Ever since the Presidential election we’ve heard the buzzwords — “echo-chamber,” “facts,” “alternative facts.” More than ever our country is divided by how we get our information and what we see as the “truth.” Even reality itself has become debatable.
What’s the difference between a fact and the truth? And if people can’t agree on what a fact is, what does that mean for a democratic society?
This hour, we tackle big questions with big thinkers in the age of digital news.
We try to understand just how the complex world of information we live in today has evolved. And we explore how critical thinking and news literacy can help us wade through information overload.
Has the internet and social media shaped the way you understand truth? Or, how about your understanding of what’s real or fake?
GUESTS:
- Lance Strate - Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, author of several books including Amazing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman’s Brave New World Revisited, President of the New York Society for General Semantics
- Dan Rockmore - Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College, author of Huffington Post Op-Ed, A Crisis for Critical Thinking, Editor and Contributor of What Are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious
- Alan Miller - President and CEO of The News Literacy Project, Pulitzer Prize - Winning Journalist
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Catie Talarski and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.