War Is Peace: Can Science Fight Media Disinformation?

In the 24/7 Internet world, people make lots of claims. Science provides a guide for testing them

When I saw the statement repeated online that theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge would be dead by now if he lived in the U.K. and had to depend on the National Health Service (he, of course, is alive and working in the U.K., where he always has), I reflected on something I had written a dozen years ago, in one of my first published commentaries:

“The increasingly blatant nature of the nonsense uttered with impunity in public discourse is chilling. Our democratic society is imperiled as much by this as any other single threat, regardless of whether the origins of the nonsense are religious fanaticism, simple ignorance or personal gain.”

As I listen to the manifest nonsense that has been promulgated by the likes of right-wing fanatic radio hosts and moronic ex-governors in response to the effort to bring the U.S. into alignment with other industrial countries in providing reasonable and affordable health care for all its citizens, it seems that things have only gotten worse in the years since I first wrote those words.

English novelist George Orwell was remarkably prescient about many things, and one of the most disturbing aspects of his masterpiece 1984 involved the blatant perversion of objective reality, using constant repetition of propaganda by a militaristic government in control of all the media.

Centrally coordinated and fully effective reinvention of reality has not yet come about in the U.S. (even though a White House aide in the past administration came chillingly close when he said to a New York Times reporter, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality”). I am concerned, however that something equally pernicious, at least to the free exercise of democracy, has.

The rise of a ubiquitous Internet, along with 24-hour news channels has, in some sense, had the opposite effect from what many might have hoped such free and open access to information would have had. It has instead provided free and open access, without the traditional media filters, to a barrage of disinformation. Nonsense claims had more difficulty gaining traction in the days when print journalism held sway and newspaper editors had the final word on what made its way into homes and when television news consisted of a half-hour summary of what a trained producer thought were the most essential stories of the day.

Read more . . .

Related articles by Zemanta

• Scientist Stephen Hawking defends British health care (network.nationalpost.com)
• U.K. health system slams ‘untruths’ (msnbc.msn.com)

Random Posts:

• Defusing the Methane Greenhouse Time Bomb
• The Twice Shy Entrepreneur
• New Keys For Diffusion Of Information In Social Networks
• Honda’s driving simulator upgrade gets A+ from teachers
• YouTube video leads to Hollywood contract

Related posts:

1. Media Companies Regain Appetite for Taking Risks in Tech Start-Ups
2. Adding Fees and Fences on Media Sites
3. Mobile app sees science go global
4. Social Media Engagement Directly Linked to Financial Success
5. Mom-and-Pop Operators Turn to Social Media

Tags: affordable health care, george orwell, media disinformation, national health service, religious fanaticism, ubiquitous internet

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.