Breaking the Social Media Prism
March 24, 2021
11:45 am - 12:45 pm
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In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society, but it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Chris Bail, in conversation with Matt Perault, will discuss his new book: Breaking the Social Media Prism which challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. This event is cohosted by the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, Polis: Center for Politics, the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, and the Center on Science & Technology Policy.
About the Speakers:
Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism on social media using tools from the emerging field of computational social science.
Matt Perault is the Director of the Center on Science & Technology Policy at Duke University and an associate professor of the practice at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He previously served as a director of public policy at Facebook.