In Reality

New Thinking

“In Reality” debunks fake news and elevates the innovative researchers, entrepreneurs, journalists and policymakers who are fighting back against toxic misinformation. Co-hosts Joan Donovan, research director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media and Public Policy, and Eric Schurenberg, an award-winning journalist and former CEO of Fast Company, engage guests in enlightening conversations about solutions to this scourge and the path back to a shared reality.

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Episodes

How Free Societies Decide What's Real with Brookings Institution's Jonathan Rauch
Sep 19 2024
How Free Societies Decide What's Real with Brookings Institution's Jonathan Rauch
The goal of modern disinformation campaigns is not necessarily to turn audiences into true believers but rather to turn them into cynics, to persuade them that you can’t trust anything said by any institution, whether media or science or government. In this world view, there is no such thing as objective truth, everyone is biased or otherwise untrustworthy, so the conclusion is that you need a strong man—a Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump, say—to lead you through. Today’s guest has an antidote to this dysfunctional belief. He’s Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of A Powerful Book called the Constitution of Knowledge. Rauch says there is objective truth, although he’d call it objective knowledge. What matters is not the claim itself, but how the claim was vetted. Reality is a collaboration of people who may disagree on everything else but agree on the rules of evidence, on the process of argumentation, and it’s that process that eventually yields what is factual. Do listen. The conversation is bracing and really clarifying. Note: The conversation took place in my class on truth, disinformation and the media at the University of Chicago’s Graham School on Monday, September 9th. Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Want to Understand Today’s Political Debate? Study PsyOps: Sci-fi Author & Science Journalist Annalee Newitzs
Jul 23 2024
Want to Understand Today’s Political Debate? Study PsyOps: Sci-fi Author & Science Journalist Annalee Newitzs
Find this week's episode description below...Join Eric's 'Truth, Disinformation & The 2024 Election' Class at The University of ChicagoIt’s open to everyone via Zoom. It will discuss what’s going on in the coverage of the election, with a wonderful collection of guest speakers, educators, prominent political reporters and polling experts. It will convene every Monday evening, Central US time, in the nine weeks leading up to the US election and one week afterwards. Don't miss out... Register now: https://masterliberalarts.uchicago.edu/landing-page/noncredit/trust-and-media/This week's episodeToday’s chaotic information environment is so hard to understand, so fundamentally disrupted, that many thoughtful people spend energy coming up with metaphors for it. Just to get our arms around it. It’s the familiar old gossip mill gone viral, for example. It’s traditional propaganda supercharged by social media.  Annalee Newitz, today’s guest, is an award-winning journalist and science fiction novelist who introduces an intriguing analogy in a new book, Stories are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind. What we’re seeing, Annalee says, is a kind of psychological warfare operation, using the tools of military psyops in our culture wars, as a way to undermine the institutions of liberal democracy. Annalee and Eric discuss the history of psyops and the stories that psyops weaponizes; the difference between Russian and American psyops; why flooding the zone with misinformation is so effective; how psychological disarmament can happen, and how creative visions of the future, including those expressed through science fiction, can help inspire positive change. Let Eric know what you think of the episode at eric@ericschurenberg.comWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Using the Tools of Tech to Hold Big Tech Accountable with Pulitzer-Winner & Proof News Founder Julia Angwin
Jul 9 2024
Using the Tools of Tech to Hold Big Tech Accountable with Pulitzer-Winner & Proof News Founder Julia Angwin
Misinformation, rumor, psy-ops and propaganda--whatever you want to call the four horsemen of today’s media apocalypse—have been with us as long as the media itself. But you have to admit that the arrival of digital technology, led by social media, has given all of those forces outsized power. We still haven’t quite come to terms with how tech has shattered things like a shared reality, democracy, civil discourse. That’s why today’s guest plays a key role in the journalism landscape. Julia Angwin majored in math at the University of Chicago before launching a remarkable career in investigative journalism.  She’s a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times on topics of tech and society, a winner and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory reporting. She’s also an entrepreneur, the founder of the Markup, an innovative data-first online newsroom and just this year, she founded Proof News, which builds on the computational techniques of the Markup to hold tech companies accountable. Julia and Eric discuss how she uses the tools of technology to inform journalism; about why reporting is like finding mathematical proofs; how she hopes transparency at Proof will build trust in its journalism; about the role of independent creators in the news environment; and how to hold big tech accountable. Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
