Does Social Media Fail For Political Discourse?

Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins at Mashable wrote an interesting article asking whether social media is failing for political discourse. The answer is that all media fails to different degrees at handling political discourse, but technology is improving the situation.

The problem of finding quality information in social media has frustrated me for some time. However, it’s one that is prevalent not only in social media, but in all news/information media. The crux of the issue is that humans are inherently biased. Even when the New York Times or Wall Street Journal sets out to write a factual news story (non-editorial), they are still offering a perspective by mentioning (or not) specific facts, arguments, or pieces of analysis. Social media simply lowers the barriers to entry for content creation, and in doing so magnifies the volume of both good and bad information.

With this said, there is a solution, and it’s the one that humans have been using to find truth since the beginning of time. In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” The solution to getting the best information, is to get as many people as possible to contribute their differing perspectives, and then let people (over time) figure out which are truly the best.

While social tools have allowed millions of people to have their voices heard, they have done a poor job at facilitating the next piece of the equation: helping people actually find the best information. This has resulted in an imbalance favoring more information, but % wise less quality.

What’s needed are tools that help facilitate the process of finding and determining quality. In other words, a more efficient market place for content. The next generation of social tools are starting to tackle this problem. What we’re working on at Veritocracy is one example of this, but there will be (and are) others doing the same.

Feedback? Write a comment, or e-mail the author at lee(AT)squawkingtech.com