The fact is . . .
In the absence of additional information, people tend to base their beliefs on the apparent familiarity of a statement, under the assumption that if they’ve heard it before, it’s probably true.
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Trust #7: Amid the flood of negative political ads, many islands of trustworthy news
There are thousands of independent media around the world — independent, that is, of political and commercial influence — that are aiming to serve their communities with trustworthy news and information that people can act upon.
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Wikipedia is the greatest online service created in the internet age. And it’s not for sale.
It’s free, global, non-profit, and crowd-sourced; it strives for a neutral stance in a media world filled with trolls, polarization, and automated disinformation James Breiner The value of trust It’s hard to find information you can trust these days. Powerful algorithm-driven marketing machines flood us with news and reviews about everything from pizza to politics, […]
Read More »Part 1: Shakespeare the media entrepreneur
He innovated in a world rife with plagiarism, censorship, death threats, and worse What many people don’t know about Shakespeare the poet and playwright is that he became wealthy in the new media business of his time — public theater. Numerous startup companies built large open-air playhouses in London at the end of the 1500s. […]
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News avoidance: endless crises wear people out
Media consumers look in vain for help and solutions amid rampant misinformation As a journalist, I am somewhat ashamed to say that I actively avoid reading the news—some of the news, anyway. I can’t bear to read anything that mentions the name of the previous president or his political party or voter fraud or any […]
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Reasons for optimism #7: The movement for trustworthy information
Fact checkers globally offer alternatives to the flood of lies and misinformation Why write about “reasons for optimism” when so much is going wrong in our politics, economy, and environment? Optimism gives us confidence that we can make things better. As I like to say, it’s another day of opportunity. Much of what I read […]
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Reasons for optimism #6: Jared Diamond and other cautious optimists
Leaders in academia, business, journalism are collaborating on urgent global crises Why write about “reasons for optimism” when so much is going wrong in our politics, economy, and environment? Optimism gives us confidence that we can make things better. As I like to say, today is another day of opportunity. Jared Diamond, whose bestsellers have […]
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