
What Facebook Did to American Democracy - colinprince
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/542502/?single_page=true
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AnimalMuppet
I think Facebook is just an amplifier. The surprise was because nobody
understood how strong an amplifier it is.

The real problem is that the media has abandoned objectivity. Look, for
example, at the graph in the article showing partisan bias to one side or the
other (it's about half-way down). ABC, NBC, and CBS are better than I
expected, though all three lean left. But look at the New York Times. It's
nearly as partisan as HuffPo, or (in the opposite direction) as InfoWars! And
the NYT is the one getting all the Facebook shares (along with CNN and
Breitbart - though CNN was only half as biased as the NYT).

Much of the media abandoned objectivity. The respectability, the reputation
for objectivity, that they once earned but no longer deserve, they then lend
to partisan positions. This then drives the left as saying "credible source",
and the right saying "your 'credible source' isn't credible", and it all turns
into a shouting match, with Facebook as the megaphone.

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gt_
I agree. Most other measurements are difficult to observe or conclude. But, I
think amplification of existing communication phenomena is powerful and
complex enough to account for these outcomes.

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shortsightedsid
When FB and social media is used in a way that results in a "favorable" change
its called the Arab Spring. When the result is "unfavorable" its called
Russian interference.

