Current Trends and Future Directions

Course evals at noon

The debate: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws74umWB1xM

Technology and ease of tweeting and sharing

• Access to documents
• Pentagon Papers:  need to copy
• Court rulings 
• Retweeting misinformation
• Tweets as oppo ammo

Forms of Polarization

• Affective polarization:  the perception gap & the role of media
• Aversive polarization and marriage
• Impact: COVID polarization
• Partisan gap in media trust

Declining Local News

• Newspaper loss continues
• Impact of the loss:  local knowledge, "nationalization," corruption

Misinformation, Disinformation

• Distinguishing fact and  opinion
• Health misinformation

Information inequality

• Digital divide in the US

Ethics and regulation

• Spot the mistake!
• Gag orders
• SPJ Code of Ethics
• Limits on free speech?