TWENTY YEARS AGO
The Web disrupted journalism.
Anyone could publish a blog to compete with mainstream channels.
So news organizations adapted, by putting out more sensational pieces that would be re-shared more widely on email and social media.
The market selects against news stories that present all sides of a story, since they would appear more mundane, and wouldn’t be shared as widely.
To do this, many news organizations picked an audience segment and tell only one side of every story.
In order to attract and lock in a loyal audience, they needed to avoid saying too many good things about “the other side”. Such stories would not circulate as widely, and cause the segmented audience to go somewhere else to satisfy their tribal confirmation bias.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
The Web disrupted journalism.
Anyone could publish a blog to compete with mainstream channels.
So news organizations adapted, by putting out more sensational pieces that would be re-shared more widely on email and social media.
The market selects against news stories that present all sides of a story, since they would appear more mundane, and wouldn’t be shared as widely.
To do this, many news organizations picked an audience segment and tell only one side of every story.
In order to attract and lock in a loyal audience, they needed to avoid saying too many good things about “the other side” lest they would not circulate as widely, and cause the segmented audience to go somewhere else to satisfy their
tribal confirmation bias.
Alternative media channels have grown tremendously
Catering to political audiences of all stripes, including progressives, nationalists, and libertarians. Their whole business model is based on uniting people inside a certain echo chamber, and against various politicians and groups outside of it.
The profit motive influences their incentives and story selection to be one-sided, even more than in the mainstream media.
HOW CAN WE SOLVE THIS?
The for-profit model is based on competition.
Our news, public forums and discourse are taking place in privately owned enterprises. Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg, started companies that shape public discourse. George Soros and the Koch brothers indirectly exercise influence on it as as well.Â
Now, with great power comes great responsibility. Zuckerberg is lambasted by some congresspeople for not taking action on false ads and posts, and then chewed out for taking action on other similar ads and posts. Regardless of their specific policies, the problem is that these platforms are too big to do right by everybody. Their algorithms often end up empowering extremists while suppressing and silencing relatively moderate voices.
Collaboration, rather than competition
can form the basis for a more responsible news industry and social media community platforms.
 Linus Torvalds started Linux, Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web, and Vitalik Buterin started Ethereum, but they do NOT privately own or control the whole platform. Anyone can download their own copy, and make valuable contributions back to the network.
This open, permissionless model is the reason
why linux, the web, ethereum and countless other open source projects have helped the world create a lot more wealth than proprietary platforms.
The Web has led to business models like e-commerce and software-as-a-service, empowering countless small businesses. Smart contracts are now letting any community deploy innovative fintech solutions for their own members.
HOW CAN WE SOLVE THIS?
The for-profit model is based on competition.
Our news, public forums and discourse are taking place in privately owned enterprises. Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg, started companies that shape public discourse. George Soros and the Koch brothers indirectly exercise influence on it as as well.Â
Now, with great power comes great responsibility. Zuckerberg is lambasted by some congresspeople for not taking action on false ads and posts, and then chewed out for taking action on other similar ads and posts. Regardless of their specific policies, the problem is that these platforms are too big to do right by everybody. Their algorithms often end up empowering extremists while suppressing and silencing relatively moderate voices.
Collaboration, rather than competition
Can form the basis for a more responsible news industry and social media community platforms.
 Linus Torvalds started Linux, Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web, and Vitalik Buterin started Ethereum, but they do NOT privately own or control the whole platform. Anyone can download their own copy, and make valuable contributions back to the network.
This open, permissionless model is precisely
Why Linux, the Web, Ethereum and countless other open source projects have helped the world create a lot more wealth than proprietary platforms.Â
The Web has led to business models like e-commerce and software-as-a-service, empowering countless small businesses. Smart contracts are now letting any community deploy innovative fintech solutions for their own members.
HOW RATIONAL.APP WORKS
We are Building a
Community Platform
Based entirely around collaboration and open data, rather than competition and private ownership.
Simply post a link
Within those threads to the claim’s page hosted on rational.app — if someone has something to add, challenge or debunk, they can do it there.
Billions of People have
Mobile Phones and Cameras.
They can record newsworthy events and contribute them to the community.
Analyze Claims
The dependence of some claims on other claims, via arguments, can be easily traced and anayzed by various tools used by the open community. Probabilities can be calculated, and new bombshell discoveries can have an effect probabilities across many different claims, changing people’s opinions in ways they can explain.
Each Individual
Claim gets its own Page
With arguments for and against, and supporting evidence hyperlinked to other claims. This is what the web was designed for.
Each claim can be debated
Arguments for and against are submitted, deduplicated and voted up or down, in order to rank their relevance.
ARRIVE
AT A
CONSENSUS
In keeping with these principles, all contributions are free to copy and remix, all the software is open sourced.
Negativity drives online news consumption
Online media is important for society in informing and shaping opinions, hence raising the question of what drives online news consumption. Here we analyse the causal effect of negative and emotional words on news consumption using a large online dataset of viral news stories. Specifically… (Click to read more)
Hillman column: Social media is tearing us apart, and it’s our own fault
We live in a truly strange and unsettling time in America…Â Â (Click to read more)
Social media's role in America's polarized political climate
With midterm elections in just two days, America is in a very angry moment. Republicans attack Democrats, and Democrats return fire. Social media is a showcase of our anger; an analysis by the New York Times this fall found that online use of the phrase “civil war” has exploded. … (Click to read more)
