The public’s growing disillusionment with social media often highlights how it inhibits political discussion. Critics say the company’s business model exploits negative sentiment to maximize user engagement and fuel mistrust and polarization.
But Lisa Schilch, the Richard G. Sturman Senior Professor of Peace Studies and Practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of International Studies, says she finds that dialogue can be fostered and produce workable policy solutions. We see an opportunity in a new class of deliberative technology. Strengthen democratic institutions that are increasingly under attack. Her recent research investigates these tools and their impact on democracy.
“The algorithms of major social media platforms such as Meta and X emphasize disagreements and emphasize disagreements,” said Shilch, a member of the Keogh School of International Peace Research Institute.
“But the design of deliberative technology is different,” Schirch says. “They are using algorithms and artificial intelligence to integrate large-scale public dialogue and highlight points of agreement. This will bridge gaps, build trust in public institutions and ultimately lead to democratic backsliding. It helps strengthen democracy in times of
Analyzing the benefits and policy implications of new technologies
In a new policy brief, Schilch says deliberative technology can foster stronger citizen participation, better align governance and public opinion, build trust in public institutions, and improve understanding of policy issues. They argue that it is possible to integrate large amounts of qualitative input, eliminate polarization in policy debates, and generate new policy options. It provides an opportunity for collective knowledge and transforms the polarized nature of social media conversations.
According to Schilch’s research, these technologies can increase participation and civic engagement, encourage attention to accuracy to combat misinformation and disinformation, and reduce harmful polarization against people in opposing groups. We found that it encourages critical thinking to reduce and consider complex issues, and has important implications for the future of democracy. policy trade-offs, shifting perspectives as people grapple with diverse perspectives, suppressing groupthink, testing hypotheses, reducing gaps in participants’ perceptions of what others believe, and building consensus. We encourage you to find out and clarify.
Research and promotion of pro-social technology
An important aspect of these new technologies is their design. This is what Schirch had in mind when he helped found the Council for Technology and Social Cohesion. This group of peacebuilders and technology experts seeks to address rising polarization and violence by fostering trust and cooperation.
Rather than taking a harm reduction approach to new technologies, the council wants to rethink how they are designed and deployed. It will host a series of global conferences with computer engineers, business leaders and peacebuilding experts during 2024. The idea, Schirch said, is to co-design digital infrastructure that supports social cohesion and human dignity for marginalized groups.
The deliberative skills needed to build such infrastructure don’t rely on social media’s negative emotion algorithms, journalism’s bias toward drama, or politicians’ fear-mongering, Schirch said. Ta.
Instead, it is built to collect and synthesize large amounts of public input on policy preferences. This allows reformers, including governments, nonprofits, think tanks, and tech-savvy volunteers, to identify consensus and find solutions that may help change the direction of policy debates.
Importantly, these tools can combine artificial intelligence and collective intelligence, or the wisdom of crowds, Schilch said. Diverse inputs and robust data synthesis offer the potential for solutions that can serve larger populations, Schilch said, and over the past decade or so, dozens of countries around the world have been using these technologies. He added that he has been advancing policy discussions.
Learn about the future of technology and democracy
Schirch is continually investigating these issues. In March, he helped organize the Digital Democracy Symposium. Keough School in Washington DC and its Kellogg Institute for International Studies. The gathering included a keynote address by Filipino-American journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, a prominent critic of digital disinformation, and also received support from several prominent democratic think tanks. Ta.
In April, Mr. Schirch attended a rally in New York City sponsored by Google. In May, she will be hosting two of her workshops on designing and financing social technologies in San Francisco. And in June, she will host an international workshop at the Kroc Institute, with support from the Toda Peace Institute, to help peacebuilding organizations learn how to use deliberative techniques in conflict zones.
“These technologies come at a critical time,” Schirch said. “They are powerful tools that help humanity talk and listen to each other at scale, find common ground, and collaborate on creative new policy solutions.”
Originally published by Josh Stowe on keough.nd.edu on April 4th.
