Why does the country seem so divided? Economically, socially and politically it seems like stalemates litter the landscape. Here is a compelling albeit very looooong piece pulled from a reTweet by @CraigSilverman, current editor of @BuzzFeedCanada. Craig is also founder of one of my favorite blogs ever, now ended, called Regret The Error; it was about factchecking. Factchecking! (He has a book too, click here.)
The article Craig put on the table is by "Supermedia" author Charlie Becket, who runs the media research institute Polis, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. It's called, "How journalism is turning emotional and what that might mean for news."
What interests me – and I think I should admit it worries me too – is that this shift to self-affirmation seems to be a factor in the current drift towards a rampant relativism. Increasingly, this social media driven dialogue is more about affirming one’s own perspective rather than seeking new viewpoints or counter-arguments. Healthy liberal democracy and society depends on the idea of a diverse public sphere with agonistic dialogue between different viewpoints. Objectivity is important to that process because even where we disagree we need to have a structure based on evidence and reason as well as emotion.
infographic from Polis
photo from Polis
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