Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter changed the landscape of democracy, granting widespread access to public discourse, and empowering citizens to create change in new ways. But what began as tools to amplify new voices has also given way to the spread of disinformation, deepening polarization, and ultimately, dampening civic engagement.
Driving civic engagement in today’s interconnected media landscape requires re-building public trust. How can we do that? By challenging establishment culture. In our second collaborative webinar, Media Impact Funders and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement Funders (PACE) convened thought leaders from across the Infogagement landscape to delve into questions like:
- How can journalism evolve, earn public trust, and foster a healthy democracy?
- What does it look like to create conditions for meaningful public discourse online?
- What role can philanthropy play in creating these constructive spaces?
Check out a recording of the event here:
Speakers:
- Kelly Born, Program Officer for the Madison Initiative, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- Jenny Choi, Director, Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY
- Talia Stroud, Associate Professor, Department of Communications Studies,The University of Texas at Austin
To read more about this and related topics, check out PACE’s #Infogagement publication, and check out the following resources that were mentioned during the event:
- To Rebuild Public Trust, We Need to Change Establishment Culture, Jenny Choi
- Social Media: Driving or Diminishing Civic Engagement? Kelly Born
- Solving the Disinformation Puzzle, Kelly Born
- The Future of Truth: Can Philanthropy Help Mitigate Misinformation? Kelly Born
- Making Strangers Less Strange, Caroline Murray and Talia Stroud
- Journalist Involvement in Comment Sections, Talia Stroud, et al.
- Brevity is the Soul of Twitter: The Constraint Affordance and Political Discussion; Kokil Jaidka, Alvin Zhou, Yphtach Lelkes
- 10 Things We Learned By Analyzing 9 Million Comments From The New York Times; Ashley Muddiman, Talia Stroud
- Why We Really Need to Stop Saying Fake News; Emily Van Duyn, Jessica Collier
- Engagement Buttons; Talia Stroud, Ashley Muddiman, Joshua Scacco
- Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature
- Fake News. It’s Complicated. Claire Wardle
- Should Platforms Be Regulated? A New Survey Says Yes, Knight Foundation