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Why It Matters

A World Under the Influence

Why It Matters

Council on Foreign Relations

News

4.2876 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With the rise of social media, influencers around the world have increasingly taken on the role of newscaster without a traditional media organization behind them. Some say it has democratized journalism, but with the rise of misinformation, influencers who capture massive audiences online also run the risk of spreading false or even harmful information. How much have influencers altered the media landscape?   Featured Guests:   Nic Newman (Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute) Michael Spikes (Lecturer and Director of Teach for Chicago Journalism Program, Northwestern University) Renee DiResta (Technical Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observatory)   For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/wim/world-under-influence

Transcript

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0:00.0

One of the biggest escalations happened today in the Middle East and I'm going to break it all down for you.

0:06.3

This is the Israel and Iran news explains for Hot Girls.

0:08.8

Why is it that the drama in politics is almost as strong as the tea in the real housewives

0:17.0

franchises?

0:18.0

Why?

0:19.3

If you make a video of yourself talking, post it to social media and hit the algorithm just right. Hundreds,

0:26.4

thousands, or even millions of people will see your content. Of course, it wasn't always this way. We're living in a new chapter of

0:35.1

human history in which everyday citizens can communicate on a mass scale,

0:40.0

sometimes reaching an even larger audience than traditional media organizations.

0:45.0

This has completely changed how we consume world news.

0:50.0

Many say that it has democratized journalism, allowing more people to be informed quickly

0:56.7

and from a wider variety of voices and sources.

0:59.6

But it has also allowed for the manipulation of news, further siloing and polarizing of people in their own echo chambers,

1:08.0

and an erosion of journalism industry standards.

1:12.0

I'm Gabriel Sierra, and this is why it matters. Today

1:16.2

influencers and the shifting global information landscape.

1:25.0

In influencers, usually somebody who has the capacity to shift somebody else's ideas or behavior

1:33.6

that's what influence means. Influencers are people who are seen as having that

1:38.2

capacity. This is Renee Jarestah. She's an associate research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown

1:46.6

and an expert on adversarial abuse online.

1:49.7

She's advised Congress, the State Department,

1:52.5

and a myriad of academic and business organizations

...

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