journalism, looking at some independent news projects that are under development, as well as a flare of indie news startups, in locations “from Colorado to Tennessee to New Bedford” and beyond, that are helping counteract the large corporate buyouts of local papers that have “gutted local newsrooms” in many communities. He’s “optimistic that a new generation of local news organizations can help lead to a renaissance in civic life.”
Karen Mazza, chair of the League’s Florence Selden Speaker Series that hosts the upcoming talk, said the program topic is central to the League’s mission, that of “empowering voters … defending democracy … and promoting understanding and civic engagement.”
“We have such a divided public (with the) proliferation of news sites and social media. … Friends can’t even agree on the same facts. We need accurate information in order to decide on our voting preferences.”
Mazza recalled a favorite saying that was often quoted by the late Florence Seldin, a former League president: “Democracy is not a spectator sport.”
When and where is the League of Women Voters event on Cape Cod?
The League of Women Voters’ Dr. Florence Seldin Speaker Series presents “Media, Misinformation, and the Protection of Democracy,” from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Oct. 14 at Knight Auditorium, Barnstable High School, 744 West Main St., Hyannis.
The talk is free and open to the public. No pre-registration needed.
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