Social media has rapidly expanded its role in democratic societies. In light of the growing threats to democracy from online sources, Canadians must grapple with how social platforms may be impacting the health of our institutions. Steve Paikin (The Agenda) moderates a debate between the “yes” side of Samantha Bradshaw and Ann Fitz-Gerald and the “no” side of Jeff Jarvis and Robby Soave.
Guests:
Samantha Bradshaw, assistant professor in New Technology and Security at American University's School of International Service and Fellow at the Centre for International Governance in Kitchener-Waterloo
Ann Fitz-Gerald, director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Wilfred Laurier University
Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at City University of New York's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and author of "Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live," and the upcoming "The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet."
Robby Soave, senior editor at Reason magazine, Hill.TV host and author of "Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn't Fear Facebook and the Future."
00:00 Introduction
02:05 Audience poll before debate
02:38 Debate rules
04:42 On the attention economy
05:34 How the business models of social media platforms are in contention with democracy
09:49 The legacy media’s past control over information was akin to tyranny
13:47 Unregulated social media has led to unprecedented levels of attacks on individuals
15:51 Social media been used to build movements of social justice and equity
16:29 Black Twitter is a place to escape white gaze
17:08 Mainstream media’s coverage of social media doesn’t acknowledge the threat social media poses to their own existence.
20:29 Algorithms have replaced journalists as gatekeepers of information
21:34 How people get polarized on social media
22:17 The mainstream media’s stranglehold on the discourse being smashed is a good thing
24:39 When the printing press came out, we needed laws around publishing: plagiarism, libel
26: 36 We have met the enemy and it is us. It’s not technology, society or social media
28:06 Walter Cronkite represented a monolithic media and institution that failed too many people
29:36 Would the Arab Spring or Black Lives Matter movements been possible without social matter?
30:45 What if the Black Lives Matter movement is the Racial Reformation we’ve been waiting for? What if January 6 is the Counter-Reformation?
32:15 Dictators have learned to use social media platforms to their ends
33:59 Is it undemocratic for governments to impose controls on social media?
38:13 Did social media weaken social cohesion during the pandemic?
42:41 Is sowing discontent on social media more dangerous than meddling in elections?
43:53 Russian operatives targeted feminist activist leaders and led them to engage less
46:08 Soave: The problem of engaging with fake news on social media is a problem of the elderly. Young people don’t fall for this thing
51:04 Not fair to put it on individual people to fact-check when large private companies, who don’t have your interests, are shaping news and information
52:20 Massive distrust of social media in the U.S. by people on the right is because of efforts to constrain; take the censorship around the Hunter Biden’s laptop story
54:24 Steve Paikin wraps up the debate
57:07 Debate results
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