The Original Fact Checker: How To Know What's True with The Post's Glenn Kessler
Jun 18 2024
The Original Fact Checker: How To Know What's True with The Post's Glenn Kessler
Finding your way to the truth is the informal job of the 21st-century citizen. All of us. Unless you want to be manipulated, you need some check on the claims you hear uttered by powerful people or repeated, innocently or not, by others.For a few thousand people in this era, correcting the record is a profession, even a calling, and today’s guest was one of the first and maybe its most famous practitioner.  He’s Glenn Kessler, better known as the creator of the Washingon Post’s Fact Checker column, and maybe even better known for his Pinocchio rating of truth or falsehood.Glenn’s a veteran journalist who got into fact checking during what now seem the innocent 1990s. The need for his work—and for that of hundreds of fact-checking organizations that sprung up in his wake—has only become more urgent in the age of social media and AI. Glenn and Eric discuss the nature of factuality, how he and his team choose which claims to chase down, the factuality of popular memes like Joe Biden’s supposed corruption, and the particular falsehoods most repeated by both current US Presidential candidates. The day we spoke, Glenn was investigating a video released by the Republican National Committee that had been misleadingly edited to appear to show President Joe Biden wandering away from a G-7 meeting. Glenn gave that Four Pinocchio’s...Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
The Lost Art of Civil Discourse with Clea Conner CEO of Open to Debate
Jun 7 2024
The Lost Art of Civil Discourse with Clea Conner CEO of Open to Debate
Any institution that aspires to get at the truth needs a process for testing what it believes to be true. Central to the judicial system, for example, are lawyers challenging their opponents’ arguments. In science, claims must be peer-reviewed, and experiments have to be replicated. But in politics and culture, any kind of rule-based, civil testing of facts is a fading art. Debates are hostile, ideologies harden, and we kick up a lot of dust, in which the pursuit of truth gets lost. But there is one place where you can test your beliefs by witnessing civil discussion of the most controversial issues of our time. It’s a program on radio and podcast called Open to Debate, and today we’re pleased to introduce its CEO, Clea Conner. Clea is a veteran of public policy programming on TV, radio and podcasting and holds more than two dozen awards for excellence in such programming. She is also a classically trained flutist. We won’t get into that today, but we will discuss how Open to Debate chooses topics for discussion, how they keep debates respectful and on topic, the salience of facturality, what it takes to change someone’s mind—including your own--and how the rest of us can keep political disagreement around the dining room table respectful and productive. Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
The Saboteurs Within: University of Michigan's Barbara McQuade
Mar 26 2024
The Saboteurs Within: University of Michigan's Barbara McQuade
For decades, America’s foreign adversaries have used disinformation to undermine American democracy, to sow division and create confusion about what is even true. But who needs foreign adversaries when so many Americans, for whatever reason, have embraced the same tactics and same apparent goal? Today’s guest, Barbara McQuade, is a professor at University of Michigan Law School who previously served as vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and co-chaired its Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. In her new book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America, she makes it clear that then same kind of disinformation campaigns she saw originating in Russia or Iran are now homegrown. Barb and Eric talk about why Americans are particularly susceptible to disinformation; about the authoritarian playbook that leaders like Hungary’s Victor Orban or Donald Trump employ to seize power by ostensibly democratic means; about the right wing’s embrace of violent rhetoric and the dangers of stochastic terrorism; and the importance of media literacy in a chaotic information environment. This is not perhaps the most optimistic episode to air on In Reality, but stay with us. This needs to be heard.TopicsThe Murthy v. Missouri CaseImplications of a Decision in Murthy v. MissouriGovernment Communication with Social Media PlatformsChilling Effect on Government InterventionTrump's Allies and the War on DisinformationThe Decline in Trust in MediaThe Authoritarian PlaybookMuzzling the PressMedia Literacy and Critical ThinkingChanges in Media PracticesThe Importance of Media Literacy TrainingBringing Media Literacy Training to AdultsWhy Americans are Susceptible to DisinformationStochastic TerrorismThe Risk of AuthoritarianismThe Risks of Artificial IntelligenceAmending Section 230Demand Side Solutions: Media Literacy and Civics EducationOptimism for the FutureWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Why We're Losing the Misinformation War: The Information Futures Lab's Claire Wardle
Mar 12 2024
Why We're Losing the Misinformation War: The Information Futures Lab's Claire Wardle
