'For those of us who would like to build bridges between warring factions, the challenge is about to become much greater.' More from danschnur in our Perspectives section:
The end result would be a hyper-partisan and deeply divided digital social media universe.
In other words, it would look a lot like cable television, talk radio and other online hosts.
But that type of interaction is likely to become a thing of the past, just as Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings now represent a previous era of television news. While the potential for nuanced conversation and reasoned debate in 240-character bursts is decidedly limited, at least the potential existed for social media subscribers to be reminded that not everyone who disagrees with them is evil, stupid or blindly partisan.
No more. If a digital future arrives in which liberals and conservatives have their own equally close-minded platforms to which they can retreat, the possibility of rational discussion between those who disagree will shrink even more. The result is increased polarization, hyper-partisanship and political gamesmanship. And for those of us who would like to build bridges between warring factions, the challenge is about to become much greater.
Dan Schnur is a Professor at the University of California – Berkeley, Pepperdine University, and the University of Southern California, where he teaches courses in politics, communications and leadership. Dan is a No Party Preference voter, but previously worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, serving as the national Director of Communications for the 2000 presidential campaign of U.S. Senator John McCain and the chief media spokesman for California Governor Pete Wilson.
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