In Brief: Conspiracy Theories Are Flourishing on Social Media; Black Press Enjoys Renaissance

Conspiracy Theories Are Flourishing on Social Media 

Social media is helping bogus conspiracy theories spread faster and wider than ever before in American history, experts and a December NPR/Ipsos poll suggest. Joan Donovan, research director at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, told NPR in March that the internet gives conspiracy theorists a place to connect, while social media lets them quickly disseminate their ideas on a mass scale.

Posts that propagate conspiracy theories goad users into clicking links to websites where peddlers of disinformation can make money or try to shape political narratives, Donovan says. “Social media tends to drive the fringe to the mainstream,” she says. “There are so many conspiracy theories on the internet. The scale is astounding.”

Historian Kathryn Olmsted, who has researched conspiracy theories from the 1960s about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, says outlandish, unfounded claims are taking hold much faster today. In the last ten years, she says, “Conspiracy theories have become more dangerous and more widespread.”

The Challenges of Moderating Live-Audio Social Media

The explosive growth of Clubhouse, an invitation-only, audio-based social network that lets users listen to one another’s conversations, has drawn scrutiny over how the app will handle hate speech, harassment and misinformation. 

As Reuters reports, moderating real-time discussions poses a challenge for platforms that use live-voice chat, from the video-game-centric Discord to Twitter’s new live-audio feature, “Spaces.”

On the ironically named Discord, users can mute or block people and flag “problematic” audio. But as Reuters reports, such community models are easily abused and subject to biases. San Francisco-based Clubhouse has been questioned about whether its blocking feature can be used to harass or exclude users. In the year since it debuted, the service has faced criticism over reports of misogyny, anti-Semitism and COVID-19 misinformation on the platform, despite its rules against racism, hate speech, abuse and false information.

The challenge of moderating live audio joins the broader battle over content moderation on social media platforms, which has been rebuked by both the political right and left as either too restrictive or too permissive.

Black Press Enjoys Renaissance

As America’s Black press celebrates 194 years since the Freedom Journal newspaper was founded in 1827, the sector is experiencing a renaissance fueled by last summer’s protests against police brutality, Report for America writes. 

“I see the support” from advertisers, funders and the broader community, said Paulette Brown-Hinds, publisher of Black Voice News, an online publication. The news organization’s income has doubled in the past year, thanks to diversified revenue from advertising and grants, she said. 

Even before the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis last May, Borealis Philanthropy, which is backed by the Ford Foundation and Democracy Fund, had donated $2.4 million to the Black press and other news outlets run by people of color.

Report for America, a national-service program that places journalists into local newsrooms, says it will help staff 12 additional Black-owned publications in June 2021, for a total of 16. The group says it will pay up to $25,000 of each journalist’s salary to help newsrooms hamstrung by a lack of reporters and editors. 

Young Employees Want Diverse Workforces, Researchers Say

Millennial and Generation Z job seekers expect employers to hire and promote diverse workforces as well as facilitate uncomfortable conversations about racism, The Washington Post reports.

Reflecting a generational shift, “these values are really important and foundational to their experiences as workers,” said Alvin B. Tillery Jr., director of the Center for Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University. “You can say there’s no systemic racism, but millennials and Gen Z don’t believe that.”

According to a September survey from Glassdoor, 76 percent of employees and job seekers said diverse workforces were important when they evaluate companies and job offers. In a 2020 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, more than 79 percent of respondents called diverse workforces “very important.” 

“First and foremost, students are concerned about finding the job or the internship,” said Norma Guerra Gaier, executive director of career engagement at the University of Texas. “But right behind it is, how does this fit with who I am and who the organization says they are?”