It was eight years ago, when Brexit and the US Presidential election showed how misinformation enables real-world damage. Since then, researchers, content managers, regulators, journalists and others sprang into action to counter misinformation and now misinformation pollutions is even worse. Why? Claire Wardle has some ideas. She’s been in the fight since the beginning. In 2015, she was the founder of the pioneering research and training organization, First Draft News. She’s led teams on misinformation and verification at the BBC, Columbia Journalism School, and the UN among others. She’s now the co-founder of the Information Futures Lab at Brown University. Claire and Eric discuss the backlash against content moderation; the perverse incentives that work against collaboration against misinformation; the role of journalists in rising mistrust of media; artificial intelligence and falsehood; and everyone’s personal responsibility for standing up for truth.TopicsIntroduction and BackgroundThe Role of Information in Public HealthEncouraging Collaboration and Cross-Disciplinary WorkCommunity-Centered Approach to Addressing MisinformationThe Role of Media in Information PollutionJournalism's Responsibility and Trust DeclineMisinformation in Officialdom: Florida Surgeon GeneralUndermining of Expertise and Trust in ScienceIndividual Responsibility and Media LiteracyThe Need for Regulation and OversightThe Challenges of AI and Content ModerationThe Role of Courts in Addressing Social Media HarmsHope for Regulation and OversightThe Importance of Curating Newsfeeds and Avoiding Information BubbleProducer: Tom PlattsWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Stopping Misinformation At The Gate: News Literacy Project's Peter Adams
Feb 20 2024
Stopping Misinformation At The Gate: News Literacy Project's Peter Adams
Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation and the media with Eric Schurenberg, a long time journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. There are two ways to fight misinformation: One is to debunk falsehoods after they have surfaced. The other is to help create media literate news audiences, who can recognize false claims before they take root. Debunking, necessary though it is, inevitably hands the initiative to manipulators and propagandists. Media literacy, on the other hand, helps news consumers debunk their own news feed. It simply scales better. Today’s guest has spent the past decade and a half engaged in the media literacy cause. A former educator, Peter Adams is the research director of the News Literacy Project, a 15-year-old non-profit that trains middle-school and high-school teachers to impart the media literacy and critical thinking skills their students need to navigate today’s incredibly challenging information ecosystem. Peter and Eric discuss the penetration of news literacy training in school systems, how to deal with bias in news sources, the impact of collapsing media business models on the news environment, and the responsibility of news consumers to curate their own media diet. TopicsOrigin Story of the News Literacy ProjectRole of the Research and Design TeamPenetration of NLP's Curriculum in School SystemsDefinition of News Literacy and Its ComponentsEvaluation of Non-Traditional Sources of NewsUnderstanding Bias in News CoverageChallenges Faced by Mainstream MediaPolitical Bias in News CoverageImpact of Changing Business Models on News CoverageAddressing Partisan Bias in News Literacy EducationResponsibility of News Consumers in Curating a Healthy News DietDiscovering News Outside of Filter BubblesPeter Adams' News SourcesOverview of NLP's Products and ResourcesWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Who Killed Trust? And What Can We Do About It? The Center for Media Engagement at UT Austin's Talia Stroud
Jan 16 2024
Who Killed Trust? And What Can We Do About It? The Center for Media Engagement at UT Austin's Talia Stroud
A lot of people, Eric included, are working to figure out what exactly happened to facts, trust in institutions like science and the news, and to the shared reality we used to enjoy in this country. There is no shortage of research about the depth of the problem but very little about what really might reverse it. Which is where today’s guest comes in. Talia Stroud is the director of the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas. More than 10 years ago, she was one of the first to document how Americans were retreating to news that confirmed their pre-existing beliefs—now well known as the filter bubble phenomenon—and she has since gone on to bust popular myths about social media and to research practical actions that journalists can take to re-engage with audiences. Talia and I talk about recent medical misinformation emanating from, of all people, the surgeon general of Florida; about how newsrooms inadvertently feed polarization; about bringing audiences and newsrooms closer together; and why a popular silver bullet solution to algorithmic polarization won’t work. Please reach out to let Eric know your thoughts on the episode at eric@alliancefortrust.comTopics02:00The Impact of Media on Democracy03:11The Challenge of Media Polarization05:30The Influence of Social Media Algorithms08:28Research Collaboration with Meta11:29The Effectiveness of Algorithm Changes15:16Promoting Civil Conversations on Social Media19:16The Role of Professional Journalism24:41The Business Model of News Organizations29:55Rebuilding Trust in Journalism34:36Understanding Election MisinformationThis episode was produced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Digital Disruption and the Myth of Mainstream Media: CEO of Fortune Media Alan Murray
Jan 4 2024
