Event Description

Event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register here.

The majority of Americans now get their news from social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, and fully half of Facebook users get their news solely from that platform, according to the Pew Research Center. That means 100 million Americans are dependent on a secretive algorithm—one designed to show us mainly content we like—to tell us what’s important. The result may be a new reality-by-algorithm, a self-reinforcing system that allows us to perceive world events mainly through the lens that makes us comfortable.

If democracies depend on exposure to differing ideas, and on citizens starting from more-or-less the same set of facts, what happens when the media landscape is splintered across tens of millions of different news feeds and thousands of websites? Yet at the same time, the digital age has also given exposure to previously unheard voices and for new avenues for journalism. Besides, haven’t we always been biased in what we choose to read and what information we pay attention to?

Join us for a conversation about bias, bubbles, and journalism in the era of online media with experts: Steven Stehr (WSU, Director of the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs), Kristina Morehouse (Gonzaga, Communication Studies), and Porismita Borah (WSU, Murrow College of Communication). The digital age is great at showing us what we want, but is what we want the same as what we need?

This event is part of our fall statewide series, “Moment of Truth: Journalism and Democracy in an Age of Misinformation.” Click here for more information.

We thank The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their generous support of this initiative and the Pulitzer Prizes for their partnership.