Here are the results of the poll.
Do The Distortions, Untruths And Propaganda Mediated By Social Media Pose A Real Threat To Our Social Coherence, Democracies And Way(s) Of Life?
Yes 57% (64)No 42% (47)
I Have No Idea 1% (1)
Total votes: 112
An interesting quite split result with a reasonable majority thinking that social media, in their present largely unregulated form, are a real threat.
Any insights on the poll welcome as a comment, as usual.
A very reasonable turn out of votes.
It must have been a very easy question as only 1/112 readers were not sure how to respond.
Again, many, many thanks to all those that voted!
David.
In reality its the control of social media that is the real threat. Free speech is free speech but already we see Google and Youtube biasing the search results depending on what they think is the right answer. Twitter is also now filtering results and showing you tweets they "think" you may be interested in. The anointed experts are often wrong when compared to the wisdom of the crowds and this is very 1984 as many people get their news on social media. In the past NEHTA even sponsored a blog to counter this one which shows they are prepared to pay to try and look good. The media is very short of advertising $ because of google and this if probably a factor in Fake news, not enough reporter resources and paid editorials are standard. Bias is also common, is it paid bias?
ReplyDeleteOn the health front it is said that 50% of what is taught in Medical School will be proved wrong, but once its in a guideline it becomes hard to change and mediums like twitter are very useful to find out about new papers, ideas and conferences etc... But if controlled they will stamp out anything that conflicts with a guideline, is it the right 50% or the wrong 50% that they suppress? If you control the flow of information it won't end well. I mean the content and search ranking of this blog is something I am sure many of the anointed would love to reduce the visibility of!