#media-amplification

#media-amplification

There was once a time when the White House Press Secretary retweeting accounts of the novel deployment of high-tech weaponry against human targets would have been global news, but what goes unsaid is that in this previous timeline, the press secretary would have been citing an actual source, with a real story to share, rather than a piece of propaganda that has clearly been manufactured for an obvious purpose.

Richard Pearson is visiting Surrey to close down his late father's home and settle his affairs and, everywhere he looks, the flag of St George is flying from suburban gardens and filling stations and branch post offices. How nice, he thinks, how festive. Soon he learns the truth. So runs the opening not of a recent piece of journalism, but a novel by JG Ballard, Kingdom Come, which despite being almost 20 years old anticipates today's Britain with eerie precision.

Research on polarization indicates that when people in one group talk to themselves a lot, their positions on issues become more extreme. 1 On the other hand, when people with opposing views speak in person with each other, their views tend to become less extreme. 2 Studies of individual and mass shooters have found that they are often on social media before committing their murders and that encouraging language is often exchanged among them. 3