[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #561: Selective truth

Wed Sep 27 10:30:04 EDT 2017

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OPLIN 4cast #561: Selective truth
September 27th, 2017

[image: Gavel on Truth] As librarians, we place great value on accurate,
unbiased information. Perhaps the most frustrating thing for us in regard
to current internet trends is the intentional manipulation of information
to influence people’s beliefs, with little or no regard for accuracy. Most
people, it turns out, are less interested in accurate information than they
are in comfortable information, and will actively select and collect
information that confirms their beliefs. This is not evil, it is human
nature: librarians and others who try to collect accurate information
regardless of their personal beliefs are the exception, not the rule. I am
proud to have worked with such exceptional people for the past 27 years.

   -
   - How technology disrupted the truth
   <https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/12/how-technology-disrupted-the-truth>
   (The Guardian | Katharine Viner)  “For 500 years after Gutenberg, the
   dominant form of information was the printed page: knowledge was primarily
   delivered in a fixed format, one that encouraged readers to believe in
   stable and settled truths. Now, we are caught in a series of confusing
   battles between opposing forces: between truth and falsehood, fact and
   rumour, kindness and cruelty; between the few and the many, the connected
   and the alienated; between the open platform of the web
   <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/03/internet-web-politics-money-freedom-state>
   as its architects envisioned it and the gated enclosures of Facebook and
   other social networks; between an informed public and a misguided mob. What
   is common to these struggles – and what makes their resolution an urgent
   matter – is that they all involve the diminishing status of truth. This
   does not mean that there are no truths. It simply means, as this year has
   made very clear, that we cannot agree on what those truths are, and when
   there is no consensus about the truth and no way to achieve it, chaos soon
   follows.”
   - Further reflections on truth, politics and education
   <http://www.publicseminar.org/2017/02/media-and-publics-iii/> (Public
   Seminar | Jeffrey Goldfarb)  “We noted together that the assault on factual
   truth seems to be global and organized, but then debated our various
   interpretations. The systematic lying that constitutes post truth politics
   is sustained because of the present media environment, as people depend on
   their social media friends to keep up with current events and to inform
   their opinions. It is a result of algorithms of social media giants that
   feed us with all the news that confirms our already formed opinions.”
   - Twitter founder: Trump election shows social media helping to ‘dumb
   the entire world down’
   <http://thehill.com/homenews/news/350402-twitter-founder-trump-election-shows-social-media-helping-to-dumb-the-entire>
   (The Hill | Rebecca Savransky)  “‘The much bigger issue is not Donald Trump
   using Twitter that got him elected, even if he says so,’ [Twitter founder
   Evan] Williams said. ‘It is the quality of the information we consume that
   is reinforcing dangerous beliefs and isolating people and limiting people’s
   open-mindedness and respect for truth.’ Williams said there is a media
   ecosystem that ‘is supported and thrives on attention.’ ‘And that is what’s
   making us dumber and not smarter, and Donald Trump is a symptom of that,’
   Williams said.”
   - The meaning of scientific “truth” in the presidential election
   <https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-meaning-of-scientific-truth-in-the-presidential-election/>
   (Scientific American | Dan Kahan)  “As a consumer, a voter, or participant
   in public discourse generally, an ordinary indivdual’s personal behavior is
   too inconsequential to affect climate change. Accordingly, if an individual
   makes a mistake about the best available evidence in any of these
   capacities, neither she nor anyone she cares about will be adversely
   affected. But because of what positions on climate change have come to
   signify about *who one is*, and *whose side one is on* in the struggle
   for dominance in American cultural life, someone who forms beliefs out of
   keeping with her social group risks losing the trust and confidence of her
   peers. In this situation, then, the formation of habits of mind that
   conduce to beliefs in line with one’s cultural group is thus perfectly
   rational for ordinary individuals.”

*Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - Presidential debates, partisan motivations, and political interest.
   <http://proxy.oplin.org:2054/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brb&AN=102275855>
   (*Presidential Studies Quarterly*, June 2015, p.270-288 | Kevin J.
   Mullinix)
   - News from the other side: How topic relevance limits the prevalence of
   partisan selective exposure.
   <http://proxy.oplin.org:2054/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=116137296>
   (*Journal of Politics*, July 2016, p.763-773 | Jonathan Mummolo)
   - The polarization express.
   <http://proxy.oplin.org:2054/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hxh&AN=122564124>
   (*Psychology Today*, May/June 2017, Vol. 50 Issue 3, p.9)

------------------------------
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