this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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Digital media – a threat to democracy? The evidence is piling up. (www.mpg.de)
submitted 5 days ago by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Digital media such as social media, messenger groups or comment columns in online media have a predominantly negative influence on political processes. They can encourage populist movements, increase polarization and undermine trust in institutions.

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[–] witten@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm not defending social media or its algorithms, but you've also got to look at what predated it. People used to get their news and information from news anchors and newspapers that were mouthpieces for capitalists and conservatives. So maybe not as extremist or even as effective at influence as a social media algorithm, but still not great. Personally, I don't want to go back to relying on corporate news outlets either.

[–] wuzzlewoggle@feddit.org 3 points 4 days ago

In Europe we have public news broadcasters in every country, so relying on corporate news isn't a huge problem.

Anyway, a news outlet pushing propaganda and misinformation is not nearly as dangerous as a social media platform doing it via algorithm. The fact that the algorithm can give you exactly the kind of propaganda that will resonate with you is extremely dangerous.

Not saying privately owned news outlets with a huge reach aren't a problem, they definetely are, it's just a whole other dimension.