Digital Disruption and the Myth of Mainstream Media: CEO of Fortune Media Alan Murray
In talking about the news today, it’s tempting to focus on the bad actors, the amplifiers of nonsense and the peddlers of outrage. It’s worth remembering, though, they’re not the only players. There are journalists who adhere to standards and have managed to thrive despite the seismic disruption of the industry. Today’s guest is one of those.  Alan Murray, the CEO of Fortune media, was a long-time Washington columnist for the Wall Street Journal before becoming editor and eventually CEO of Fortune, one of the most storied brands in business journalism. But Fortune, too, has had its share of disruption. Its former corporate owner, Time Inc., once one of the world’s richest media companies, collapsed under the weight of digital competition; Fortune is now owned by a foreign billionaire, and its success in recent years has hinged on multiple lines of business, like events, not on old-fashioned reporting and writing. Alan and Eric discuss the economic changes that bedevil the news industry and what they mean to society; we talk about media bias and the myth of the mainstream media; the critical need for news literacy; and democracy’s enduring reliance on quality journalism.Topics 00:00Introduction and Background01:06Early Start in Journalism02:25Challenges in the Media Industry08:29Changes in Media Consumption11:53Impact of Media on Society15:40The Myth of Mainstream Media17:15Media Bias and Business Reporting20:37The Role of Media Literacy25:43Regulation and Media Responsibility27:09Social Media and Journalistic Standards31:41Future Plans and the Need for Quality Journalism44:38The Importance of Business Reporting57:12Stepping Down as CEO and Future Endeavors58:00Building Trust and RapportConclusion This episode was produced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Can You Make A Profit Fighting Misinfo? NewsGuard's Gordon Crovitz
Dec 18 2023
Can You Make A Profit Fighting Misinfo? NewsGuard's Gordon Crovitz
Disinformation is good business. Spreading lies and outrage tends to be profitable, thanks to programmatic advertising, which cares only about traffic, not truth, and funding by state actors like Russia, which pour money into narratives that undermine democracies. Supporting truth is a tougher commercial prospect, but today’s guest is giving it a credible run. Gordon Crovitz is the co-founder, with Steven Brill, of NewsGuard - a five-year-old for-profit enterprise that rates news sites for editorial integrity helping news consumers and advertisers avoid sites that spread toxic disinformation. Crovitz comes to NewsGuard after a distinguished career as a journalist and media entrepreneur. He was publisher of the Wall Street Journal, as well as an award-winning columnist for that paper.Before NewsGuard, he founded or cofounded Factiva and Online Journalism—so he’s no stranger to media startups. Gordon and Eric discuss NewsGuard’s business model, his decision to take up the cause of countering disinformation, the role of advertising in funding lies and the explosion of artificial intelligence in the information ecosystem and what seekers of truth can do about it.Topics00:00Introduction and Background00:23The Need for Trustworthy Journalism01:12The Problem of Identifying News Sources02:10The Role of Advertising in Misinformation03:40NewsGuard as a For-Profit Model04:39NewsGuard's Data and Reports06:34Ads Supporting Misinformation on Social Media08:23News Reliability Ratings and Misinformation Fingerprints09:33Examples of News Ratings12:15The Importance of Misinformation Fingerprints16:55Trust in Media and Political Bias20:29Challenges in Steering Ads to Reliable Sources24:57The State of Professional Journalism29:56Losing the Battle Against Misinformation31:39The Need for Regulation and Disclosure35:50Approaching Social Media Regulation38:59Gordon Crovitz's News Consumption Habits44:24ConclusionThis episode was produced by Tom PlattsWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com
Polarization's Ground Zero: Author of 'Network of Lies' Brian Stelter
Dec 5 2023
Polarization's Ground Zero: Author of 'Network of Lies' Brian Stelter
According to a Pew Research survey in 2021, almost three quarters of Americans consider Fox News to be part of the mainstream media, along with familiar brands like ABC News and the Wall Street Journal. That’s interesting because Fox is different in many ways. It’s not only easily the most profitable cable news network and the only one trusted by most conservatives; it is also the only one whose leaders admitted, under oath, that the newsroom deliberately promoted a theory they knew to be false, namely that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen.Brian Stelter has chronicled Fox News and its impact on political discourse for years. A media reporter for the New York Times and then CNN, his unrelenting criticism of the network on his own program, Reliable Sources, may have cost him his role at CNN, but it has not shut him up. In his latest book about Fox, Network of Lies, he goes deep into the revelations about Fox that showed up in the Dominion Voting Systems libel suit and in Congress’s January 6th Committee hearings. Brian and I talk about journalists’ role in today’s polarized politics; about Fox’s promotion of election lies; about Tucker Carlson’s ouster; and about the challenge we all face in finding trustworthy news in a world of disinformation. This podcast was produced by Tom PlattsWebsite - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com