The role of the press in the polarisation of ideas

Ticket

Saturday 9 March – 17h00

Espace Pitoëff - Café du Festival

Rue de Carouge 52, 1205 Geneva

In a world where we are inundated with information, the media seem to have become polarised. More generally, the way we consume information is changing. To what extent does the press strike a balance between opinions and help points of view?

Access to information is now easier than ever. Social networks and traditional media compete with each other, giving rise to powerful social movements such as #MeToo. At the same time, some media follow a specific political agenda to gain the blind trust of their audiences. Channels such as Fox News polarise ideas and tend to lean towards misinformation. The result is information overload: fake news, politically-oriented content and the need to “create a buzz” make it difficult to separate the facts from fiction. In this context, we can observe a tendency to read or listen only to what comforts our sensitivities and confirms our opinions. The tendency to follow arguments that appeal to the emotions at the expense of subtle nuance hampers exchanges and impoverishes debat. So can we speak of a dramatisation of events and a form of media marketing? Or, on the contrary, is this confidence crisis unjustified in a system where the press is still the protector of the democratic space?

This event will take place only in French.

Meeting organised by Anthony Francioli, Project Management student, Global Studies Institute. In partnership with the University of Geneva

Discussion

Isabelle Falconnier
Director of the Swiss Press Club, journalist and literary critic
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Serge Michel
Journalist, editor-in-chief of Heidi.news and director of Kometa publications
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Sébastien Salerno
Lecturer in the sociology of digital media at UNIGE and researcher at Medi@LAB
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