what next? civic engagement in an age of high mistrust

Ethan Zuckerman “What Now?” / “Wat nu?”

@ethanz #cjc16 2.12.16

“Shocked, but not surprised”

institutionalists insurrectionists

“Do you trust the government in Washington to do the right thingall or most of the time?” 77% in 1964, 19% in 2011.

Pew Research Center, Public Trust in Government: 1958-2014

+22 (+44%) from 50% in 1981

+10 (+18%) from 57% in 1998

-12 (-19%) from 64% in 2004

-26 (-38%) from 68% in 1975

-43 (-54%) from 80% in 1975

-39 (-54%) from 72% in 1991

-33 (-51%) from 65% in 1988

-31 (-50%) from 62% in 1975

-32 (-53%) from 60% in 1979

-15 (-38%) from 39% in 1977

-27 (-53%) from 51% in 1979

-6 (-21%) from 29% in 2012

-25 (-54%) from 46% in 1993

-13 (-38%) from 34% in 1975

-34 (-81%) from 42% in 1973

Yascha Mounk and Roberto Stefan Foa, “The Signs of Democratic Deconsolidation,”

Journal of Democracy, 2017

113th Congress, 9% approval

Passed 296 laws, 84 were “symbolic”

“CNN sucks!”oh… they hate us, too

FAKE

cc photo by Sara Björk

mistrust leads to powerlessness

efficacy?

WELL THAT MAKES ME ANGRY

SEEMS LIKE I SHOULD DO SOMETHING TO HELP

OOH, LOOK! PICTURES OF KITTIES!

images from Randall Munroe’s wonderful (and CC licensed) xkcd comic strip

are we helping people be effective?

Inform Investigate

Analyze Public Forum

Social Empathy Mobilization

Promote Democracy

“Six or Seven Things the News

can do for Democracy”

Inform Investigate

Analyze Public Forum

Social Empathy Mobilization

Promote Democracy

“Six or Seven Things the News

can do for Democracy”

Inform Investigate

Analyze Public Forum

Social Empathy Mobilization

Promote Democracy

“Six or Seven Things the News

can do for Democracy”

what if we’ve got civics wrong?

law

markets

norms

code

law

markets

norms

code

cartoon by Peter Steiner

code

markets

normsflickr photo by Sean Davis

norms

norms

norms

so what’s our role?

law

markets

norms

code

Landscape Mapper

we need new tools to understand and measure how power works today

Sources: Mapping Police Violence, Washington Post, Guardian 01/01/2013 - 06/29/2016 (n=333). MediaCloud articles in the two week period after death, normalized by total MediaCloud article count. 10 observations within 14 days before Michael Brown’s death are omitted.

News articles per unarmed black person killed by US police in the days surrounding each death, including before & after the death of Michael Brown

An unarmed black person killed by US police received 10.5x the incidence rate of News Articles after Michael Brown’s death from those killed before

Sources: Mapping Police Violence, Washington Post, Guardian 01/01/2013 - 06/29/2016 (n=333). MediaCloud articles in the two week period after death, normalized by total MediaCloud article count. NB Model controls for age, gender, and regional population. p=7.84e^-14

Among unarmed black people killed by US police, the number of news articles per person for June 2016 was not significantly different from Jan 2013

Sources: Mapping Police Violence, Washington Post, Guardian 01/01/2013 - 06/29/2016 (n=333). MediaCloud articles in the two week period after death, normalized by total MediaCloud article count. NB Model controls for age, gender, and regional population.

Articles about an unarmed black person killed by US police received 49.8x the incidence rate of Total Facebook Shares after Michael Brown’s death

Sources: Mapping Police Violence, Washington Post, Guardian 01/01/2013 - 06/29/2016 (n=333). Facebook Shares of articles in the two week period after death, normalized by total MediaCloud article count. NB Model controls for age, gender, and regional population. p=2.56e^-12

Articles about an unarmed black person killed by US police received 49.8x the incidence rate of Total Facebook Shares after Michael Brown’s death

Sources: Mapping Police Violence, Washington Post, Guardian 01/01/2013 - 06/29/2016 (n=333). Facebook Shares of articles in the two week period after death, normalized by total MediaCloud article count. NB Model controls for age, gender, regional population, and article count.

communicate how power works

celebrate successes of the new civics

link stories to meaningful action

It’s not the public’s job to save journalism.

It might be journalism’s job to save civics.

Saving civics - or, at least, understanding it - is the first step towards saving journalism.

thanks/dank u wel @ethanz

ethanz@mit.edu #cjc16