Sunsteins Daily We

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• Sunsteins Daily We the dangers of
  fragmentation
• individual viewing habits fuel social conflict-
  EXAMPLES media, politics, even courts!
• Reflection Do you do it? Is it a problem?

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Other trends (1) Decline of big 3, rise of
cable/Internet(2) Splintering of viewing
audiences intosmall niches (demographic
subgroup)(3) Flight to alternative
(independent news, online news, unfiltered video,
pseudonews)
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• Definitions
• Narrowcasting
• (2) Consumerism
• (3) Filtering

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Filtering A conscious and unconscious process
by which you seek out news that you will like
and avoid contact with contrary ideas
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• Example Technology Filters
• Google News
• (2) TiVo / DVR
• (3) Amazon
• (4) G-Mail
• others???

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G-mail Controversy
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• Filtering how much do YOU do it?
• Talk about some examples
• Media Consumption Inventory handout

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• What are the dangers of filtering?
• Filtering leads to overconfident people, with
  more extreme political views (polarization), and
  more societal conflict (ex. culture war)
• Without shared information, there is NO general
  interest intermediary / mass media anymore!
  Policy agreement will suffer!

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• Example 1998 Impeachment saga
• Bill Clinton / Monica Lewinsky affair
• (2) House brings charges against Clinton lying
  to a grand jury / obstructing justice!
• (3) House 98 of REPs vote to impeach, 98 of
  DEMs vote NOT to impeach
• (4) Senate 93 of REPs vote to remove, 100 of
  DEMs vote NOT to remove

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Example 1998 Impeachment saga Thought
questions Would most REPsand DEMs have voted
the same way if using conscience alone (no
pressure)? What if they were put behind a
veil of ignorance so they did NOT know the
party ID (!) of the accused president?
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Why does filtering? polarization? Group
polarization? def. when discussion of an
issue with like-minded people reinforces and
pushesexisting views toward the extreme
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• Why group polarization?
• You hear more () persuasive arguments to
  support the side youre already on!
• Social influence a.k.a. peer pressure, leads
  individuals to fit in for fear of being
  ostracized by the group

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Why does filtering? polarization? Social
Cascades? def. when a person lacks
knowledge of an issue, he/she will look to peer
group for a position (relying on group views) in
the meantime
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• Example Studying Judges w/ s
• Sunstein Even federal court judges are not
  immune from group polarization effects.
• If the court is skewed (unbalanced)
  ideologically, it will be more so over time!
• Individual judges on balanced courts actually
  moderate their views over time

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Example Demographic niches handout