In this episode, Deb Aikat, University of North Carolina Professor of Journalism and Media, talks with the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about how technology impacts government processes and media communication. They discuss the media's crucial role during the pandemic and emphasize the importance of providing balanced news to support a healthy democracy. This is the seventh episode in our 11-part series, Technology vs. Government, featuring former California State Assemblymember Lloyd Levine.

About Deb Aikat:

A former journalist, Deb Aikat has served as a faculty member in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media since 1995. Aikat’s peers elected him to lead as the 2023 President of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the premier 112-year-old scholarly organization with members in 43 countries across six continents. An award-winning scholar, Aikat theorizes the role of media platforms in two democratic societies, India, the largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, and the United States, one of the oldest modern democracies. By integrating news agenda-setting and agenda melding concepts, Aikat has theorized how media platforms in India and the U.S. are empowering people to protest, publish and provoke ideas through media platforms devoid of government control.

Learn more about Deb Aikat via https://hussman.unc.edu/people/deb-aikat

Interviewers:

Lloyd Levine (Former California State Assemblymember, UCR School of Public Policy Senior Policy Fellow)

Rachel Strausman (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Chief Ambassador)

Music by: Vir Sinha

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This is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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In this episode, Cara Chiaraluce, Santa Clara University Professor of Sociology, talks with the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about the impact of internet access on health outcomes. This is the sixth episode in our 11-part series, Technology vs. Government, featuring former California State Assemblymember Lloyd Levine.

About Cara Chiaraluce:

Cara Chiaraluce specializes in the fields of carework, gender and family, and health. Chiaraluce has published articles in the Journal of Family Issues, American Behavioral Scientist, and her forthcoming book Becoming an Expert Caregiver: How Structural Flaws Shape Autism Carework and Community (Rutgers University Press, 2024) examines the process through which lay women become expert caregivers to provide the best care for their children. Prior to joining the department in 2015, she taught Sociology at UC Davis (where she won the 2013 "Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award") and California State University- Sacramento. Chiaraluce is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, received her B.A. in Sociology from Assumption College, and M.A. and Ph.D. from UC Davis.

Learn more about Cara Chiaraluce via https://www.scu.edu/cas/sociology/faculty-and-staff/cara-chiaraluce/

Interviewer:

Lloyd Levine (Former California State Assemblymember, UCR School of Public Policy Senior Policy Fellow)

Music by: Vir Sinha

Commercial Links:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/ba-mpp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/mpp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Learn more about the series and other episodes via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This week, we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from last year! In this episode, AllSides Co-Founder and CEO John Gable talks with students from the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about how understanding media bias and filter bubbles can help better bridge gaps amongst political polarization.

Thank you so much to our generous sponsor for this episode, the Wall Street Journal. Activate your free school-sponsored subscription today at: ⁠⁠⁠WSJ.com/UCRiverside⁠⁠⁠

About John Gable:

John Gable received his B.A. in Philosophy, with an emphasis in Mathematics, from Vanderbilt University as well as Masters of Business Administration from Duke University. He has worked in a variety of fields, having previously been an Executive Director for various political campaigns, a Product Manager at Microsoft, the President of Stearns Ventures, and now the Co-Founder and CEO of AllSides. Overall, John Gable is a high technology executive focused on building, marketing and monetizing products, online services and teams that have a positive social impact.

Learn more about John Gable via ⁠https://www.allsides.com/news-source/john-gable⁠

Podcast Highlights:

"The medium, the content, and the way we interact is driven a little bit by the medium itself. And what I thought about the internet was that it was mostly by metaphor: this is similar to that, and therefore you're a friend of a friend or I'm searching for something similar to what I'm trying to solve. I thought it would encourage us to think by metaphor or if you will, [in the extreme sense] stereotype."

- John Gable on the topic of how the internet is structured to make connections, which can initially be beneficial, but can also lead to dangerous steryotypes.

"[With the way the internet works] we see an issue, and we only hear or get information that we already agree with, which might only be 10% of what we need to know about an issue. But we hear that 10,000 times, and so we're really absolutely confident with no doubt that we're correct. But we know less about the issue than we did before the Internet.”

- John Gable on the topic of how filter bubbles can limit our access to necessary information, despite the increased access to information the internet seems to provide.

“[What we need to do is] get people out of the information filter bubble. Get them out of the relationship filter bubble, and provide people the skills and confidence to disagree, to have a conversation and not agree with each other and recognize the differences and appreciate the differences that each of us bring to the table. With that, that's how it would get to a better place.”

- John Gable on the topic of how teaching people to understand the value in disagreement can help people be more aware of filter bubbles.

Guest:

John Gable (Co-Founder and CEO of AllSides)

Interviewers:

Rachel Strausman (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Chief Ambassador)

Divya Bharadwaj (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Ambassador)

Music by: Vir Sinha

Commercial Links:⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/ba-mpp⁠

⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/mpp⁠

This is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: ⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/⁠

Subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Learn more about the series and other episodes via ⁠https://spp.ucr.edu/podcast⁠.