Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Does the internet poison politics? It’s been argued that the rise of “personalization,” the use of algorithms to filter what you see online, and easy access to the like-minded, have served to reinforce our pre-conceptions. Is the information bubble a myth, or is it undermining civic discourse? Is the rise of social media really broadening our world views, or narrowing them?
For
Eli Pariser
Author of The Filter Bubble & former MoveOn.org Board President
For
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Chair, Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia & Author of The Googlization of Everything
Against
Evgeny Morozov
Internet Scholar and Author, The Net Delusion
Against
Jacob Weisberg
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of The Slate Group
Moderator
John Donvan
Author and correspondent for ABC News.
Listen to the edited radio broadcast
- When It Comes To Politics, The Internet Is Closing Our Minds | |
Listen to the unedited radio broadcast
- When It Comes To Politics, The Internet Is Closing Our Minds - Unedited | |
Subscribe to the PodcastFor The Motion
Eli Pariser
Author of The Filter Bubble & former MoveOn.org Board President
Eli Pariser is the former executive director of MoveOn.org, which at five million members is one of the largest citizens' organizations in American politics, and now sits on the board. He's currently the CEO of Upworthy.com, a new site focused on spreading ideas that matter online. In his renowned book The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You, Pariser reveals how personalization undermines the Internet's original purpose as an open platform for the spread of ideas.
Learn moreFor The Motion
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Chair, Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia & Author of The Googlization of Everything.
A cultural historian and media scholar, Siva Vaidhyanathan is currently the Robertson Professor and the Chair of the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He also teaches at the University of Virginia School of Law. The author of The Googlization of Everything and Why We Should Worry, Vaidhyanathan is a frequent contributor to the American Scholar, The Chronicle of Higher Education, New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Slate and The Nation. Named “one of academe’s best-known scholars of intellectual property and its role in contemporary culture” by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Vaidhyanathan has testified as an expert before the U.S. Copyright Office on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Learn moreAgainst The Motion
Evgeny Morozov
Internet Scholar and Author, The Net Delusion
Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Morozov is currently a visiting scholar in the Liberation Technology program at Stanford University and a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. He was formerly a Yahoo! fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University and a fellow at George Soros's Open Society Foundations, where he also served on the board of the Information Program. Before moving to the US, Morozov was Director of New Media at Transitions Online, a Prague-based media development NGO active in 29 countries of the former Soviet bloc. He's written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Slate, The New Republic and other publications.
Learn moreAgainst The Motion
Jacob Weisberg
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of The Slate Group
Jacob Weisberg is the Editor-in-Chief of The Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company. A native of Chicago, he attended Yale University and New College, Oxford. From 1989 until 1994, he worked as a writer and editor at The New Republic. Between 1994 and 1996, he wrote the National Interest column for New York Magazine. In the fall of 1996, he joined Slate as Chief Political Correspondent. He succeeded Michael Kinsley as editor of Slate in 2002. He has also been a Contributing Writer for The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor of Vanity Fair and a reporter for Newsweek in London and Washington, and a weekly columnist for the Financial Times. In 2007, Min Magazine named him Web Editor of the Year.
Learn moreDeclared Winner: For The Motion
Online Voting
Research
Research For The Motion:
- Articles & Publications: Vaidhyanathan, Siva
- Articles & Publications: Pariser, Eli
Research Against The Motion:
- Articles & Publications: Weisberg, Jacob
- Articles & Publications: Morozov, Evgeny
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http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/past-debates/item/595-when-it-comes-to-politics-the-internet-is-closing-our-minds#sigProGalleriabda9508d51
6 comments
- Comment Link
Sunday, 20 January 2013 05:14 posted by Rachel To respond to Austin's point, the problem is how search algorithms or social media filters define what is interesting and relevant. If my searches on a particular topic only turn up results that agree with my perspective (deemed most interesting to me based on past search behavior, location, what Facebook posts I have "liked," etc.) then I may come away from my search feeling justified without knowing that there are other points of view or other pieces of evidence contrary to my perspective. By personalizing what information comes up, these sites may actually be preventing us from being well informed.
- Comment Link
Tuesday, 02 October 2012 18:30 posted by Austin Baker The only thing that personalized ads and search results are meant to do are, provide the user with information that they might find most interesting or relevant first. It isn't stopping you from finding other points of view or new information. It shouldn't be the internets responsibility to keep everyone open minded, just well informed.
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Friday, 14 September 2012 22:37 posted by Edward Tomchin All I caught was the tail end of the debate and I was very disappointed with the results. I'm an investigative journalist and I have always been able to find out everything I need and want on the Internet. Anyone who is experiencing a closed mind can blame in on themselves, not the Internet.
- Comment Link
Friday, 17 August 2012 11:18 posted by Charles Gross A litmus test for a valid political debate is to have A state B's position accurately and without bias, and vice-versa. If A or B cannot, or will not, do this, there is no point to further discussion.
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Monday, 30 July 2012 23:48 posted by Richard Blackmore odd, that this debate is on the internet. To some extent that in and of itself speaks somehwhat in oposition to the resolution
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Monday, 09 July 2012 23:54 posted by r The internet cannot find truth for you, you must ask critical questions to separate the peanuts from the pooh. The biggest question, Who provided the information and how do they make their money?
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