Breaking News, Breaking Trust

 Humor has been used historically to reduce skepticism, however, when using it as a persuasive tool, (humor) is often less scrutinized by others, therefore creating a higher potential for acceptance of the intended message. The study of social psychology refers to this method of acceptance as peripheral persuasion - the intended message is being processed on a peripheral level; or in other words, the message is being accepted without a rational evaluation process.Memetic warfare models demonstrate how images can be utilized to create a narrative that is perceived as legitimate by mainstream audiences. Memes have been used during major global events such as the Brexit vote and the 2016 US presidential election, and were used by both supporters of leaving the EU and Trump. These "memes" have been created to provide a simple visual representation of an issue, while also providing a sense of legitimacy through the use of humor. By utilizing humor, these messages have been able to...

 On Election Night, television broadcasters claim to "report the results." In reality, these broadcast systems serve as narrative generators. Each network emphasizes a different aspect of a story about the election (the momentum behind winners or losers; the emotional response of voters; the potential threat to established institutions). This allows the media to frame its ability to create a definition of what is at stake and how audiences should make sense of the unfolding events. Consider the 2020 Presidential Election: Fox News was the first network to declare Arizona for Joe Biden, which generated a great deal of outrage from Fox's own loyal audience. MSNBC framed the election as an opportunity to protect democratic norms. CNN emphasized data-driven trends and changes in demographics. Although all three networks reported on the same numbers, they presented very different political realities. Over time, election coverage has changed from being strictly informative to e...

 Rather than transmitting information based on journalism's established norms of objectivity, fairness and factuality, TikTok's algorithm transmits information which gets instant engagement via likes, shares, rewatches, comments and emotional reactions; thus, as an outlet for political messaging, the platform optimizes its transmission of content for "virality" (for how quickly and widely it can be transmitted) rather than for accuracy. During both the 2022 election cycle and the 2024 election cycle, news cycles on the platforms often started with the emergence of a video on TikTok before many traditional journalists had even responded. Thus, a single 30 second video from a political creator/influencer/meme page could misrepresent a policy or take a politician's words completely out of context and, by the time journalists fact checked the video, the video would have been viewed by millions of people on their phones, tablets or computers. A media effects analysis o...

 If you tuned into the Fox News and CNN coverage of the same political debate, you would think that you were in two completely different worlds. One of the networks frames the candidate as consistent and assertive, while the other frames them as being clumsy and ineffective. This is the power of framing, which effects how a story is told that can affect public perception. Consider the 2024 presidential primary debates. Fox emphasized highlights where the conservative candidates staunchly critiqued “mainstream media bias.” CNN concentrated on contrasting candidate policy stances, coupled with fact-checking candidate claims. But they both covered the same event, and the viewers left with completely different takeaways. This sort of split coverage contributes to polarization. Those viewers, only consuming content from one of the two networks, may never see the whole picture, and therefore confirmation bias padding is only reinforced. And of course, when coverage is so vastly different...