Five Core Values for the Fake News Fiesta:
- No one is stupid. Maybe this seems to basic, but I don’t believe that it is. In order to begin to deal with this issue at all we need to break down barricades erected because of personal attacks. While not all facts are equal, all people are, and that is a very very important distinction to make.
- Diversity is good. This includes diversity in histories and diversity in beliefs, often (but not always) coming hand-in-hand. Diversity brings more representation, and more representation brings (messier but) more comprehensive news.
- Knowledge is power. News brings power to people. All people deserve the power to better themselves and their situation, and therefore all people deserve access to accurate news.
- Voluntary consensus is important. Without going to the extreme of a pluralistic news source, it is important to consider the agreement between news- and fact-determining agencies and the people who receive such news. Those forgotten and unrepresented will flip the channel. Yet, in the consensus also is the ability to make those hearing about themselves also hear about others, as through consensus we always get a bit of what we want and a bit of what everyone else wants.
- News is not always new. Often, “news” includes old things–century-old stereotypes revealing themselves, awareness of ecological damage that is already so far gone that there really is no going back. These facts are the hardest to deal with, and the most likely to unravel trust structures, as this information always has a sinister undertone to it–we have not told you this before, but does that mean that we were lying to you before? does it mean that we are lying to you now? New facts related to old things make us question what is true, because they show us so plainly how little we know about the world. They make us feel stupid, and that brings us back to point number 1.
How to throw a party to fight fake news.
First of all, there’s no way this could be solved with a party. But, maybe a really good party could help. The ideal party would gather people representative of various socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, education levels, professional occupations (or lack thereof), etcetera. Party-goers would need to recognize that personal experience is knowledge, and in personal experience all people are equal. Instead of creating a hack-a-thon or similar problem-solving environment, this party would be a place of sharing stories and creating trust. Maybe something like a slower version of speed dating. It would be hard to fight the hierarchies that are already so present in our society in the context of the simulated party, but my dream would be that people would be able to talk openly about their own experiences with news and facts, how these structures have helped them and also how they have failed. I think it would be in the failures that we learn the most, because I think that often a trust in news is not wholy about its veracity, but about it’s ability to create a better world.
So it could become a sort of story-telling party, centered around one-on-one interactions, with food and drinks to share. A fiesta! A small step in building diverse relationships that might extend to a broader trust in the community that exists around us, and a broader awareness of who must not be forgotten in that community.
I really like this idea! Here are my thoughts:
A. “News is not always new” is a really good value and I find it really intriguing. I feel like we forget that often news is part of a much longer history, much of which contests our lived understanding of the world. That’s an important distinction to make here and I’m glad it showed up here!
B. I’d also maybe add something about that describes being open to new ideas. I can imagine that this is one of those situations that could be ripe for debate if someone hears something that doesn’t make sense in their conception of the world. I think it could help to have everyone commit to being open to whatever they’re hearing without feeling the need to offer a rebuttal. I like the way you’ve framed it above as an opportunity to share stories, and I think this could help to really make it an even more open space 🙂
C. I think this convening could be a very cool event! I think I’ve seen smaller attempts to create a diverse conversation like this and I definitely believe it can be done. As students, I think we could help by creating the space and the environment that feels neutral enough to have this discussion. Luckily all we really need is a space and food and our party guests, so that’s a fairly small lift. It could be a good idea to test this among smaller groups of people first, so maybe host a small fiesta with 10-15 people to see how that goes, and then scaling up if it makes sense.